Tarleton State University Spring/Summer 2023 Magazine

POWERING SUCCESS

College of Engineering

Honors Mayfield Name

Tarleton State University Magazine

Spring/Summer 2023 | Volume 15 Number 1

President

Dr. James Hurley

Chief University Communications Officer

Cecilia Jacobs

Associate Editor

Phil Riddle, ’03

Contributor

Elaine Hellmund

Photographers/Videographers

Joseph DuFrain | Jeremy Enlow

Logan Hiemke, ’21 | Joey McReynolds

Kurt Mogonye, ’04 | Toby Rhodes

Jake Withee | Caroline Wolf, ’21, ’22

Designer

Kelly Wise, ’92

DIVISION OF UNIVERSITY STRATEGY

Box T-0415, Stephenville, TX 76402 | 254-968-9890

Vice President for University Strategy/Chief of Staff

Dr. Credence Baker, ’03, ’05

Tarleton State University Magazine is published by the Department of Marketing and Communications, Box T-0730, Stephenville, TX 76402

Purple Way

PAGES 2-7

Mayfield Naming

PAGES 8-17

Economic Impact

PAGES 18-21

Full Circle

PAGES 22-24

2023 Gala

PAGES 26-32

Learning to Lead

PAGES 34-36

Cover: Tarleton in April celebrated naming its College of Engineering in honor of longtime benefactor, Distinguished Alumnus and retired Lockheed Martin executive Dr. A. Dwain Mayfield. This marks the first time the university has named an academic college for an individual. Dr. Mayfield played a pivotal role in the success of the F-16 fighter jet.

Athletics

PAGES 38-39

PAGES 40-44

A MESSAGE

FROM PRESIDENT JAMES HURLEY

What an incredible spring semester! More milestones. More big news. And just when we thought things might slow down, more momentum.

No public university is doing more to ignite positive change, boost quality of life and deliver a transformational education.

Beneath an aviator-blue April sky, a gathering of government notables, Texas A&M University System and Tarleton State leaders, Lockheed Martin officials and colleagues, family and friends crafted the perfect afternoon (page 8) to name our College of Engineering for longtime benefactor and Distinguished Alumnus Dr. A. Dwain Mayfield.

It’s the first time we’ve named an academic college for an individual, and this match fits so well: “Mayfield” and “engineering excellence” are synonymous.

Chancellor John Sharp captured the spirit of it all: “Everything we see around us was designed and created by God and engineers like Dwain Mayfield. Thank you for allowing us to use your good name, Dwain, to promote one of the best engineering colleges in Texas.”

Best engineering college indeed. It’s one of only eight in the nation and the only Texas college selected by NASA, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force to participate in the University Nanosatellite Program. Our Mayfield College team intends to put a satellite into orbit that will identify space debris.

An independent study by the global research firm Lightcast (page 18) confirms that Tarleton’s economic impact extends far beyond our main campus in Stephenville and the counties we serve, generating an estimated $1.2 Billion for North Central Texas and $2 Billion total for the state.

This isn’t merely gaining momentum, it’s outpacing our peers. We’re turning potential into reality for thousands who otherwise might not have the opportunity to earn a university degree.

Slated for a fall 2023 start, Tarleton’s new dual enrollment program will enable students to earn credit in agricultural and STEM areas while completing graduation requirements at Texas high schools. Dr. Matt Underwood, past Superintendent of the Stephenville Independent School District, is the program’s inaugural Director.

Five of our students spent their spring in Austin working as interns in the 88th Texas Legislature (page 34), and the Tarleton Sports Internship Program (page 42) is giving students hands-on production experience broadcasting NCAA Division I sports. Opportunities like these make a Tarleton degree more valuable.

And more big news from the 2023 Gala (page 26).

Three years ago I announced our largest-ever comprehensive capital fundraising campaign — Forward, Together. Last year I shared that we topped that $100 million goal two years ahead of schedule and set a new target — $125 million — to coincide with our 125th anniversary in September 2024.

This year the news was even more unprecedented. Thanks to the remarkable generosity of our benefactors, we shattered our $125 million goal 18 months early, creating greater impact, access and opportunity.

Over the summer, we could choose to idle. We won’t. Our students and alumni are counting on us to power on. Achievers never run out of milestones to reach.

May you forever bleed purple!

PAVING THE PURPLE WAY

SOCIAL MEDIA JOURNAL Celebrates 10 Years of Success

The Journal of Social Media in Society hit a milestone — its 10th year as an open access peer-reviewed publication. The latest issue is at http://thejsms.org. The journal was incubated by the Texas Social Media Research Institute at Tarleton.

The journal boasts more than 100 reviewers from institutions worldwide. More than 1,200 manuscripts have been submitted, many from international authors. Downloads of abstracts and full .pdfs have hit the one million mark.

DR. RUPA IYER Tarleton’s First-ever AAAS Fellow

Dr. Rupa Iyer, Vice President for Research, Innovation and Economic Development, has been recognized as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.

She is among the more than 500 scientists, engineers and innovators elected 2022 fellows for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. She is the first AAAS fellow from Tarleton.

Election as an AAAS fellow is a lifetime honor. Distinguished past honorees include W.E.B. DuBois, Ellen Ochoa, Steven Chu, Grace Hopper, Mae Jemison and Ayanna Howard. Roboticist Ayanna Howard, actor and science communicator Alan Alda, and molecular biologist Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado joined the fellows rank last year.

Dr. Iyer being named an AAAS fellow came just months after her election to the Executive Committee Class of 2023 by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Council on Research.

DR. RACHAEL CAPUA Named Dean of Fort Worth Campus

Dr. Rachael Capua has been named Dean of Tarleton’s 80-acre Fort Worth campus along Chisholm Trail Parkway and Vice President for External Operations.

As Dean, she will work with North Central Texas business and industry leaders, Tarleton faculty and staff, and community and educational partners to expand existing degree programs and add new ones.

In addition to defining Tarleton’s role as part of the new Texas A&M University System research and innovation center downtown (A&M-Fort Worth), she’ll work to expand upper-level classes on the fifth floor of Tarrant County College’s Trinity West Fork Building, continuing a long-standing commitment by both schools to provide an affordable, accessible education for students who want more than an associate degree.

As Vice President for External Operations, she will be responsible for the university’s Online Campus and outreach centers at McLennan Community College in Waco, Navarro College in Midlothian and A&M-RELLIS in Bryan.

A second-generation Mexican American and former community college student, she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in advertising and public relations from Texas Christian University, a master’s in education from the University of Oklahoma and a doctorate in education from Southern Methodist University.

Dr. Capua previously served the Tarrant To & Through (T3) Partnership as its founding Director of College and Career Success. T3 teams school districts, postsecondary institutions and community partners to support students to and through their academic journey.

NASA TEAM Potential to Fly Real Mission

A team from Tarleton’s Mayfield College of Engineering will participate in NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) with the opportunity to fly an experiment into space.

NASA, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space Force partnered to select eight schools for the University Nanosatellite Program (UNP). Running through August 2023, the program will give students systems engineering training, preparing them to work in the space industry, while enhancing small satellite expertise among faculty at U.S. universities.

Tarleton, the only Texas university chosen, was one of 21 schools that applied for this year’s UNP Mission Concepts-1 Summer Series. NASA, Air Force and contractor personnel reviewed the proposals.

After spending a month in New Mexico and a weekend at NASA Kennedy Space Center, students in the program will return to their universities for workshops and exercises. Experts on small satellites will offer feedback on

improving proposals and increasing those teams’ potential of being chosen to fly a real world mission. CSLI and UNP will make their selections for future flights in 2024.

OPAL LEE

Tarleton, Opal’s Farm Sharing Resources

Nobel Prize nominee Opal Lee has signed an agreement with Tarleton whereby the school and Opal’s Farm will share resources to address education and second chances, particularly for the previously incarcerated.

The impetus for Opal’s Farm came from Lee’s volunteer work with a Fort Worth food bank that provides for 500 people a day.

A retired educator and school counselor, Lee spent most of her career as a third-grade teacher in the Fort Worth ISD. She is perhaps best known for her drive for federal recognition of Juneteenth. At the age of 89 she conducted a symbolic walk from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., and collected more than 1.6 million signatures for a petition supporting the federal holiday. Five years later she was at the bill signing by President Biden.

Nobel nominee Opal Lee and Tarleton President James Hurley review a groundbreaking partnership to share resources and advance educational opportunity.

DR. WENDELL SADLER Named TAMU System Regents Professor

Professor Wendell Sadler has been named a Regents Professor by The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents — one of 12 for 2022-23.

The regents established the award in 1996 to recognize faculty who make extraordinary contributions to their university and to the people of Texas.

A respected mentor in teacher development, Dr. Sadler is known for an innovative instructional approach that has earned him several honors, including selection as a fellow in the Richardson Foundation in 1999 and receiving Tarleton’s Excellence in Scholarship Award in 2006. He received Tarleton’s Barry B. Thompson Service Award and the O.A. Grant Teaching Award, and the Distinguished Scholars Series is named in his honor.

A member of the Texas State Guard since 2005, he was promoted to Colonel in 2019. He is a life member of the National Guard Association of Texas.

In 2021 Dr. Sadler received the David K. Brace Award from the Texas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance for exemplifying the best in service, teaching and administration. He was the first recipient of the association’s Trailblazer Award in 2008, and he received its Honor Award in 1998. He is a past TAHPERD president and vice president and has served on its board of directors.

RODEO STANDOUTS

Hall of Fame Adds Four Inductees

Tarleton’s Rodeo Hall of Fame inducted four new members — Billy Bob Brown, Kody Engle-Granado, Pat Yancey and Rex Bland — at the organization’s annual steak dinner and auction at the Tarleton Rodeo Arena.

Brown was a roper and earned a College National Finals title as well as an All-Around crown in 2013; EngleGranado was CNFR breakaway roping champion and all-around winner in 2011; Yancey, a two-time CNFR qualifier as a bull rider, was the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Southwest Region champion in 1990; and Bland advanced to three CNFR appearances as a steer wrestler and tie-down roper.

Rex Bland, Billy Bob Brown, Kody Engle-Granado and Pat Yancey are Tarleton’s newest Rodeo Hall of Fame inductees.

Since 2012 the Rodeo Hall of Fame has inducted 50 individuals and teams for outstanding contributions to Tarleton State University rodeo. Induction reflects the university’s appreciation of achievements and the inductees’ commitment to excellence in a competitive environment.

COB SCHOLARSHIP Adds $1.2 Million to Endowment

A gift from the estate of Tarleton graduate and benefactor Russell Moore has added more than $1.2 million to an endowed scholarship in the College of Business.

Moore passed away June 6, 2020, at the age of 76. He named his scholarship at Tarleton the beneficiary of his investment accounts. The first account culminated in a gift of just over $335,000, and the second account topped $1,270,000. The endowment now exceeds $1.6 million.

Moore, a Glen Rose native, earned a business degree at Tarleton in 1972 after a three-year stint in the U.S. Navy. He said his first memory of Tarleton came as a high school student when he won a poultry judging contest in a campus FFA event. He believed in hard work, and he valued the opportunity to come to Tarleton as a veteran and nontraditional student.

