Civic leader and philanthropist Lee Hage Jamail is one of Texas's foremost supporters of education, health care, and the arts. She has donated considerable resources to The University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, the UT Medical Branch in Galveston, and Baylor College of Medicine. At UT Austin, she and her husband, Houston attorney Joe Jamail (UT Distinguished Alumnus, '96), have created 18 scholarship and faculty endowments across the campus. She also served for six years on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, chairing its health affairs committee. In 1998 she received a UT Distinguished Alumni Award.

Although Jamail studied speech pathology in graduate school at UT in the late '40s, her love for The University of Texas blossomed much earlier. Her home in Austin was near the University, and as a young girl she spent summers exploring the campus. "My most vivid memory of UT as a child is probably discovering the rare book collection," says Jamail. "The University was part of life growing up."

In 1947, her marriage to Joe Jamail brought the couple back to campus to pursue their studies. At the time, UT offered no graduate degree in sociology, which had been her undergraduate course of study at Incarnate Word College in San Antonio. She happened to enroll in Dr. Jesse Villareal's basic speech correction course and was immediately hooked.

"Dr. Villareal completely intimidated me," says Jamail. But at the same time, he and his work fascinated her. He became her mentor, and under his guidance she continued her studies in what is now called speech pathology.

In 1952, she began working in the Austin school district with children who had speech and hearing problems. She later worked for the Sugar Land schools near Houston, and despite giving up speech pathology when her third son was born, she retains her interest in the field to this day. She helped establish the first volunteer program at the Houston Speech and Hearing Center, as well as the Jesse J. Villareal Centennial Fellowship in Speech Communications at UT.

Currently, Jamail combines her other interests in building renovation and fine arts by serving as the board representative for the major new addition to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Her commitment and expertise were also crucial in the effort to restore the historic mansion Bayou Bend, a gift to the Museum from another distinguished UT alumna, Ima Hogg ('01). Jamail oversaw the $8 million campaign to renovate and modernize the house-museum and to preserve the collection of decorative arts given by Miss Hogg. Jamail attributes her love of building projects to her father's construction business, and she is proud to have designed each of the homes she and her husband have built.

Despite Lee Jamail's commitment to the community at large, she admits that her greatest challenge now is finding more time to spend with her family. A devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, she says family has always been her priority. "I try to tell girls how great teaching is because it works so well when you have a family," says Jamail. "They think it is a humdrum profession, but it's perfect."

By Rachael Shaw Jones,
from Texas Alcalde magazine (November/December 1998)

Links:

UT Austin:

• College of Communication, Department of Speech Communication

• Texas Exes (Ex-Students' Association)

• The Alcalde magazine

The Handbook of Texas Online:
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/

• Bayou Bend

• Ima Hogg

• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

• University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston