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	Sylvia Kelley
Executive Director, Advancement

Ready to be part of the ‘Next Big Thing,’ Alumni?

During a reception for representatives of the Greater Texas Foundation, President Keith McFarland noted how appropriate it was that the foundation, which works to remove obstacles to those trying to get an education, was granting money to the University founded by William L. Mayo.

Beginning in the 1800s, Professor Mayo worked to provide young people in rural northeast Texas with unprecedented access to education, Dr. McFarland pointed out, adding that the Greater Texas Foundation supports the very principles Professor Mayo stood for.

Dr. John Moss, a 1955 Alumnus who also got his master’s here in 1960, is president of the Greater Texas Foundation board. He and Dr. Alonzo Sosa (BS ‘63, MED ‘71, EDD ‘75) are good examples of how much influence Alumni can have in the success of the Promise Campaign. Because of the Greater Texas grant, we’ll be able to fund an outreach program to underrepresented populations in the University’s Adopt-A-School Program in Dallas and its 10-county service area. The program will: reach out to middle school and high school students and their families; mentor first-time students and community college transfer students new to the University; and provide scholarships for new and transfer students.

It all will be possible because of Greater Texas’ gift— the kind of gift that ensures your Alma Mater will continue to change lives.

The capacity for changing lives was something Alumnus Rock Clinton alluded to recently at a luncheon for faculty and staff donors. Rock, who chairs the internal campaign committee for Securing the Promise, told his fellow employees of an underground spring in the middle of the desert that for generations provided needed water to travelers. He said A&M-Commerce is like that stream in the desert, offering knowledge to generations of students, many of whom are without substantial financial assets.

Now is the time to build on Mayo’s sound foundation, Rock told us, his voice ringing with conviction. “It is our time to build a better institution.”

Because he is not only an employee but an Alumnus, Rock’s words were especially inspiring. Like you, he has experienced the profound difference that this special place made in his life. Unlike many of you, however, he has the privilege of seeing that happen again and again, in student after student.

For those of you who cannot visit often, then, rest assured that we here at your Alma Mater are, like many of you, hard at work every single day to support your University.

Hinton sets up new scholarship to benefit International Studies

Gift from one Alumnus to help program run by another

At right, Joe B. Hinton (BS ’57, MED ’58), a retired Mobil Oil executive and Distinguished Alumnus of A&MCommerce, signs the paperwork setting up a new endowment that will fund a scholarship program for the International Studies Program.

Standing behind Joe is Alumnus Kenneth Lawrence Clinton (BS ’65, MS ’68), sociology professor and director of the International Studies Program.

Joe, who lived abroad for several years while working for Mobil Oil, has been a benefactor to the International Studies Program for several years.

He also provides scholarships in the College of Business and Technology and in athletics and says he enjoys recruiting students, sometimes bringing prospects from central Texas to visit A&M-Commerce.

As a high school senior in the 1950s, he received football scholarships to attend several different colleges; he ended up enrolling at A&M-Commerce after an Alumnus brought him to Commerce and introduced him to the football coach, to President James Gee, and others.

“When I left, I was hooked,” Joe said, adding he was attracted to A&MCommerce because of the personal attention he received and the friendliness of the people on campus. “This University changed my life, and so the least I can do is put a little something back,” Joe said at the scholarship signing, “and I’ve tried to do it from time to time through the years.”

For information on the International Studies Program, call 903 468-6034 or e-mail Kenneth_Clinton@tamu-commerce.edu.

Campus clones?

Below left, Kenneth Lawrence “Rock” Clinton (BS ‘65, MS ‘68) laughs as he poses with the almost life-size cardboard figure of himself. Below Right, Paige Bussell (BBA ‘94) lifts the cardboard figure of Dr. McFarland that she won in a drawing. The figures were prizes at a luncheon for employees who have made financial gifts to the A&M-Commerce Foundation.