After graduation he became an auditor with the federal government and retired in 1995. In a new career he was a veterans counselor. After his second retirement he went to work in the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo accounting office.

In 2018 he established the Russell L. Moore Endowed Scholarship for full-time junior and senior accounting and finance students with financial need and a GPA of 2.5 or above. He was inducted into Tarleton’s Scholarship Society at the President’s Gala in 2019.

DR. MATT UNDERWOOD Leads Dual Enrollment Program

Dr. Matt Underwood has been named the inaugural Director of Tarleton’s dual enrollment program for Texas high school students, Tarleton Today.

Most recently, he served Ranger College as Senior Vice President for Erath and Brown Counties, increasing partnerships with several school districts and expanding dual-credit offerings.

He led the Stephenville Independent School District as Superintendent for seven years, the Lago Vista ISD for five and the Mason ISD in 2003-2009.

Slated for a fall 2023 start, Tarleton Today will enable students to earn credit in agricultural and STEM areas while completing graduation requirements at Texas high schools. Credits apply directly for Tarleton undergraduates and can transfer to other four-year universities in the state.

Students participating in Tarleton Today will take university courses over a traditional school year, receiving the high school portion of their instruction from their high school teacher and the university portion from a Tarleton professor. In addition to course content, Tarleton faculty will empower students with university-ready skills and provide professional development for collaborating teachers.

DR. RAMONA PARKER Selected AVP for Health Sciences

Following an extensive national search, Ramona Parker, PhD, EdM, has been selected Associate Vice President and Executive Dean for Tarleton’s realigned College of Health Sciences.

The college includes Tarleton’s nationally recognized School of Nursing and School of Kinesiology and the inaugural School of Health and Service Professions, home to new physical therapy, occupational therapy and physician assistant programs.

Dr. Parker served as Associate Dean of Medical and Interprofessional Education at the University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine — one of the newest such schools in Texas — where she was instrumental in developing curriculum for the DO program and securing a seven-year endorsement from the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation.

In her 18 years at UIW she served, among several leadership roles, as Director of the Clinical Learning Center in the Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing and Health Professions.

Dr. Parker was inducted into the National Academies of Practice as a Distinguished Nursing Fellow and Scholar in 2014 and the Educators Hall of Fame (National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa Inc. Gamma Tau Chapter) in 2011. She also received UIW’s School of Nursing Transformational Leadership Award.

She holds a doctorate in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin. She received her master’s in nursing from UIW and a master’s in education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her bachelor’s in nursing is from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

DR. DIANA ORTEGA-FEERICK New VP for Student Engagement

Dr. Diana Ortega-Feerick has been named Vice President for Tarleton’s Division of Student Engagement and Success.

She came to Tarleton in 2019 as Assistant Vice President for the division and Dean of Students, following more than 20 years in education, 14 of them in student affairs. More than half of her career has been dedicated to executive, administrative and senior-level positions in public and private two-year colleges and universities.

Before Tarleton, she was Assistant Dean of Student Engagement and Retention at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, where she played an instrumental role in connecting students, faculty and community agencies. She served as Chief Student Advocate, updating the campus community on trends related to student rights and responsibilities, student development, and student engagement and success.

As Assistant Dean of Students she was responsible for the development, interpretation and enforcement of student policies and served as a resource to students, parents, faculty and staff. Dr. Ortega-Feerick also served the South Texas Vocational Technical Institute in Corpus Christi as Director of Education and spent five years as School Psychologist in the Corpus Christi ISD.

CLIMATE-SMART INITIATIVE Ag College Participates in USDA-funded Research

Researchers from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources are joining forces with Texas A&M AgriLife Research and other major Texas agriculture entities on the $65 million Texas Climate-Smart Initiative.

The project is a five-year U.S. Department of Agriculture multi-commodity pilot designed to transition Texas’ massive agricultural sector to climate-smart practices and develop

new markets. A team from Tarleton’s Southwest Regional Dairy Center is expected to be heavily involved in studies on the impact of dairy production greenhouse gas emissions.

The team, led by Dr. Edward Osei and including Dr. Ashley Lovell, Dr. Anne Egelston, Troy Thorne, Catalin Dinulescu, Dr. Mark Yu and Dr. Selin Guney, also will be responsible for farm-level economic analysis, carbon credit market development, supply chain efficiency and traceability, and addressing crop insurance implications for farmers and landowners implementing climate-smart practices.

SOCIAL MOBILITY

Tarleton Climbs in National Rankings

CollegeNet’s latest rankings have Tarleton among the 50 best schools in the nation at supporting its students’ social mobility.

Tarleton moved to 46 of 1,114 benchmarked colleges and universities in 2022, up from 143 in 2021, putting it in the top 4 percent with institutions such as CUNY York College, San Francisco State and George Mason University.

One of the nation’s fastest growing public universities, Tarleton is outpacing its peers as a first-choice destination for anyone seeking a higher education. Fall enrollment hit an all-time high over 15,000 — up nearly 14 percent from 2019 — and the Class of 2026 is the largest, most diverse and academically best prepared group of incoming freshmen in the school’s history.

Eighty-five percent of all Tarleton students receive some form of financial assistance, and almost 40 percent are Pell Grant eligible.

DR. RAJARSHI AROSKAR Selected College of Business Dean

Rajarshi V. Aroskar, PhD, has been named Dean of Tarleton’s College of Business, following a national search.

He joins the university after more than three years as Dean of the Huether School of Business at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y., where he championed national and international career placement opportunities for students, developed market-responsive academic programs, increased enrollment, spearheaded fundraising, and created strategic partnerships with key business and industry leaders.

He oversees Tarleton undergraduate and graduate programs endorsed by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs Baccalaureate/Graduate Degree Boards of Commissioners and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International. AACSB accreditation places the programs among the top 5 percent of business colleges worldwide.

Prior to Huether, Dr. Aroskar served as Professor and Chair of the Accounting and Finance Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He received the Roger Selin Excellence in Teaching Award in 2012 and the Professor of the Year Award from the Beta Gamma Sigma Honors Society in 2007.

RECORD $15 MILLION

University Celebrates Increase in Life Estate Gift

In 2012 Dr. Lamar and Marilynn T. Johanson conveyed their ranch — about 1,700 acres and all mineral rights in San Saba and Mills counties, then valued at some $5 million — to The Texas A&M University System for Tarleton’s benefit. They retained the right to live on the property.

This spring the couple joined university leaders to celebrate a $9 million increase in their life estate gift, bringing their total philanthropic support to almost $15 million — a record for Tarleton. The two spent more

than six decades in education, Lamar at Tarleton for 40 years and Marilynn at Texas public schools in 1961-1995.

In 2021 the Johansons decided to execute their life estate gift early and allow the university to sell the San Sabra property, as originally planned, to expedite endowed scholarships for Tarleton students.

The roughly 800 acres along the Colorado River in Mills County will remain home to Tarleton’s Timberlake Biological Field Station, established in 2015 to advance environmental research, engage students in scientific discovery and promote stewardship of the natural world. A $2.5 million endowment will ensure care and oversight of the property.

Lamar served 18 years as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and was the inaugural Executive Director of Tarleton University System Center-Central Texas in Killeen (now Texas A&M University-Central Texas) before he retired in 2001. The Texas A&M University System recognized his leadership that year by confirming him as Dean Emeritus, College of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Biological Sciences.

In addition to teaching in Hico, Marilynn’s career included a stint at Stephenville High School. A Tarleton Distinguished Alumna (2015), she served as an education specialist with the Texas Education Agency and as an elementary school and high school principal in the Strawn and Goldthwaite independent school districts.

Dr. Lamar and Marilynn T. Johanson, seated, join Tarleton President James and First Lady Kindall Hurley to celebrate a $9 million increase in the Johanson’s life estate gift.

Pushing Limits Powering Success

College of Engineering Naming Honors

Dr. A. Dwain Mayfield

Dr. Dwain Mayfield and Tarleton President James Hurley unveil the building marker installed in the foyer of the Engineering Building. Seated are Congressman Roger Williams and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England.

T he Man

FOLLOWING APPROVAL from The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, Tarleton State University celebrated the naming of its College of Engineering in honor of longtime benefactor, Distinguished Alumnus and retired Lockheed Martin executive Dr. A. Dwain Mayfield, a gentle giant with a heart for education and a drive to make the world a better place.

Dr. Mayfield earned an associate degree at Tarleton — long before there was an engineering degree program — and then his civil engineering bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University and a master’s in business administration from Texas Christian University. Tarleton awarded him an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2017.

He played a major role in the success of the F-16 fighter jet as an engineer at Fort Worth’s General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin), advancing to Vice President for Program

Development and leading worldwide marketing for the F-16 before his retirement.

Dr. Mayfield and his wife, Lynda, established an endowed scholarship in engineering. The naming of the Mayfield College of Engineering recognizes their profound commitment to student success. Their investment positions Tarleton as a national leader in education, research and innovation in engineering, computer science and construction.

Dr. Mayfield served as a past president of the Tarleton State University Foundation and is a member of the Tarleton Engineering Advisory Committee. He has been active with Texas A&M as past chairman of the board of The Association of Former Students and as a member of the Dwight Look College of Engineering Advisory Council. He is a member of the A&M System Chancellor’s Century Council and a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M University.

A1950s visit to Tarleton State, then a two-year school, launched a lifelong journey for longtime benefactor and retired Lockheed Martin executive Dr. A. Dwain Mayfield. It took him around the globe and brought him back this April for the naming of an academic college in his honor — the Mayfield College of Engineering.

Tarleton has never before named an academic college for an individual, and this match fits so well: “Mayfield” and “engineering excellence” are synonymous.

High-ranking government notables and legislators, Texas A&M University System and Tarleton leaders, Lockheed Martin officials and colleagues, family and friends gathered beneath an aviator’s blue sky to celebrate a man who helped research and design the single-engine multirole F-16 Fighting Falcon and birth a new era in tactical aviation.

“It’s rare to have a great engineer and a great mind inside a good ol’ boy — and that’s what Dwain Mayfield is,” said John Sharp, Chancellor of The Texas A&M University System. “He’s a good ol’ boy who just happens to be brilliant. I think naming Tarleton’s College of Engineering after him is perfect.”

Young Dwain, one of three boys, picked cotton on the family homestead just outside Abilene. If he ever stood still long enough to watch an airplane bolt from the clouds, he never entertained any thought of designing it. Then high school ag teacher Larry Dooley drove him and a buddy through the gates that are always open and paved the path to triumph.

At Tarleton, math classes got this attention, but Lynda Kiker stole his heart. The two married after he finished his bachelor’s in civil engineering at Texas A&M and was working on his master’s. Along the way, the flicker to push the limits ignited a career with high-flying results.

“Dr. Mayfield represents the very best of what can come from getting a solid education at Tarleton and at Texas A&M,” said A&M Regent Michael Plank. “We are proud of his accomplishments and honored to call him one of our own.”

