February 10, 2006

At Xavier U. of Louisiana, an 'Indefatigable Fighter'

By KATHERINE S. MANGAN

Five months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home and crippled the university he has presided over for 38 years, Norman C. Francis gazes out at the tall cluster of buildings that rise, triumphant, from the rubble of surrounding neighborhoods.

"For us to come back after sitting in seven feet of water for three weeks gives hope to the rest of the community," says the 74-year-old president of Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation's only historically black and Catholic

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