Royal Treatment

Most students know assistant professor Dr. Larry Hygh as one of the newest faculty members of the Communications Department, currently finishing his second year at CSUDH and fourth year being a college professor in the CSU system. What students may not know, however, is that Dr. Hygh has also been involved as a volunteer officer in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade for more than 16 years. In fact, he recently finished his second year serving on the Rose Parade Queen & Court Committee, where he helped select the last couple of years’ Rose Parade Queens.

Dr. Hygh grew up in a small town called Marshal in east Texas, where he was in a band, played the alto saxophone, and was a drum major his senior year in high school. He later went to CSU San Bernardino, where he got his undergraduate degree in Radio and Television, and then interned during the summer of 1997 at the White House with former President Bill Clinton.

Prior to becoming a college professor, he was a non-profit religious communicator for more than 20 years at the United Methodist Church as the chief communication officer for five different regions of the country and the international mission agency when it was based in New York City. He was also the chief communication officer for the Black AIDS Institute, the nation’s only HIV/AIDS think tank focused on Black communities. As a result of his professional career, he has been to 29 countries and six of the seven continents.

But it was when he moved to California back in 2002 when he met some people who were involved with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses. He was about 28 years old when he went to a member interest meeting to learn what the organization did, and it caught his attention.

When he first started, he had to submit two letters of recommendation and participate in an interview to be part of the Tournament of Roses. He joined in 2006 but the first parade he did was Jan. 1, 2007. He is currently on his eighth committee, having already participated in 18 parades.

“The committees that I have been to have been great and I have met some great people,” Dr. Hygh said. “I’m not an all-nighter so the first two years were hard because you had to stay up all night and I have never been a person that stays up all night. But I believe in being civically engaged and I wanted to become involved in the community.”

The Tournament of Roses Parade involves 31 committees, which rotate every two years, and most of the volunteers either live within 15 miles from Pasadena or live in Pasadena. The Rose Parade, one of the oldest institutional community organizations in Pasadena, is always held Jan. 1, unless it’s a Sunday, and all the floats have to be made of natural materials and colors to complete the five-and-a-half-mile parade route. The Tournament of Roses president selects the theme and the grand marshals every year.

The volunteers at the Rose Parade have a membership in order to volunteer and they have to purchase their own white suits to wear the day of the parade. According to Dr. Hygh, everyone starts with three big committees for their first six years, which are the Big Theory Formation, Parade Operation and Pose Parade. The Big Theory Formation gets the parade lined up the night before the parade. Parade Operations, which moves the parade down the parade route, requires members to spend two years on. The Pose Parade committee sets the floats up in Pasadena and creates events where the public can go and view the floats up close.

There is also a Rose Queen, who is chosen from among a royal court. The Queen & Court committee is involved with selecting the royal court for the Rose Parade. Hundreds of high school girls go through a three-day interview process over three weeks before the queen is selected from the court.

There are three rounds of interviews to see who will be among the seven princesses. The first one is 15 seconds of them talking about themselves and the committee will select who they liked best based on their answers. The following interview goes more in depth and in the final round they choose who will be the seven princesses from among the finalists.

The Queen and Court committee not only selects these finalists for the royal court but then must also select the Rose Parade Queen from among them.

Dr. Hygh says he loves to interact with people and tell them what the floats are made out of. The princess wins $7,000 in scholarships.

The Pasadena Rose Parade is a whole day event, featuring floral decorated floats, marching bands, horse riders, musical performers and more, but Dr. Hygh’s involvement has been even more involved, as he participated in the selection of the Rose Queen from the royal court and took part in a number of events leading up to the actual parade in the last couple of years.

“I think it benefits the community,” Dr. Hygh explained. “There’s a huge economic impact to the community. The Tournament of Roses is a foundation and the foundation awards grants to community organizations in the Pasadena area.”

Dr. Hygh was on a committee for two years called Alumni and Social Media, where he used his skills as a communications professional going to all those events and taking photos. He said being part of the Rose Parade means “being part of the world’s new year’s celebration because everyone knows about the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade.”

“I encourage my students to be involved in the communities they live in, I am huge on community service,” Dr. Hygh said.

Another piece of advice he gives to others is to always “look for opportunities to serve wherever you are.”

A moving moment for him last year was when he got to meet Grand Marshal Gabby Giffords (above), a former congresswoman who was shot in the head several years ago in Tucson, Arizona.

“The fact that she’s alive is amazing and her spirit is amazing,” Dr. Hygh said. “It was joyful and ecstatic seeing when she was announced for grand marshal at the house and knowing her story of what she has overcome. Getting to meet her was my hype of the year.”