So is Texas Christian University, where he earned the MBA that positioned him as Lockheed Vice President for Program Development, leading worldwide marketing for the F-16 and negotiating sales with dozens of nations. One trip took him and Lynda completely around the world, leaving the Lone Star State going west and returning from the east.

Gordon England, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense and a past President of General Dynamics and Lockheed, said

Dwain and his wife, Lynda, have given liberally to Tarleton over the years of both time and treasure. The two have established an endowed scholarship for engineering students. Together with their son, David; his wife, Julie; and grandson, Kelton, they operate a cattle ranch between Stephenville and Dublin. Lynda’s great uncle, Elzy D. Jennings, was Tarleton’s fifth President.

“Dr. Mayfield represents the very best of what can come from getting a solid education at Tarleton and at Texas A&M.”

— A&M Regent Michael Plank

Dr. Mayfield is highly respected and admired throughout the defense industry and by militaries around the world.

“Dwain’s extraordinary knowledge of military aviation, coupled with an engaging leadership style and a determination to succeed, quickly gave rise to senior positions in the company,” England said. “He is responsible for so many nations selecting the F-16 and F-35 combat airplanes for their national defense. In so doing, he has defended and expanded freedom throughout the world.”

Calling him a successful businessman with the greatest integrity, Congressman Roger Williams (District 25) applauded Dr. Mayfield’s love of country and dedication to transformational education. “He is a true patriot who has always believed in our American ideals and the importance of defending freedom. In baseball terms, he’s an All-Star and a Hall of Famer, but most importantly, he is my friend. I am confident his name on full display at Tarleton will inspire the next generation of thought leaders, high-achievers and visionaries.”

“I am confident his name on full display at Tarleton will inspire the next generation of thought leaders, high-achievers and visionaries.”

— Congressman Roger Williams

A young Dwain, above, prepares for an F-4 training mission. Just 31 months after its first flight, the F-4 was the U.S. Navy’s fastest, highest flying and longest range fighter. Facing page, Congressman Roger Williams presents Dr. Mayfield with a flag from the U.S. Capitol as part of the April naming celebration.

The Mayfield College of Engineering positions Tarleton as a leader in education, research and innovation. The state-of-the-art facility provides ample space for student engagement and study.

Dr. James Hurley’s first event as Tarleton President-elect was the grand opening of the School of Engineering Building in 2019. “I had no doubt then that the school would become a stand-alone college, sooner rather than later,” he said. “And I have no doubt now that we’re naming it for the right person. The university is blessed to have such an enthusiastic and dedicated friend and supporter.”

Dr. Mayfield championed the $54 million state-of-the-art facility and future college from concept to bold mission as a pipeline for proficient engineering, computer science and construction graduates. The A&M System regents approved turning the school into a stand-alone college a year ago and naming it in his honor.

A member of the Texas A&M Engineering Advisory Council for many years, he envisioned a robust engineering program at a second A&M System school to meet the growing need for highly skilled graduates. He worked with Tarleton administrators, faculty and staff to add a bachelor’s in engineering physics in 2000, followed soon by programs in computer science, environmental engineering and electrical engineering.

“Engineering created limitless possibilities for Lynda and me, giving us the opportunity to see the top of the world,”

Dr. Mayfield said. “There’s a bright future for students who choose an engineering degree at Tarleton. It is a great honor to be part of that.

“I can’t describe what a thrill it is when I call the college and they answer ‘Mayfield College of Engineering.’ I have a chill you can’t imagine.”

“There’s a bright future for students who choose an engineering degree at Tarleton.”

— Dr. A. Dwain Mayfield

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp unveils a portrait of Dr. Mayfield with his grandson, Kelton, on the family ranch at a dinner following the naming ceremony. Tarleton alumnus Blu Dornan, a Stephenville rancher, is the artist.

The College

Mayfield College of Engineering graduates strengthen communities, fast-track discoveries and explore the never-been-dones — and not just to earn a degree, but because our economy and quality of life depend on it.

They design upgrades for wastewater treatment plants. They create embedded systems for smart devices. They tackle cutting-edge manufacturing puzzles and advance construction industries. Through it all, they’re finding answers that make our world a better place.

Although engineering technology has been integral to Tarleton since 1917, the university didn’t have its first

engineering degree — a bachelor’s in engineering physics — until 2000, followed soon by computer science and environmental engineering.

Academic programming has only accelerated since then.

In 2015 Tarleton launched a construction science and management program, three undergraduate degrees in engineering and two graduate programs.

Today the Mayfield College of Engineering offers 14 programs, with more on the way as enrollment eclipses 1,000. Classes are available at Tarleton’s Stephenville and Fort Worth campuses and at A&M-RELLIS.

Supported by a community of professionals and expert faculty, the college is a reliable pipeline to supply the state’s growing need for highly skilled engineering, computer science and construction graduates.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects engineering job growth nationwide to increase 7 percent by 2026, with demand in civil, mechanical and industrial growing fastest. Texas ranks second behind only California in engineers employed and annual median wage earned.

Step into the remarkable Mayfield College of Engineering, and you realize it’s no ordinary learning space. The $54 million facility (opened in 2019)

positions Tarleton as a leader in education, research and innovation in engineering, computer science and construction.

High-bay heavy-use labs, with ample space for student engagement and networking, are a dominant feature of the three-story, 98,000-square-foot facility. A wind tunnel, sophisticated 3-D printing and prototyping, an industrial automation lab and a 100 kN universal testing machine highlight the technologies.

Such cutting-edge research and industry-standard equipment provide unique hands-on learning opportunities for students, attract top academic talent and fortify partnerships with North Central Texas industries and corporations.

Lockheed Martin, TechnipFMC, L3Harris Technologies, Saint-Gobain Abrasives and Bartlett Cocke General Contractors, among others, provide Mayfield College of Engineering students with internships and senior capstone projects, meaning on-the-job opportunities to address real world challenges.

Many students have jobs before they graduate. Others choose to stay awhile and broaden their education.

Reflecting the legendary career of its namesake, the Mayfield College of Engineering prepares Tarleton Texans to resolve today’s biggest problems and tomorrow’s challenges yet unknown.

Many students have jobs before they graduate. Others choose to stay awhile and broaden their education.

$2 BILLION

An independent study by the global research firm Lightcast confirms that Tarleton’s impact extends far beyond its Stephenville campus — an estimated $1.2 Billion annually in North Central Texas and $2 Billion total for the state. That’s no small potatoes, a remarkable return on investment. For every dollar of public money invested in Tarleton, taxpayers receive $4.10, students $7 in higher future earnings and society $19 in added income and social savings.

The report draws from university financial figures and from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau. Tarleton President James Hurley finds much in the study to consider. He expressed his observations in a May interview.

Q. Thousands of Tarleton graduates choose to work in the Lone Star State. How does that affect the economy?

A. If we educate students in Texas, they will stay in Texas, and Texas will prosper. Almost 97 percent of our students are from this great state. They love the communities they call home and want to improve quality of life for their families and friends. That’s why Texas is thriving.

Our legislators and governor are laser focused on higher education and the economic prosperity it brings. Couple that with a growing state population and our fueling the economy through education and research, and Tarleton’s economic impact soars.

Tarleton alumni annually generate $1.7 billion in added income to the Texas economy. That’s a boost equivalent to hosting five Super Bowls.

Q. So for every dollar students invest in a Tarleton degree they receive $7 in higher future earnings. How does this compare with the U.S. stock market’s 30-year average? Do the benefits of a university degree really outweigh the costs?

A. The true value of a university degree? I’m asked that question more than any other. The answer is both quantitative and qualitative.

Tarleton bachelor’s degree graduates on average earn an undiscounted $1.2 million more than high school graduates ($30,800 annually per graduate) over their working lives in Texas. The benefits of the Tarleton master’s degree over a high school diploma are $1.9 million and over a bachelor’s degree $668,000.

As Lightcast shows, for every dollar students invest in Tarleton in out-of-pocket expenses and time and money, they receive a cumulative $7 in future earnings. That’s a

Alumni impact

Effect of the increased earnings of Tarleton alumni and the businesses they work for

For every $1…

Taxpayers and society see savings from the improved lifestyles of these Tarleton Texans in reduced demand for national healthcare services and income assistance, to name two benefits. Higher education is not a cost but an investment today for a lifelong payoff.

Q. Talk about Tarleton’s recent social mobility ranking in the top 4 percent of all U.S. colleges and universities benchmarked in 2022. That’s a four-point jump from 2021. What are we doing that others are not?

A. Ensuring educational opportunity and that every student reaches full potential is a Tarleton cornerstone. Over the years, we added a third component — affordability — and all of that is why we rank with schools like CUNY York College, San Francisco State and George Mason University for social mobility. We provide dozens of programs that promote Texan success, including supplemental instruction, mentoring and tutoring; integrated intercultural experiences; student advocacy; counseling and health services; disability resources; and initiatives focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) curriculum.

Our faculty, staff and administration are deeply involved in the success of all Texans, and all means all. Our students know we value them. We stay connected with our graduates throughout their careers. Family and a great sense of belonging — we do that better than any other university.

Q. How does being in the Western Athletic Conference increase the value of a Tarleton degree? What benefits accompany NCAA Division I membership?

23.2 percent return, more than double the stock market’s 30-year average of 10.5 percent.

The bachelor’s degree is the new gold seal for career preparation. Twenty years ago, high school graduates could expect to earn a good living and support a family. Not now. The bachelor’s degree has replaced the high school diploma, and many jobs require a master’s.

That’s the benefit of five-year programs [four-year bachelor’s degree plus one-year master’s]. Combined with an internship, five-year programs prepare students to excel in the marketplace and command higher salaries.

As for the qualitative benefits, research proves that people with bachelor’s and master’s degrees live longer, healthier lives. A Tarleton degree prepares students to build community and elevate everyone’s quality of life.

A. Reclassification to Division I extends our geographic reach, supports enrollment growth, boosts the value of a Tarleton degree, improves diversity and expands community connections. Employers want graduates from institutions that provide outstanding academic and athletic opportunities. WAC membership provides a platform to prove that we belong with America’s great public universities.

In the classroom and on the playing field, we have become a talent magnet for diverse and academically wellprepared student-athletes. Not to mention accomplished faculty and staff and highly recognized coaches. And we’re competing with top university teams on the biggest athletic stage in America. The world knows we’re here.

WAC presidents, athletic directors and coaches are a likeminded group who share ideas on everything from budget management to life-changing discovery. Together we’re transforming the national fabric of higher education.

Q. How does Tarleton’s Fort Worth campus foster prosperity in North Central Texas?

A. Our Fort Worth initiative is mission critical to the economic well-being of our state. Fort Worth has one of the state’s largest community colleges, a prestigious private school and one of the fastest growing comprehensive public universities in the country. Add in our work with Tarrant To & Through Partnership [a coalition of school districts, colleges, universities, employers and community organizations] and several dozen high schools, and you have an educational powerhouse for meeting marketplace demand.

Our North Central Texas footprint is growing faster than a prairie fire into Arlington, Dallas, Frisco, McKinney. We’re innovative and we’re nimble, and our role in the new Texas A&M University-Fort Worth initiative is proof.

Chancellor John Sharp and the A&M Board of Regents, Fort Worth municipal leaders and state legislators, and business and industry experts all see how Tarleton State complements this commitment to better. To grow a vibrant economy, a city must have solid financial footing, quality healthcare and access to top-tier secondary and postsecondary education. Tarleton is in the big middle of a city with all three.

Q. What role does Tarleton’s Carnegie high-research (R2) designation and membership in the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities play in boosting the state and regional economy?

A. Our elevated status of Doctoral Universities: High Research Activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and our membership in the impactful APLU are both game changers. R2 classification balances our teaching and research portfolio. Prior to meeting R2 qualifications, we were weighted more toward teaching and learning than research and development. Now we’re pursuing fresh knowledge and moving scientific breakthroughs from the lab to the marketplace. Exceptional faculty and student researchers are setting new standards of scholarship.

Last fall’s invitation to join the APLU underscores our place among the top schools in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It’s an offer we didn’t expect until 2026 as outlined in our 10-year strategic plan, but the timing is perfect. Remember, we began as the John Tarleton College of Agriculture; our being one of the top three non-land grant universities in the nation embodies the APLU mission to improve lives and livelihoods through a university degree.

That’s what John Tarleton dreamed about. That’s what we’re doing.

Q. Anything else you would add?

A. Strength in research, scholarship and entrepreneurship make Tarleton an engine of opportunity. Without question, there’s great value in a Tarleton degree. We serve the entire state, not just a few contiguous counties. We started with a handful of students. Now we’re home to more than 15,000 students, the majority of them Texas residents, giving us bragging rights for the third highest number of Lone Star counties [233] represented.

The $66 million Interprofessional Education Building at our Fort Worth campus, which was not part of the Lightcast study, will lead to expanded offerings in occupational and physical therapy, speech-language pathology, nursing, kinesiology, medical laboratory sciences, teacher education and physician assistant programs. Move-in is set for 2024.

Our Mayfield College of Engineering and a rebranded College of Health Sciences are addressing some of the state’s most pressing issues. We’re doing our best to help meet the needs of our region and state.

This semester we introduced our own dual enrollment program, Tarleton Today. Beginning this fall, over 1,500 students can earn college credit in agricultural and STEM areas while completing graduation requirements at Texas high schools. Credits apply directly for Tarleton undergraduates and can transfer to other four-year universities in the state.

We remain true to our founder’s vision, and this economic impact study proves it. And we’re not stopping.

“We remain true to our founder’s vision, and this economic impact study proves it. And we’re not stopping.” — President James Hurley

Full Circle

The Best Dreams are the Ones that Never End

Sometimes a career, if sufficiently full and sound, returns you to where everything started.

Case in point: Dr. Karen R. Murray.

She announced in summer 2021 that she would step away as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, and on May 31 last spring, she did. The next day she was back where her Tarleton career began — Fort Worth — serving as acting Dean of the campus along Chisholm Trail Parkway and overseeing outreach locations in Waco, Midlothian and Bryan as acting Vice President for External Operations.

It was a good run, those eight months before her February 2023 retirement. She pulled students and faculty back on campus with tours, socials and workshops. She nourished partnerships with community colleges, industries and key municipal and state leaders. And she oversaw construction start-up of a second building on the Fort Worth campus that will expand health sciences and education programs. With more than 100,000 square feet, the Interprofessional Education Building is set to open in 2024.

When Dr. Murray started in 1987, an 80-acre Fort Worth campus was just a concept, if that. Today it’s a testament to the resolve of leaders like her who think a robust public institution of higher learning essential to all the DFW Metroplex is and ever hopes to be.

It was an invitation to strengthen the university’s medical laboratory sciences program (now Texas’ largest and in the nation’s Top 5) that lured Dr. Murray to Tarleton 36 years ago. As head of Arlington Memorial Hospital’s Department of Microbiology, she was training future medical technologists and lab techs when an “aha!” moment changed her career trajectory and forever benefited Tarleton State University.

“We had Tarleton interns rotating through the lab — job shadowing — and at some point I realized that my favorite part of the day was the time I spent with them.”

by Cecilia Jacobs

Their energy fueled her drive for scientific discovery and led her to apply for the vacant director’s position at what was then the Terrell School of Medical Laboratory Sciences on Enderly Place in Fort Worth’s downtown Medical District.

“I didn’t think I had a ghost of a chance,” she says.

Tarleton’s medical lab sciences programs had started almost 10 years earlier with just eight students on West Myrtle Street. Today the university’s nationally acclaimed medical laboratory, public health, nutrition and histotechnology programs boast more than 200 students and supply North Texas medical facilities with top-shelf professionals.

The founders — Dr. May Owen (first female President of the Texas Society of Pathologists), Dr. Richard C. Schaffer (pathologist and unwavering proponent of histotechnology education) and Dr. Lamar Johanson (Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for 18 years before retiring in 2001) — made sure Dr. Murray had what she needed to expand offerings and grow Tarleton’s Fort Worth footprint.

“Their answer was never no,” she says. “Instead, they’d tell me it was only a matter of how big I could dream. If I could dream it, they’d help make it happen.”

With each new success, her vision grew. People who visited Tarleton’s location on Enderly Place, the R.C. Schaffer Building, started requesting more than med lab programs.

“That’s when I realized the potential for Tarleton to bring a high-quality, affordable public university education to North Texas. Students with no way to commute to Stephenville were missing an opportunity to earn a university degree and improve their quality of life.”

Long before the 2014 big reveal for a permanent home in Southwest Fort Worth, Dr. Murray transitioned to the university’s Stephenville campus and eventually became Provost. Along the way, she kept Tarleton moving up in Fort Worth and Waco, where the university has shared space on the McLennan Community College campus for more than two decades.

Dr. Karen R. Murray

Tarleton opened the Schaffer Building at night for classes in other academic areas, partnered with the Crowley ISD for classroom space, started an alternative education program to help meet the need for teachers in Fort Worth, and then expanded to the Hickman Building on Camp Bowie Boulevard, outfitting one floor at a time until the Chisholm Trail site opened in 2019.

“Each step was more rewarding than the last,” she says. Not unlike her career.

Born in the Barbie Doll ’50s, this little girl favored numbers and classroom competitions, inspired by a third-grade teacher who loved math.

“We had contests in multiplication and division, then the teacher sat us in order of how well we did. For me, it was absolutely contagious. I started out in the middle of the pack determined to move to the front.”

Her fifth-grade teacher, Fern Buttram, got her hooked on science. Success in chemistry class at O.D. Wyatt High School in Southeast Fort Worth only deepened her yearning for work a mite outside the cultural norm.

Her sophomore year at UT Arlington, she declared medical technology her major. Financial necessity pushed her to graduate in four years. She was the first in her family to earn a college degree.

When UTA Professor Roy Eller (who joined the Tarleton faculty in 1976) didn’t post the results of her physiology exam on the classroom door, she was devastated. Except it was a ploy to make her stop by his office so he could encourage her to consider medical school.

“He told me I was in the wrong major and that he wanted me to pursue a career in medicine, but that just wasn’t an option. I told him I’d be happy doing what I had prepared for — a career in medical technology. After I came to Tarleton to lead our program, he often joked that it was probably a good thing I didn’t take his advice.”

Turns out Dr. Murray has done rather well, and true to the wisdom of Drs. Owen, Schaffer and Johanson, she has never stopped dreaming. “To do so is to die,” her Kansas grandmother reiterated a thousand times over summer vacations.

For Tarleton she dreamed of ways to enrich more bright minds. Today an expanded Honors College enrolls some 300 undergraduate students, with many going on to medical, veterinary, law or graduate school, including master’s degree programs at Tarleton.

She imagined a new Leadership and Military College and a re-established Texan Corps of Cadets. The corps started in 1917 when Tarleton became a founding member of The Texas A&M University System; it was reinstated in 2016, and the college was created in 2020. The number of cadets has more than doubled over the last six years.

“Watching our corps march along Rudder Way, fire the cannon at football games and post the colors for key events is truly a point of pride,” she says. “It’s a great honor to have helped with its return.”

She imagined new academic degree programs, and indeed Tarleton’s are plentiful and profound. The first PhD, a doctorate in criminal justice, debuted in fall 2019, and doctorates in applied mathematics, business administration, animal and natural resource sciences, occupational therapy and physical therapy are in the works.

The School of Engineering is now the stand-alone Mayfield College of Engineering, and vigorous scholarly endeavors have earned Tarleton the elevated designation of Doctoral Universities: High Research by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Faculty and students are pioneering research in all academic disciplines, and centers and institutes such as the Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research and the Center for Agribusiness Excellence are saving taxpayer dollars.

Dr. Murray has worked closely with Tarleton President James Hurley in realigning the College of Health Sciences to enhance access to quality healthcare in North Texas.

What Dr. Murray never could have predicted was a pandemic that would force new learning paradigms, seemingly created overnight. Before COVID-19, only 61 percent of Tarleton faculty had taught an online course, and only 66 percent of students had ever enrolled in one. But they adopted and adapted, and Tarleton would go on to score all-time-high enrollment, with new academic programs.

Dr. Murray fully intends to keep flourishing as well. And she will dream on.

“The view from Fort Worth’s Old Main on the Texas prairie is inspiring. I know it’s not going to look like this for very long,” she says a bit wistfully but with a quiet satisfaction.

“There will be a lot more students, a lot more buildings. It all will be good for Fort Worth.”

ONE MORE TIME!

2023 Gala: More purple. More excitement. More big news.

If they’re fortunate, some universities do it once. Tarleton State claims a double victory. It’s more than chance. More than just beating the odds.

Three years ago, President James Hurley announced the institution’s largest-ever comprehensive capital campaign — Forward, Together: Investing in Today’s Students for Future Success . The university shattered that $100 million goal in 2022, two years ahead of schedule, and set a new target — $125 million — to commemorate its 125th anniversary in September 2024.

Now there’s reason to celebrate again. Tarleton has topped its goal — again. This time, 18 months early.

The announcement was made at the 2023 Gala, An Evening in Purple, recognizing distinguished alumni, friends and

supporters who bring distinction to Tarleton and exhibit the university’s core values of excellence, integrity and respect.

“Our philanthropic visionaries know that when we rise, our students, communities and region absolutely do, too,” Dr. Hurley said. “Tonight’s historic announcement is the direct result of a shared vision to ensure that a Tarleton State University education is accessible and affordable for all

“The incredible generosity of our friends and partners proves that the spirit of John Tarleton, who gave his life savings to create our institution, is alive and well. That’s not chance, it’s deep commitment.”

Since Dr. Hurley’s arrival in 2019, Tarleton has followed a bold blueprint to establish its place among America’s great public

universities, earning the elevated designation of Doctoral Universities: High Research by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education — one of only 132 institutions across the country assessed R2 — receiving a fresh 10-year accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, and joining the prestigious Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.

A move to NCAA Division I as a member of the Western Athletic Conference, having a second building on the Fort Worth campus (set to open in 2024), creating a standalone engineering college and adding degrees inspired by regional market growth all position Tarleton as a destination university.

In addition to financial assistance and innovative research, successful completion of Forward, Together will enhance Tarleton’s academic experience, strengthen its athletic prowess, fortify university infrastructure and propel economic development.

President James and First Lady Kindall Hurley present two-time alumnus Henry Hohenberger and Joan Cox each a pair of Tarleton boots handcrafted by Fenoglio Boot Co. Recipient of the 2023 President’s Excellence in Philanthropy Award, Henry donated $881,000 for scholarships and then made an even bigger gift to create a charitable remainder trust.

On a glittering night celebrating a momentous year, President James Hurley and the Tarleton Alumni Association (TAA) presented Legacy and Distinguished Alumni honors.

Legacy Awards reflecting excellence, integrity and respect — bestowed by Dr. Hurley — recognize individuals and supporters whose leadership and noteworthy contributions exhibit the university’s core values. Honorees give freely of their time, talents and treasure to advance Tarleton’s mission. Recipients are selected by the President.

Distinguished Alumni honorees are nominated by their peers, friends and family. The TAA Honors Committee and Board of Directors narrow the list for final consideration by President Hurley.

2023 Excellence in Philanthropy recipient: Henry Hohenberger

Henry Hohenberger hails from a ranching background and has worked the family property near Marble Falls throughout his life. He holds two degrees from Tarleton in

agriculture education. In 1972 he was in the first class to receive a master’s degree at the university.

He taught at Marble Falls High School for five years and continues to be a staunch advocate for agriculture education and its co-curricular experiences.

As a teacher, he nurtured relationships with his students and their parents, easily earning their trust since he was a native son and knew most of them. In his first year as an educator, though, his father died, leading him to eventually return to his roots to take the reins of the family ranching operation.

His respect for ag educators led him to fund the Henry Hohenberger Endowment last summer, donating a thenrecord $881,000 to expand hands-on experiences for students at the Tarleton Agriculture Center. The generous endowment provides working scholarships as well as scholarships for students who wish to become secondary school teachers focused on agricultural mechanics.

The endowment also enhances the quality of teaching in agricultural mechanics through support of a graduate

First Lady and President Hurley presented four Legacy Awards at this spring’s An Evening in Purple: Henry Hohenberger (President’s Excellence in Philanthropy Award), Sam Pack, Mark McKenzie and Maj. Gen. Chris Adams Jr.

assistant and annual funding to ensure that Tarleton students in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources have the most technologically advanced equipment and supplies.

Earlier this year, he made an even bigger gift, donating the proceeds of the sale of a portion of his ranch through a charitable remainder trust that allows him an annual income for the rest of his life while establishing the Henry Hohenberger Land Endowment.

The donation provides resources in high-needs areas, professional development opportunities for faculty and students, and elite-level faculty recruitment.

“I don’t have children of my own,” he says. “I thought it would be something beneficial to the college and help some students. It will be there working continuously from here on out.”

2023 Legacy Award recipients: Mark McKenzie

Although his career path veered from what he originally planned, Mark McKenzie still credits the Tarleton culture, the training he received and the expectation of achievement with gearing him for success.

“I didn’t even know they were preparing me when I was 18, 19, 20,” he says. “I appreciate all that was done for me, and I love doing all I can for the university.”

From Richland Hills High School, Mark headed to Tarleton, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in 1985 and his master’s in government in ’88. He settled in the defense industry for almost five years, two of those years in Taiwan, before his course shifted to senior healthcare.

He worked his way up from nursing home administrator to regional VP, senior VP and then CEO before starting his own company.

As CEO of Fort Worth-based Post Acute Care Partners, Mark has joined with communities across the state to assist those who need skilled nursing. He has held leadership roles in the Texas Health Care Association, he serves on the Tarleton Foundation board, and he’s active with advocacy committees offering industry feedback to the Legislature.

His continuing connection with Tarleton incudes the McKenzie Family Endowed Professorship (a first for the university) and funding a scholarship for kinesiology students. In 2021 he and his wife, Susie, donated a WWIera cannon, matching the one on Tarleton’s class ring. The artillery piece is routinely fired at Texan football games.

Maj. Gen. Chris Adams Jr.

In bomber pilot talk, SETTOAC (start engines, taxi, take off, accelerate, climb) is mission start. It’s how Chris Adams has navigated 92 years. From quiet beginnings to a decorated career to authoring a dozen books, the retired U.S. Air Force General is still soaring.

Chris worked in the Texas oil patch to pay his way to two-year Tarleton and then East Texas State Teachers College (now Texas A&M University-Commerce), where he completed his bachelor’s in business and was commissioned a second lieutenant.

From his 2015 autobiography, Final Approach: Flight through Life: “I learned quickly that Tarleton challenged its students! I also took to the integrated ROTC military training as though it was made for me. I have often commented that Tarleton was my takeoff into the real world.”

Chris flew B-36s, B-52s, C-141 transporters and the venerable C-47 Gooney Bird in the Cold War and Southeast Asia. He advanced to Brigadier General in 1976 and command of the 26,000-person 12th Air Division at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona and later Dyess Air Force Base in Texas. He was promoted to Major General in 1979 and Strategic Air Command Chief of Staff.

He retired from the Air Force in 1983 to become Associate Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, having logged 8,000 hours in various aircraft. More than 1,000 were in combat.

Andrew Corp. recruited him in 1987 to be Executive Vice President of scientific communications. Later he became Vice President of corporate government systems. From 1990 to 1995 he directed Andrew joint venture groups to recover Cold War communications systems in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Later he coordinated communications activities in Saudi Arabia and China.

His military honors include the U.S. Distinguished Service Medal, the Department of Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit (oak leaf cluster), the Air Medal (two oak leaf clusters) and the Vietnam Service Medal (three battle stars).

Sam H. Pack

When Sam Pack started classes at Tarleton in 1956, he had every intention of graduating. An illness forced a change of plans, but it didn’t diminish his belief in the power of a university degree or his desire to make the dream real for others.

In the middle of a successful career at Ford Credit, he got a call in 1979 from longtime Ford dealer Lee Jarmon that changed everything. A year later, Sam bought Lee Jarmon Ford in Carrollton, Texas.

“No doubt this was the biggest business decision of my life,” he says.

Today Sam owns and operates six Five Star dealerships (Pack Automotive Group) in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, and he co-owns six more in Tulsa. In 2018 he cofounded Triton Automotive Group, a collection of like-minded dealers (16 shareholders, representing 200 dealerships).

His extraordinary business and community leadership earned him the national 1988 TIME Dealer of the Year tribute, one of the auto industry’s most coveted honors. Only one other Texas dealer has received this award, and none since Sam.

The Texas Automobile Dealers Association in 2005 recognized him as an industry Legend — only the second person in the 93-year history of the association so named. And he was one of five dealers inducted into Ford’s inaugural Top Volume Dealers Hall of Fame in 2016.

A longtime advocate of the formal education he envisioned but never received, Sam has given liberally to Tarleton over the years, donating to the university’s food pantry, the President’s Circle and the Dr. James and Kindall Hurley Scholarship Endowment. For the past four football seasons, he has underwritten the Presidential Suite at Memorial Stadium.

Then there’s the Tarleton State University Pack Automotive Group Intern Program, providing Texans with learning opportunities that inspire career success.

Sam received an honorary doctorate of humane letters at Tarleton’s May commencement.

Distinguished Alumni honorees:

Distinguished Friend — the Honorable Shelby Slawson

A member of the Texas House of Representatives since 2021, the Honorable Shelby Slawson grew up in Stephenville and started her education at Tarleton, then earned a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Dallas and her juris doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin.

Hard work and prudent financial management in tough times were hallmarks of her upbringing and put her on the path

to multiple careers as an attorney, entrepreneur and small business owner. She worked fast food places and restaurants, retail stores and at nursing homes while becoming the first in her family to earn a university education.

Today that can-do attitude defines her service to District 59 (Coryell, Erath, Hamilton and Hood counties). Economic development, education and quality of life in rural Texas are her heartbeat.

An attorney by training, she is a rural Texas advocate by calling.

“Central Texas is my home, my community,” she says. “It is a great honor to make a positive difference in the lives of my neighbors.”

Rep. Slawson hit the ground running in her first term (87th Legislature) and hasn’t slowed down. She was the first freshman to serve on the Calendars Committee since 1985 and the first since 1973 to serve simultaneously on Calendars and the State Affairs Committee. She also was appointed to the Pensions, Investments and Financial Services Committee.

In addition to Calendars and State Affairs, she is a member of the 88th Legislature’s House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence.

Outstanding Young Alumnus — Sean Decker

“I love coming to work every day,” says Sean Decker, founder and president of REV Entertainment and the Texas Rangers’ Executive Vice President for sports and entertainment. “Every day is so incredibly different.”

REV Entertainment formally launched in 2021, although keeping the home of the Texas Rangers bustling with activity started a decade sooner. Rangers Events brought in the first stand-alone concerts at Choctaw Stadium (Globe Life Park), the Academy of Country Music’s Party for a Cause and the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, among more than a dozen other shows.

Today, REV secures venues and hosts sold-out crowds for some of the world’s most renowned acts. And the company’s production services division handles performance setup, creating the stage, flooring, and sound and lights. Partnerships are extensive: Live Nation, AEG Worldwide, XFL, Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, Oak View Group.

In 2010 Sean joined the Rangers; from Senior Account Executive he advanced to Sales Director and then Assistant

Vice President for Rangers Enterprises. He attained his current position in 2020.

In addition to leading the club’s Sports and Entertainment Department, he oversees the two minor league teams the Rangers own in North Carolina and the company’s development efforts both in Arlington and around the country.

“I’m proudest of the people I get to work with, the team we’ve been able to build,” he says. “I’ve grown in my position, and I get to see and help grow those working with me.”

As for his personal growth, he gives Tarleton credit. “Tarleton was a big plus for me. It’s such a great place to grow up, mature and see the world differently.”

When Sean graduated in 2007, he applied to more than 90 professional teams. Only three responded.

He became the Operations Assistant for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in baseball’s Pacific Coast League. Success there led to opportunities as Assistant Director of baseball operations for the major leagues’ Arizona Fall League and as Corporate Marketing Manager for the Texas League’s Frisco RoughRiders.

Distinguished Alumna — Debbie Garrison

“When you leave Tarleton, you never really do,” says Debbie Johnston Garrison. “That phrase ‘bleed purple’ sticks with us, and the memories and friendships we make are among our most cherished.”

Debbie attended Tarleton in the early 1970s, involved in rodeo, gymnastics and cheerleading. She was inducted into the Tarleton Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2016.

When her stepfather was stationed at Fort Wolters in Mineral Wells, the base had a stable. You could rent a

The Tarleton Alumni Association honored three of its members at the 2023 Gala. Joining President and First Lady Hurley and TAA President Greg Schoonmaker (far right) are Outstanding Young Alumnus Sean Decker, Distinguished Alumna Debbie Garrison and the Honorable Shelby Slawson, Distinguished Friend.

horse for 50 cents an hour, so she used her allowance for lessons. And that’s how she learned to ride.

