St. Cloud State University

Outlook

Software entrepreneur values bond with mentors, friends

Saturday, November 2, 2002

Listening to 1977 graduate Tony Latta and professor Bill Luksetich banter and reminisce about their 30 years of friendship and mutual admiration, it's hard to believe it all started when the professor fired the student.

Yes, I fired him, Luksetich said with a grin. He was a work study student, and let's just say he wasn't good at filling out his hours. It's a story Latta readily tells as well, then he quickly adds that he considers Dr. Luksetich his mentor, the man who taught him the importance of being accountable for his actions -- that not showing up didn't cut it.

And today?

Tony's doing fine, Luksetich says, making it obvious in his tone that fine is an understatement. When he visited Latta at his palatial home in Orlando, Fla., and found out his neighbors were Tiger Woods, Shaquille O'Neill and Wesley Snipes, Luksetich knew his student had more than lived up to the potential he saw in him. He had a lot of ability, and he kept working at his goals, Luksetich said.

Since graduating from SCSU in 1977 with a degree in economics and the distinction of being the first commissioned African-American from a St. Cloud ROTC unit, Latta has had a distinguished career in the military, earned a master's degree from Webster University, and founded and remains CEO of Invictus Systems, a Washington, D.C., software company that produces nutrition labels for corporate customers such as Campbell's, Nestle and Stouffer's.

Another friend and mentor of Latta's, Dan Coborn, also noted the unusual potential he saw in the young man he once hired. You could tell he would be a success, said Coborn, a member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees and CEO of Central Minnesota's largest chain of retail grocery stories. When he and his wife Mabel were told that Latta was coming to St. Cloud for an alumni reunion, they quickly accepted the invitation to welcome their former employee back.

When Latta went to work for Coborn's, loading the bread delivery truck Mabel Coborn drove back in the '70s, he was the corporation's first African-American employee. I never forgot him, she said.

And Latta never forgot the Coborns, who came to his commissioning ceremony and proudly sent him off to a 12-year career in the military. It meant a lot to me, he said.

As a computer guru at the Pentagon, Latta helped set up a computer network and received an award for computerizing event logistics at the White House for President George Bush Sr.

It all started back in 1971, when Latta came to St. Cloud from another world - the south side of Chicago.

It wasn't long before Latta met Luksetich, and they found out they had a lot in common. I'm originally from Chicago, my wife taught at the same grade school that Tony attended, and he majored in economics, my field, Luksetich said.

He'd come over for dinner driving that beautiful red Camaro my kids thought was pretty cool. Later, after he graduated, Latta would call every so often to keep in touch, and there were visits and eventually e-mail messages back and forth.

It's a friendship that developed back then and lasted through the years, Latta said.

There were other important friendships formed during the St. Cloud days. We were bound together because we had no choice, Latta said. People would stare at us, we were such a rarity. Back then, he recalls there were only 39 black students, including just four females.

I didn't eat the first three days. I was afraid to go to the cafeteria, because where I came from you just didn't go where everyone else was white.

But soon he moved into The Crib, the off-campus house where a large group of African-American and international students lived, and he joined B-SURE, Black Students United for Racial Equality. He also worked as a DJ on campus radio station KVSC.

Those friendships remain strong. When Carlos Lachmansingh, was asked to talk about his student friends, he talked most about Tony.

We were so proud of Tony, Lachmansingh said. He's gotta be the cream of the crop.

<< Previous  |  Contents  |  Next >>