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Two Alumni offer the ultimate payback
Ann and Hoyle Julian, both faculty members at A&M-Commerce, are reaching out to University students in a very unusual way — they are contributing every penny of their paychecks to scholarship programs.
The couple are retired and work part time at A&M-Commerce. Ann is a field supervisor in the department of secondary and higher education, and Hoyle teaches college algebra. Both are also graduates of A&M-Commerce (Hoyle: BS ’60, MS ’65; Ann: BS ’56, MS ‘62). “This is our school,” Ann says. “We are doing what we can to help it grow and grow.”
The Julians have set up several endowments at A&M-Commerce that funnel their salaries into scholarships and other programs. The couple already have scholarships set up for students in math, theatre, women’s basketball and soccer.
Avid fans of A&M-Commerce sports, the Julians realized that when the women’s basketball and volleyball teams finished a game, the cafeteria often would already be closed — leaving the players on their own to find dinner. Since learning that, Ann and Hoyle have funded a program through the University that allows players to eat at McDonald’s after late games.
In 2000, the Julians were inducted into the Founder’s Circle at A&M-Commerce — an honor that individuals who have donated more than $25,000 to the university are eligible for.

Alumnus Coker honored with first title of Provost Emeritus
“So many of the things that have come to fruition in the last few years were because he got them under way,” said President Keith McFarland at the reception honoring Dr. Don Coker (BS ’60), recently named Provost Emeritus here.
“He’s helped me, and he’s helped to make this University he loved so much a better place,” the president noted. An emeritus title honors faculty and administrators for outstanding careers of service to the University. This is the first time the University has named a Provost Emeritus.
Don served as provost and vice president for Academic Affairs from 1998 to 2000. Prior to that he was dean of the College of Education from ’95-98. He now teaches part time at the A&M-Commerce/Navarro College Partnership in Corsicana.
President Emeritus Jerry Morris said, “Don always connected with students. He knew why we have jobs at this University.”

Students okay increased fees for new rec center, MSC
Current A&M-Commerce students have passed two referendums dealing with the new recreation center and the Sam Rayburn Memorial Student Center.
With the adoption of the election propositions, students will pay $80 more in fees per semester beginning next fall.
The referendum proposition that dealt with enhancing the operation of the recreation center, which is still under construction, passed 887-347. Students adopted the proposition proposing renovation work to modernize and energize the student center. The proposal passed 771-460.
The students’ support of the two propositions is a “major step forward in our efforts to improve campus life at the University,” said Dr. Bud Smith, associate vice president for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management.

Hip on the heat In this photo, 72-year-old Alumnus Bo Newton has just finished riding through 100 of the hottest miles in Texas.

70-plus senior conquers seventh 100-mile bike ride in less than seven hours

What 72-year-old Ernest “Bo” New- ton (BS ’54) gave his newly-installed hip this summer wasn’t so much a test drive as it was a full-blown trial by fire.
In August, Bo and his freshly fortified hip finished Wichita Fall’s annual Hotter’N Hell Hundred Ride in scorching time.
To appreciate the full story, however, you need to go back to the year he was 65, retired and trying to take up golf. Golf, Bo states with grim conviction, was “very frustrating.”
When an acquaintance encouraged him to try a hobby that called for less finesse and more might — cycling — Bo was leery but let himself be “goaded into” signing up for a bike rally at Muenster, Texas. It was 22 miles long, a short run by his standard these days.
Since that first ride at age 65, Bo has ridden in more than a hundred rallies and accumulated more than 25,000 riding miles.
He has taken weeklong tours across Oklahoma and Wisconsin and made an annual practice of participating in the Texas Chainring Challenge out of Longview, Texas. The Chainring happens to be a little 450-mile tour around northeast Texas with not-so glamorous overnight accommodations in one school gym after another.
From the first, however, it was the infamous Hotter’N Hell Hundred that intrigued Bo. Whenever he mentioned making the run, most of Bo’s friends let him know that a retiree-turned-rookie-biker probably didn’t have any business tackling the HHH his first year out.
A more optimistic biker friend, however, said if Bo took six weeks to train that he could finish. “He said my time wouldn’t be great, but I could complete the race,” Bo recalls. “I trained with eighteen hundred miles in eight weeks, and I came in just short of eight-and-a-half hours that first year.”
At the 2001 HHH, Bo finished in just over eight hours, and less than a month later would have what he called his “worn-out” hip replaced. Just prior to this year’s ride, Bo boasted, “Now I’ve got a new hip, so I oughtto do great!”
He was right.
This year, his seventh straight to participate in the HHH, he finished in less than seven hours a race during which the temperature climbed to 104 degrees — 110 over the roadway.
The ride drew more than 7,000 participants, and Bo passed many of them up as they crowded the first few rest stops. Many were treated for sunburn and road rashes, while 19 were transported to area hospitals with injuries and heat-related illnesses. So when Bo says he does the HHH “for the challenge of it,” he ain’t just whistling Dixie.
Not until the 30-mile mark at Electra, Texas, did he take his first break. Following stops for fluid and fruit after 50, 70, and 84 miles, the finish line was Bo’s last objective.
“That day’s battle was won,” he recalls, “and one senior rider was hot and tired!”

GRADS OF THE CENTURY T he A&M-Commerce Alumni Association recently began honoring graduates who are celebrating their 100th birthday. The first recipient was Edna Brown Tittle, a Daingerfield, Texas, resident who received her BS in 1946 and her MEd in 1953 here. Executive Director of the Alumni Association, Kayla Price, says the Association is always proud to recognize noteworthy Alumni, and is pleased to have a new venue for doing so. “Turning 100 years old is quite a milestone,” Kayla says, “and we’re glad for the chance to honor those who achieve it.”

Attention Alumni of the Department of History

Do you have a new job? A new spouse? A new child? Has something interesting happened to you? The history department wants to know, and your friends from your days in Commerce want to know!
The history department will publish another issue of its newsletter, History Matters, in the summer and wants you to be part of this project. Please send updates for inclusion in the “Alumni Notes” section of the newsletter. Entries should go to the editor, Nick Sarantakes, at: Department of History, Texas A&M University-Commerce, PO Box 3011, Commerce, TX, 75429-3011. You can also send them via e-mail to: Nick_Sarantakes@tamu-commerce.edu.
To be included in the next issue of History Matters, please send your correspondence by April 1.