Riding hunters and jumpers first and then changing to Western events, Debbie joined the strong Mineral Wells High School rodeo team. Call it fate or divine providence, but Tarleton Rodeo Hall of Famer Angie Watts Averhoff chose the school to do her student teaching.

“All of us rodeo kids knew who she was because the Tarleton women’s team had just won its third straight NIRA championship,” Debbie recalls. That encounter cinched her desire to attend Tarleton.

Her decision paid off. She was crowned Miss Rodeo America in 1979 and went on to qualify for the national

finals 12 times in team roping as a member of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association. She was Roping Rookie of the Year in 1990. Twice she took Team Roping Average (1993 and 1996) and Reserve World Champion Team Roping Header (1991 and 1998).

She was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame (1999), the Cowboy Capital Walk of Fame (2000) and the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame (2017). Mineral Wells didn’t forget her, either, inducting her into its Athletic Hall of Fame (2003).

She remains an enthusiastic Tarleton advocate. “You know, the gates are always open,” she says. “Anyone who wants to stay involved and help out, in whatever way you want, Tarleton’s always there.”

TARLETON PROMISE GIVES STUDENT LIFELINE

depression, anxiety and PTSD. Frequently I was told I was worth nothing.”

Still, she applied to Tarleton and thought her dream had come true when she was immediately accepted. But when the pandemic closed her high school in March 2020, Heather said she felt hopeless. She and her parents lost their jobs. She set out on her own, traveling and living in her car, thinking her college dream was too expensive — until she was awarded a Tarleton Promise scholarship.

The Tarleton Promise covers the bill after a qualifying student’s state and federal aid is exhausted, paying for remaining tuition, fees, books, and room and board.

The Tarleton Promise brought Heather home.

Heather Russell wanted to go to college. She actively participated in athletics, FFA and UIL, hoping those involvements would help her chances. But despite encouragement from her Ranger, Texas, high school ag teacher, too many hurdles seemed in the way.

“I was in a toxic environment, below the poverty line, and had dealt with emotional and sometimes physical abuse for 18 years,” she shared at the 2023 Gala. “I battled severe

“Receiving a Tarleton Promise scholarship not only changed my life, it saved my life. The day I moved into my freshman dorm was the day I finally felt like I had a place I could lay my head at night feeling safe. I have loved 100 percent of my life every day since.”

The senior nursing major has worked as a lifeguard at the Aquatic Center and as a summer camp counselor. She said the friends and connections she’s made at work and in the nursing program feel like family. On track to graduate in December, she wants to be a pediatric nurse, advocating for children who may not have a voice, who need help just like she did growing up.

Senior nursing major Heather Russell shares how the Tarleton Promise gave her hope and a future.

LearningLead to

by Phil Riddle

Seniors Desirae Garcia, Kiara Owen and Walker Kirk, junior Emilie Gaucin-Rodarte and graduate student Olivia Lasater are working as interns in the 88th

Texas Legislature

“These students are gaining the experience of a lifetime in Austin,” says Dr. Credence Baker, Vice President for University Strategy and Chief of Staff to Tarleton President James Hurley. “The 88th session will provide them with incredible learning opportunities that will impact their future careers. I know each of them is representing Tarleton State very well.”

The five had to clear an intense application process through their respective colleges, including personal interviews with President Hurley, Dr. Baker and the chief of staff for the legislator’s office they hoped to work in.

Though each had a unique reason for wanting to work under the Capitol dome, they all hope to use the experience to glean a greater knowledge of the legislative process.

“I want to get a deeper understanding of how everything actually goes through the House,” Desirae Garcia says. The history major from San Antonio works in the office of Rep. Mary González (District 75).

Desirae’s duties include communications and social media, researching Rep. González’ committee assignments and other policy-related tasks.

“My government classes gave me a general understanding, but I’ve learned so much more. The specific nitty-gritty of how things happen is really exciting”

Desirae Garcia, Kiara Owen, Walker Kirk, Olivia Lasater and Emilie Gaucin-Rodarte are seeing behind the law-making curtain as legislative interns.

Five Tarleton students are getting a firsthand look at the legislative process, Lone Star style.

Dr. Credence Baker

Kiara Owen came from Olney to Tarleton as an education major but is now in her last semester of study for a political science degree. Learning the political ropes in Austin, also in Rep. González’ office, is crucial to her career goals. After graduation, she hopes to work in the political arena.

“I’m very interested in politics,” she says. “I want to be a staffer or something involved with public policy. Maybe even lobbyist work”

Kiara is González’ lead administrative legislative assistant, the policy analyst for the office, and keeps the representative’s calendar.

“When this internship opened up, I realized it was the perfect opportunity for me. I’m thinking about running for office someday. This will definitely let me know if I want to do that.”

Whether Tarleton’s interns are ever candidates for office, history has shown that experience plays a big role in landing a job.

“It’s not unusual for our interns to end up with careers in Austin,” Dr. Baker explains. “We have a past intern who is now a chief of staff, another works for a lobbying firm in Austin, and another is a legislative director.

“It’s a great experience for them. What I hope for each is that they learn as much as they can and make as many connections as they can during the session ”

Emilie Gaucin-Rodarte manages a variety of duties for Rep. Shelby Slawson (District 59). She can be found

handling mail intake, doing constituent casework, organizing the office and creating bill books.

“Every day is different,” she says. “There are always meetings, calls to answer, invitations to add to the calendar. It’s always busy.”

The political science major from Caldwell transferred to Tarleton after two years at Blinn College. After earning her bachelor’s degree she wants to attend law school. She intends to be an attorney, and she’s considering UT law school.

“This internship seemed like an opportunity to be in the city and get that feel,” she says. “It was also the chance to look into a completely different world.

“When I was at Blinn, I interned with a judge, so I had a look at the judicial area. Now I’m experiencing the legislative side of things.”

Olivia Lasater is one of two student interns for Rep. DeWayne Burns (District 58). She hails from nearby Hamilton, has a bachelor’s degree in animal science and is working toward her master’s with a research concentration in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

“I hope to see what’s going on in the ag-related industries, and what changes are coming through the pipeline.

“I’m in research so I’m always trying to find out what’s on the cutting edge and what’s on the horizon so I can better prepare for the future. I hope to work in the agriculture industry, so it’s nice to see what’s being implemented on the state government level.”

Walker Kirk has already had a taste of political life. The agriculture services and industries major from Sidney, Texas, served as student body president at Tarleton (and also was the Texan Rider at home football games).

“My family has always told me I am a natural politician,” he says. “I saw this as an opportunity to see what it’s like.”

Another intern for Rep. Burns, Walker mostly deals with correspondence and answering and making calls to constituents, all of which could be valuable as he prepares to enter the workforce.

“I’ve made so many connections in business and agriculture,” he says. “Mainly what I want from the experience, is experience.”

“These students are gaining the experience of a lifetime in Austin.”

Get an in-depth look at life as a Tarleton Texan as real students share their stories and experiences in Tarleton’s episode of The College Tour, a TV series streaming on YouTube and Amazon Prime!

All Roads Lead

FOR MATT BROCKMAN, all roads connect at Tarleton. The Communications Director for the legendary Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo credits strong relationships rooted at the university for career decisions that led him away from Texas and back home again.

On any given day Matt is getting the stock show story out there — writing, networking, brainstorming — finding more and better ways to reach people, skills he has been honing since he was a Tarleton Texan and former Texas A&M University System Chancellor Barry Thompson was Tarleton’s President.

“He could walk across that campus and engage with students in a way that just awed and inspired me,” Matt says. Thompson hired him to work first in his cattle operation and then in his Tarleton office.

“I was green as a gourd and didn’t make the best grades, but Barry Thompson made me feel like I could do anything.”

Pursuing a degree in agricultural education, Matt was poised for a teaching career when he graduated in 1984. Then he spied a job posting in the ag building for a position with then-Congressman Charles Stenholm (a 1959 Tarleton graduate) at the nation’s capital. Thinking an interview would be helpful experience, he applied and then went on to his student teaching assignment.

He did not get that job. But a few months later as he was starting on his master’s degree, another position opened, and he was hired.

“I had never been east of Texarkana, never seen the ocean — only time I’d been north of Oklahoma was in the cab of a cattle truck — and I packed everything I had in my car and drove to Washington, D.C., to work for Charlie.”

Just before his unanticipated death this spring, Stenholm lauded Matt’s ability to jump into a new and complicated situation and get things done, crediting the ag training and parliamentary procedure knowledge he learned at Tarleton, plus his problem solving and communication abilities.

“Matt pitched in and did the kind of job that all members of Congress expect of their staff,” Stenholm said. “His

leadership at the stock show is living proof of what he did for me and the country, and agriculture in particular.”

As a legislative assistant, Matt oversaw ag policy and trade issues leading up to passage of the 1985 Food Security Act, a major overhaul in income support for U.S. farmers. He also worked on legislation that restructured the federal Farm Credit System.

“I jumped in with all four feet: baptized by fire, you could say.”

After three years in Rep. Stenholm’s office and four years at the National Grain and Feed Association — a trade organization that represents the grain processing and marketing infrastructure — Matt returned to Texas to work in the Department of Agriculture under thenCommissioner Rick Perry.

This is Matt’s second tour of duty at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, having worked there as Administrative Manager from 2006 to 2013. He left to become Executive Director of the National Ranching Heritage Center at Texas Tech University but eventually missed North Texas and returned in 2015.

“What I do now is really what I’m cut out for — the way God made me. I love storytelling and I get to work for something that’s unique, not just to Fort Worth but to this area of Texas. Lots of exciting things are happening, and it’s fun to be a part of them.”

Back at Tarleton, Matt serves on the Equine Advisory Committee and visits campus several times a year. While it may look different than when he attended, he says he feels the same energy and enthusiasm from current students wanting to earn their degrees and start their careers.

“We can look back on our years in college and have good memories — and ones we aren’t crazy about — but I was so fortunate. Rubbing shoulders with the Barry Thompsons and the Charlie Stenholms of the world was a real blessing. All roads connect to Tarleton. I couldn’t have asked for a better start to my professional career.”

Home by Elaine Hellmund

Matt Brockman, Class of ’84

HOOP DREAMS

Tarleton Grad Transfer Has Big Plans After Her Time in Purple is Over

by Phil Riddle

Mayra Caicedo was at home in Buga, Colombia, just shy of her 11th birthday, when she discovered basketball. She was hooked.

Her passion for the game eventually earned her a spot on her country’s national team followed by a stellar collegiate career in the United States, including her stop at Tarleton as a graduate transfer student-athlete.

Mayra, who just completed her final year of college basketball, said the choice to come to Stephenville was easy, although the recruiting process was intense.

“I had the feeling of being at home,” she said of selecting Tarleton. “I felt like the people here were going to care about me, and they do. My aunt was on the phone calls when I was deciding, and she got that feeling, too.”

It was no wonder the Colombian point guard drew such interest as a graduate student. She had enjoyed success everywhere she’d gone.

As a freshman at junior college powerhouse New Mexico JC, she led the Thunderbirds to a 29-6 season record and an appearance in the national title game. She was named the Western Junior College Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore.

