Norine Murchison unveils the plaque on the Murchison Tower honoring her husband’s role in the campus development. After his death, she continued his interest and exceptional philanthropic commitment.
to the early 1950s when she co-chaired a committee to undertake a major landscaping project on the barren campus. She frequently attended campus events and regularly contributed to endowment and operating budget needs. During her lifetime, she created a substantial Library Trust Fund and established the Norine R. Murchison Chair of Education and the Norine R. Murchison Endowed Scholarship Fund. In 1979, Interim President Bruce Thomas expressed his gratitude with these words. “You have been a constant source of inspiration to those of us here on the staff and to other donors, and I feel that your expressions of confidence in the future of this University have ensured a bright future for it. ‘Thank you’ is woefully inadequate, but I do not know any way to improve on it.” At her death in 1985, Norine Murchison left a bequest of approximately $27 million (now worth $69 million) to Trinity University. She indicated in her will that funds from her estate were to be used solely for educational purposes, such as scholarships for students and compensation for professorships. President Ronald K. Calgaard utilized the bequest to supple-
42 Trinity
Grace Carmona, ’92 was thrilled to learn she had been awarded a Murchison Scholarship. Today she works at an accounting firm in Houston.
ment existing Murchison funds and to create new ones including the T. Frank and Norine R. Murchison Faculty Development Fund, the Norine R. Murchison Education Scholarship Fund, and the Norine R. Murchison Gradu-
ate Scholarship Fund. Distributions from the Murchison scholarship funds from 1989 to the present have amounted to approximately $42 million dollars, and they continue to underwrite multiple academic endeavors. Gracie Carmona ’92, now employed in the audit department of a Houston accounting firm, recalled the excitement in her household when she was awarded a Murchison Scholarship. “I have never doubted the quality of the education I received,” she said, “and I am certain my career in accounting benefitted from the personal guidance I received from professors like Petrea Sandlin and Linda Specht. I will always be grateful for the opportunity the Murchison Scholarship provided me at Trinity University.” Today 108 students are receiving Murchison Scholarships that average roughly $18,00 annually, and another 16 undergraduates who have indicated they want to become teachers are receiving Murchison Education Scholarships that range between $1,000 and $12,0000. Three endowed Professorships today bear the Murchison name: The Norine R. Murchison Distinguished Professorship in Education, currently held by Shari Albright; the T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities, currently held by Arturo Madrid; and the Norine R. Murchison Distinguished Professorship in Classical Studies, currently held by Erwin Cook. A recent addition is the Murchison Term Professorships that provide three-year term appointments for outstanding tenured professors. Those are currently held by professors Nancy Mills (chemistry), Matthew Stroud (modern languages and literatures), and Don Clark (history). Near the end of Frank Murchison’s life, a reporter asked him how he planned to dispose of his wealth. Murchison said that he had thoughts about establishing a foundation but they had not been fully formulated. The reporter concluded his article with these prescient words: “No one knows the plans, which will at last crystallize in his mind. But the chances appear good that one day, in some manner or another, thousands of young men and women will be the beneficiaries of Frank Murchison.” On campus today, we have only to look up at the iconic Tower and look around at the outstanding faculty and student body to see the fulfillment of his prediction. R. Douglas Brackenridge