After two seasons in Hobbs, Mayra moved on to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Her junior year was the apex of her time there. She started and played in all 26 games for the Trojans, averaging 6.7 assists, 5.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 31 percent from three-point range

and scoring in double figures five times.

As a senior she averaged a career-best 7.6 points, 5.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.9 steals per outing to guide UALR to a 1710 overall record and a semifinals appearance in the Sun Belt Conference tournament. She was named third team allconference at the conclusion of both seasons in Arkansas.

Mayra starred in her only year at Tarleton, averaging 8.8 points, 5 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. She was the ultimate distributor at point guard, compiling the second highest assists average in the Western Athletic Conference, and she tied 33rd best in all of NCAA Division I. Her 140 total assists tied her for 10th most in a single season with Kristin Curtis (1990-91) and marked the most Texan single-season assists since 2011-12.

She sparkled there at the end, averaging 8.3 assists over the last six games, including two 11-assist nights. In her final collegiate game, a Tarleton 74-65 win over Seattle U, Mayra recorded her first double-double of the year — 11 points, 11 assists — while adding five rebounds and three steals.

“Mayra is an incredible story of the role college athletics can play in the life of a young person,” said Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Lonn Reisman. “To see what Mayra has accomplished, not only on the basketball court but earning two academic degrees along the way, is truly an inspiration.

“We are so proud that Mayra represents Tarleton. She is the physical embodiment of Tarleton’s core values. I have no doubt that her passion and drive will deliver great success as she moves on to the next phase of her career and life.”

Mayra is a 2016 graduate of San Vicente de Paul High School in Buga, where she was named Best Athlete three times. She has been a member of the Colombia women’s national team since she was 17.

At the 2018 FIBA U18 Americas Championship she was named an All-Star after leading her team to the tournament semifinals and a fourth-place finish. After

that experience she developed a desire to play U.S. college basketball in preparation for a hoped-for professional career.

Though she was excited to come to America, there were challenges, the hardest being so far from her tight-knit family. In Colombia she shared her home with eight relatives, including her only sibling, a younger brother.

“It’s so far away. It’s difficult because of the money, the distance and the time it takes to see your family. I was never apart from them for this long.”

She had honed her skills in the international game, but there were differences she had to learn.

“I had to adjust a little bit when I got here. On the national team, for example, I put too much pressure on the ball defensively. Here, I’m afraid I’ll get a foul called so I can’t be as aggressive. The play at both levels is very good. You can compare the international game to college basketball because both have high standards.”

Now Mayra has unwaveringly set her sights on new goals.

“I want to play professionally overseas,” she says. “I’ve thought about it for a while, and I hope to be able to play all over the world.”

If that 11-year-old had only known.

Mayra Caicedo has wrapped up her college basketball career and has big plans.

GETTING SCHOOLED

Students Gain Real World Experience in Hands-on Sports Internship

SCHOOLED

by Phil Riddle

Tarleton’s jump into the NCAA Division I athletic arena made a splash. Suddenly games in most of the Texans’ sports were available on ESPN.

And that created the need for skilled technicians for the broadcasts — a need being filled by Tarleton State students in a multitiered internship.

Nate Bural, Senior Associate Athletic Director for Communications, and Dr. Christopher Gearhart, Department of Communication Studies head, developed the internship, which in turn birthed a new area of study in the communication department.

The program blossomed in summer 2020, when college games were canceled due to COVID-19. The two envisioned significant benefits.

“We had had these conversations before, but when everything slowed down it really gave us an opportunity to think it through and talk about the logistics,” Bural says.

From those conversations came the Tarleton Sports Internship Program, which gives students hands-on production experience broadcasting Division I sports.

“Because there were no sports that fall, there were a lot of classroom sessions,” Bural says. “We basically did biweekly workshops focusing on camera and equipment basics and going through the production process.

“That was pivotal for us. It was slow enough for us to get one group started, but that group was able to teach new kids, and so on.”

The interns learn to produce events, run cameras, create graphics and perform numerous other aspects of broadcast

Tarleton interns enjoy multiple areas of behind-the-scenes broadcast production, including producing and directing for ESPN+.

production. All four tracks — production, creative, sports information and athletics marketing — have three levels.

“What makes this unique is that interns have the opportunity to learn so much every semester, since every semester brings new sports,” Bural says. “That’s why we divided the internship into levels and why we want the kids involved as early as possible. The idea was to come in as a freshman and sophomore, get comfortable with the sports in level one, then allow them to take ownership of the program as they grow and learn.

“By the time they’re seniors, we want them to essentially run everything. When they graduate and start looking for a job, they’re already adept at what they’re doing.”

The department is using some of the interns’ experiences to create curriculum for the new sports communication degree. “They’re going to start game-day production classes to take what we’re learning from ESPN and turn it into an area of study so the kids know this is what’s expected.”

Part of Dr. Gearhart’s role on the academic side is attracting students to the internship. The sports com major is an extension of the existing journalism program but with more emphasis on broadcast.

“I am really proud of this program,” he says, “and happy for the students, the experiences they’re getting and the job opportunities that are coming once they graduate.”

Dr. Thomas Tallach, head of Tarleton’s Department of Sport Science, is another faculty supporter of the program.

“What Nate has been able to do is really special,” he says. “Not only do students get an immersive experience, but it’s also cleverly structured to facilitate student-to-student collaboration and a progressive increase in the scope of responsibilities for everyone.”

The internship, only three years old, has already seen its share of success stories.

Adam Goodman, one of the first two interns, found his niche as a camera operator. He taught successive interns the ins and outs of camera work and never, in four years, missed a game.

He graduated last year and immediately signed on as a studio technician with the Fort Worth-based Cowboy Channel.

“It was a great experience,” he said of the internship. “It taught me to do a lot of things you don’t ordinarily learn in the classroom. It gives you real world experience in how to problem solve on the move.”

Brian Martin, Class of 2021, learned to run graphics, direct, and operate the camera. He works now as a camera operator for Tourbeau Sports Group — a job he traces to his participation in the internship program.

“I’ve worked a lot of soccer, softball, baseball. Any sport you can think of, I’ve worked on it,” he says. “It’s fun. Lots of travel. I’ve gone to a baseball tournament in Oklahoma, then to Kansas, Florida and California for soccer tournaments.”

Brian’s career goal is to be a film director and producer. He sees work in live sports production as a great way to quickly learn camera techniques. “Sports is happening now, where working on films gives you the opportunity to take your time. It’s kind of like running before you walk.”

As the internship evolves, more students likely will be drawn to it. Bural tries to keep between 20 and 30 interns on the four tracks.

“We don’t want to overburden them,” he says. “We also want them to get as much experience as possible. I have 40 applications on my desk. The internship has exploded, and we’re looking to expand it.

“It’s not just an experience. They’re getting an education.”

Students like senior marketing major Haleigh Solano enhance the game-day experience with “fan cams.”

CLASS NOTES BY DECADE

Each of us can play an important role in the continued success of Tarleton State University. Remember, big accomplishments begin with small acts. The Tarleton Alumni Association encourages all former students and friends of the university to join in this tradition of promoting excellence.

and director of the Bolivar Community Chorus, a chorus that sang four to five times a season and regularly joined the choral forces at Southwest Baptist University to present large-scale choral works.

JOHN ROBBINS ’86, BS, was named to the Hendrix College Board of Trustees to serve a three-year term in a board seat designated for United Methodist clergy. He became the senior pastor of Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church in Little Rock in July 2020. Prior to that appointment, he was senior pastor at Memorial Drive UMC in Houston and Central UMC in Fayetteville, Ark. He has board service experience with numerous nonprofit organizations, including Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth; Houston Methodist West Hospital; the Foundation of Trinity Mother Francis Hospital in Tyler; the Central Texas Methodist Foundation; and the Methodist Foundation for Arkansas. He also served as board president of The Homes for Retired Ministers-Central Texas Conference.

SCOTT SMITH ’86, BS kinesiology, ’88 MED, was inducted into the Garland Sports Hall of Fame. He made contributions at Garland High School as an accomplished athlete and athletic trainer. He lettered three times in baseball and was named alldistrict as a pitcher. He lettered twice in football and was on the 1978 team that went undefeated in the regular season. After college he returned to GHS for a 31-year career as athletic trainer. He was named University Interscholastic League Trainer of the Year, and he was recognized by Who’s Who Among American Teachers in 1992, 2002 and 2004.

GARY GERBER ’87, BA music, was named Dean of the Mercer University School of Music. Dr. Gerber has served as Dean of the School of Fine Arts at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., since 2015. He also holds appointments as chair of the Division of Music and professor of music. He served the Southwestern Division of the American Choral Directors Association as Repertoire and Standards Chair for Colleges and Universities in 2006-2010 and as coordinator of the division’s Collegiate Honor Choir in 2006-2016. He is a member of the Arkansas Choral Directors Association, Texas Choral Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference, Arkansas Music Educators Association, Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. Before coming to OBU, he served as director of choral studies at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., in 1996-2004. He also served as music director and conductor of the Missouri Baptist All-State Youth Choir and the Missouri Music Men, a male chorus of ministers of music from Missouri Baptist churches. He was founder

APRIL F. ROBBINS ’87, BBA, joined the Fort Worth law firm Cantey Hanger as a partner in the litigation section. She has practiced insurance defense litigation for more than 30 years, representing clients in personal injury, premises liability, products liability, subrogation, general tort liability, employment, construction defects and commercial litigation. She has successfully handled lawsuits for individuals, product manufacturers, pilots, aircraft leasing companies, aviation instructors, mobile home interests and commercial businesses. In addition, she has represented domestic and international insurers, including underwriters participating in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market. She handles first-party and third-party insurance claims and coverage issues, and is a qualified mediator in the state of Texas. Before joining Cantey Hanger, she interned with various judges in the Tarrant County area and worked as an associate attorney for a family law firm in Fort Worth.

RODNEY WEBB ’89, BS physical education, was named athletic director at Highland Park ISD. He served as president of the Texas High School Coaches Association in 2018-2021 and is a member of the Texas High School Coaches Educational Foundation Board of Directors He has led football teams to the state semifinals four times and is a six-time recipient of district Coach of the Year honors. He is a 2007 inductee into Tarleton’s Athletics Hall of Fame.

TODD ALEXNDER ’94, BS physical education, is the new boys’ golf coach at Waxahachie High School. He has coached numerous sports in more than a quarter of a century at his alma mater, including three seasons as the Indians’ head football coach. He will begin his 26th year with Waxahachie ISD, of which he spent 22 as a football coach at either the high school or junior high levels. He also spent two seasons outside of football as the WHS girls’ head cross country coach, leading the team to the program’s first-ever district championship in 2018. He spent the first two years of his career in Maypearl, where he coached football, baseball, and track and field.

TRENT THOMAS ’95, BS agriculture services and development, ’99 MED, was appointed director of the government affairs division of the Texas Department of Transportation. He will coordinate federal and state government relations and legislative activities. He began his career with TxDOT in 2012 as director of state legislative affairs. He previously served as chief of staff for state Rep. Drew Darby.

NEKISHA DURHAM ’98, BS exercise and sports, ’00 MED, was named athletic director for the Waller Independent School District. Durham, a Waller High School graduate, has been the girls’ head basketball coach since 2015 and the girls’ athletic coordinator since 2016. She has 23 years of teaching experience, including stops in Stafford and Lewisville before returning to her alma mater. She also has coached volleyball, softball, track, cross country and soccer.

JAMES EARP ’99, BBA and BA economics, has been selected city manager for Hutto, Texas. He brings over 16 years of experience with the city of Kyle, Texas, where he was assistant city manager. At Kyle he built several city departments, overseeing growth from 17,000 residents to a current population of about 60,000. In 2019 he was awarded the American Society of Public Administration Public Administrator of the Year award. He is a certified public manager and a Texas watershed steward. He also serves as director of the North Texas Certified Public Manager (CPM) Program as well as a CPM instructor at Texas State University.

as well as related accounting services for membership and customer service. She is a past Texas FFA state officer, a member of the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show International Committee and Fort Worth Farm and Ranch Club Board of Directors, and a volunteer at Parker County Center of Hope.

JENNIFER CROCKER ’08, BBA, was named director of the Department of Financial Services for the city of Gainesville, Fla. She most recently served as senior finance manager at the San Antonio River Authority and as assistant vice president for financial services and comptroller at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. She is a certified public accountant and certified management accountant.

DANNY McDONALD ’05, BS horticulture, ’08 MS agriculture, has joined Control Solutions as technical services manager for the Martin’s Brand and CSI-Production Animal divisions. For the past 17 years he has studied the ecology and management of invasive insects and their impact on agriculture and urban ecosystems. He spent five years as a consultant for the poultry and swine industry at a major distributor of animal health products. His major research focus is leafhopper vectors of Pierce’s disease in grapevines, the invasion of the tawny crazy ant along the Gulf Coast, and litter beetles in poultry barns.

JACKIE HAMILTON ’05, BA English, ’16 MED, has been named principal of Jacksboro Middle School. She previously served as an assistant principal at Stephenville High School. Before becoming an administrator, she taught high school English, language arts and reading at Glen Rose, Granbury, South Grand Prairie and Poolville.

STACY FOX ’06, BA agricultural services and development, has been named executive director of the Texas Auctioneers Association. She previously spent 14 years with the Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in Fort Worth; her duties included handling membership renewals and processing,

HOLLY REID ’14, MED, was appointed principal of Forest Trail Elementary School in the Eanes Independent School District. She brings 16 years of education experience to the position, including seven years as an administrator and one as an instructional coach. Prior to her time at Eanes, she served as an assistant principal and academic dean at Neidig Elementary in the Elgin ISD.

MELISSA EVERETT ’20, MASTER’S criminal justice/law enforcement administration, has been named finance director for the city of Carrollton. Her specialties include governmental budgeting, financial analysis, property and sales tax law, user rate development, project management and software implementation. She joined the city as the Police Department’s compliance manager in 2014, responsible for managing its best practices program, writing and developing departmental policies, grant management and development, creating the department’s internal audit and compliance program, and implementing two software packages. She became Carrollton’s strategic services coordinator in 2018 and developed key performance indicators for the Managed Competition Program, collaborated with various departments to develop end-user dashboards, and managed the city’s online learning management tools.

Silver Taps Ceremony

Suzanne Adams

Wesley R. Adams

Charles L. Allen

Michael W. Alton

John R. Ammons

Tommy L. Ammons

Duane L. Anderson

Juanita M. Anderson

Richard L. Arrington

Donna J. Ashmore

Larry A. Bachman

Ronald H. Baker

Stanley J. Baker

Walter D. Bales

Kathleen Baugh

Danny G. Behrens

Ernest D. Benthall

Jerry L. Billingsley

Shelby N. Binford

Jack L. Bishop

Randall W. Black

Barbara M. Blackman

Nancy L. Bond

Stuart E. Boswank

Royce D. Boyce

Steven R. Boyce

Judy A. Bradley

Darvin Bridges

Mary B. Bridges

George L. Brinegar

Brandon J. Brinkman

Charles B. Brown

Herman M. Bruechner

Thomas S. Bruton

Clifford R. Buchanan

Doris L. Buchanan

Polly S. Bumpurs

Stanton S. Bundy

Sharon K. Burkett

Michael K. Burnett

Bobby Campbell

William N. Campbell

Brent M. Cannon

Joe T. Carley

Margaret Carpenter

Sarah J. Childers

Mary R. Claunch

Ryan L. Clayton

Larry J. Clements

Patsy R. Collins

Robert L. Collins

Gail Conway

Robert L. Cramer

Wilfred N. Criswell

John R. Croft

Linda L. Cunningham

Walter S. Damron

Billy F. Daniel

Joe R. Daniel

Maria D. Daniel

Tommy C. Daniel

Enid M. Davis

Rodney E. Davis

Roscoe B. Davis

Delmar R. Day

Andrew J. Dean

Tommy A. Dean

Gary R. Dietrich

Williams R. Dillahunty

Deborah L. Dillingham

Eugenia Duncan

Donald L. Dunn

George W. Dupree

Brenda K. Durant

Dwayne K. Eby

Calvin E. Eddings

Marie L. Edmiston

Phillip E. Egdorf

Larry D. Ehrke

Virginia R. Eldridge

Dorothy E. Ellis

Tommy R. Ellis

James W. Erwin

Mary J. Fair

Linda G. Feist

Charles C. Felkner

Geneva Fender

Allen H. Fields

Larry E. Finnen

Jerry A. Floyd

Alfred L. Fluitt

James S. Ford

Alberta Fowler

Michael O. Frazier

Richard M. Frierson

Ryan A. Fullerton

Peggy G. Gamblin

Bryan L. Gano

Bradon A. Garcia

Cesar L. Garcia Esteva

Lee D. Gassett

Glenna R. Geer

William F. Geter

Paula J. Gillen

Garey W. Gilley

Lou D. Gilpin

Edgar M. Glasscock

Tina J. Goble

The Silver Taps ceremony honors Tarleton faculty, staff, students, alumni and supportive friends who died during the previous year.

Odelia P. Goodwin

Charles C. Gover

Kimberly D. Graham

Steve M. Griffith

Richard Haden

Clyde E. Hailey

Darla L. Hall

Larry R. Hammett

Sandra J. Harmes

Jack B. Harrell

Robert L. Harris

Etta May Harrison

Gene A. Hartin

Garland E. Harvey

Donna J. Haynie

Mary F. Hennigan

Floyd J. Herbertson

DeVon L. Hills

Albert M. Hilton

Donnie M. Hinchliffe

Jamie Richards Hogland

Larry B. Holderman

Gerald M. Holland

Troy D. Hood

Wesley T. Horne

David J. Howard

Edna K. Hudiburgh

Pat Hudson

Laura J. Huffman

Barbara S. Huffman-Moser

Joel M. Hugghins

Mary L. Huggins

DeWayne Hyman

Billie L. Ingle

Timothy E. Jaska

Chrystal L. Johnson

Floy H. Johnson

Jerry K. Jones

Jerry R. Jordan

Robert D. Kagy

Robert L. Keighton

Jay J. Kelly

Thomas N. Kemp

Margaret C. Key

Timothy E. Kile

Carolyn S. King

Evelyn L. Kingsbery

Reta J. Kinyon

William J. Korenek

Buddy Lamb

Norvis G. Land

Todd M. Lange

Mark V. Larner

Hollis G. LaRoe

Joseph F. Larson

Myrtice I. Larson

Ewell M. Lawrence

Michael J. Leathers

Sheila Lednicky

Nelda S. Lee

Doran E. Lemke

Joe T. Lenamon

Willie O. Lindsey

Loys E. Little

Ronald D. Little

Chris A. Littlefield

Pamela S. Littleton

Walter R. Long

Patricia E. Lyerla

William B. Madden

Marc A. Martinez

Kahle A. Mason

Robert C. Massullo

Marlene L. Maynard

Mitchell S. McCain

Myrtle F. McCallum

Clovis H. McCary

Billy R. McCorkle

Alice M. McDonald

Johnnie E. McDowell

Jeremy D. McIntire

Veda M. McKenzie

Thomas R. Mewhinney

Paula K. Millican

Justin L. Monk

William Montgomery

James D. Mooney

Joy L. Mooney

Jeremy R. Moore

Jennifer J. Moran

Eston O. Morrison

Rickey T. Morton

Emma J. Murray

Robert D. Murray

Laverne E. Myers

Lionel Nichols

Jack R. Noble

Annie S. Ogden

Margie R. O’Neal

Bobby D. O’Neill

Michele R. Owsley

Mercedes A. Palacios

Betty J. Parrish

Byron D. Parrott

Cathryn D. Patterson

Betty L. Payne

Jennifer L. Peek

Bridget L. Peschel

Lois K. Pettijohn

James K. Petty

Paul D. Petty

Ardath R. Phillips

Billie C. Pipes

David G. Porter

Irene K. Poplin

Jesse D. Posey

Robert P. Potts

Audrie T. Powell

Benny L. Powers

Rickie I. Pratt

William G. Pringle

Donald M. Procter

Ervel R. Quinn

Mary P. Reeves

Mary A. Reynolds

Dianna S. Richardson

Viola J. Riggs

Brenda S. Riley

Paula Roach

Clement A. Rochat

Thomas R. Rogers

Paulette Rook

Rodney G. Ross

Timothy N. Runyon

Wanda Rusher

Jackie P. Russell

Richard L. Sale

Donald G. Satterwhite

Randal P. Schoenewolf

Steven L. Schultz

Parker T. Sears

William R. Sessom

Sharla R. Shaffer

Dustin T. Siebert

Donald O. Sikes

Paul N. Silvey

Terri A. Sisk

Curtis A. Skipping

Shirley A. Slack

Bruce E. Slaughter

Jimmy R. Slovak

George C. Smith

Neva J. Smith

Jack T. Sommerfield

David L. Southern

Bettye R. Spears

Zachary C. Stables

Ronald D. Stephens

Bob Stewart

David G. Tarver

Bobby G. Tate

Jay S. Taylor

Skylar O. Terrell

Timothy B. Thompson

Brenda S. Tidwell

Steven P. Tidwell

Rufus C. Tom

James T. Traweek

Frank L. Tucker

Billy J. Underwood

Gerzain A. Valenzuela

Joseph C. Vanderlip

Kathelia A. Vaquera

Brian R. Vasek

Hailee S. Verret

Joaquin B. Villarreal

George T. Wages

Bettye E. Walker

Prosper N. Walker

Susan I. Ward

Brad A. Webb

Thomas R. Webster

Christy D. Wells

Nancy M. West

Doris Whiteside

Alan C. Whitmire

Karrie Wilhoit

Cynthia K. Willmann

Mallie E. Wilson

Scotty E. Windham

Jack L. Winn

Gale T. Wood

Harvey J. Zesch

Justin C. Zielinski

Michael W. Zimmerman

You are the sons and daughters of Tarleton. Your flame has burned long and well with those of this great brotherhood and sisterhood. Tonight, we remember and lay your flame to rest.