Terry Scholars
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After nearly four decades of success in various businesses ranging from banking to oil and gas, Howard L. Terry (BBA '38) began to explore new ways to invest his money. He had always been grateful for the financial assistance that enabled him to go to The University of Texas, so Terry and his wife Nancy decided to dedicate their time and resources to giving future generations of young people in Texas the same opportunity. In 1986, the Terrys established the Terry Foundation, whose goal is to strengthen the state by identifying Texas high school graduates who have demonstrated academic distinction and strong leadership skills. The foundation selects an outstanding group of students, known as Terry Scholars, who are awarded full scholarships for attendance at either The University of Texas at Austin or Texas A&M University. Each year, UT and A&M choose likely candidates for Terry Scholarships from among Texas high school students who have been accepted for admission. Then, the Terry Scholars are selected through an application and interview process based on three criteria: (1) leadership potential and character, (2) scholastic record and ability, and (3) financial need. Each of these criteria is weighed independently. Unlike many scholarship programs, the selection is not based exclusively on financial need, test scores, or grade point average. Instead, Terry Scholars are chosen because they also exhibit a well-rounded personality and a demonstrated history of leadership. Most candidates score above 1300 on the SAT and graduate in the top five percent of their high school class. The finalists are interviewed by a foundation team that includes the Terrys, members of the foundation's board of directors, alumni who are former Terry Scholars, and current Terry Scholars. Personal interviews are pivotal in determining which students are accepted. "We are looking for the deserving kids, the 'real' people," says foundation trustee Rhett G. Campbell. "We want students who have the ability to create something for society and who will take advantage of this opportunity to do something meaningful for Texas." 
UT Terry Scholar Jennifer Sembera, for example, was not only an exceptional student-scholar at her high school in Shiner, Texas, she also served as president of the student council and president of the school's National Honor Society. She was active in community service, chairing blood drives and a program that addressed alcohol and substance abuse. Jennifer is no stranger to hard work. While in high school she was employed at a family-owned grocery store "as a stocker and cashier and wherever they needed me," she says. "Without the Terry Scholarship I would have to work during the semester, or take out loans. The scholarship is great. It allows me to concentrate full time on academics and my volunteer interests." She is majoring in aerospace engineering at UT and will intern for the Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles during the summer of 2001. She is also president of the Terry Scholars student association at UT. Getting to Know the Students After nearly a year in planning, the Terrys welcomed the first 16 Terry Scholars at UT and Texas A&M in the fall of 1987. A year later, 17 additional scholars were named, and they were joined in 1989 by 22 new Terry Scholars. The number of scholars has increased each year since then, rising in 1998 to 97 freshmen scholars and in 1999 to 121. In the 2000-2001 academic year, nearly 400 Terry Scholars studied in Austin and College Station, where they have distinguished themselves and the foundation with such honors as the student body presidency (three scholars), scores of honor graduates, and a Rhodes Scholar. The benefits of being a Terry Scholar do not cease once the check is in the mail at the beginning of each semester. The foundation stays in close contact with each of the scholars and expects them to assist one another whenever possible. If a scholar's grades slip unexpectedly or there is an indication of a problem, it is likely that the student will be contacted directly by Howard Terry or by one of the board directors to offer advice and encouragement. "We really enjoy getting to know the students," says Nancy Terry. "What I like most about being involved in the program is watching the students change. They mature so much from their application interviews through their freshman and sophomore years." Nancy and Howard Terry and the other directors take great pride in the accomplishments of all their scholarship recipients and care very much about the scholars as people. "The Terrys are like family," explains one scholar. "No one else follows up the way the Terrys do." 
The Terrys promote this collegiality by scheduling regular get-togethers with recipients. They host dinners each fall for current scholars, and each spring they join students and alumni at a picnic at UT's Winedale Historical Center in Round Top, Texas. In 1999, the UT Ex-Student's Association selected Howard Terry as a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was recognized for his outstanding life achievements and his contributions to the University. Upon accepting the award, Mr. Terry remarked, "giving money away is definitely more fun than making it!" After attending The University of Texas on the equivalent of a football scholarship, Howard Terry worked for Procter & Gamble and served the U.S. Navy as a PT boat commander in the Pacific in World War II. Over the years, he founded several businesses in various fields, including Marathon Manufacturing, Business Funds, Crutcher Resources, Allied Bancshares, and Farm & Home Savings. Beginning in 1979, he became director and chairman of the executive committee of Penn Central Corporation, a position he held until 1986. In 1987, he founded the Terry Companies, a multi-state corporation involved in oil and gas exploration and development. Howard and Nancy Terry are both longtime residents of Houston. Mr. Terry enjoys golf and is actively involved in the operations of the Terry Companies and the Terry Foundation. Despite his series of remarkably successful business endeavors, he often refers to the Terry Foundation as his finest achievement. The Terry Foundation is now the largest private source of scholarships for students at UT Austin and Texas A&M. Since its inception in 1986, the Terry Foundation has chosen nearly 900 Terry Scholars from 160 Texas communities, awarding more than $11 million in scholarship funds. Nancy and Howard Terry have established a remarkable program that has strengthened Texas's two major public universities "in ways other than mortar and bricks," in Mr. Terry's words. Their vision has provided an outstanding education for potential future leaders of the state and the nation. Margaret J. Barker (M.A. English '01)
Real Estate, Banking, Oil, and the Student Body
Howard Terry is the archetypal American entrepreneur of the 20th century. He was born in 1916 just outside of what is commonly referred to as a dusty little town, this one called Cameron, in east Central Texas. His mom and pop ran a little grocery store/filling station that served the entire town. The summer after graduating high school, Terry found work (no mean task in 1934) shoveling gravel on the highways. He was scheduled to attend The University of Texas the next fall, but his father advised him against it. "He said jobs were tough enough to find in those days," Terry says, "and that I shouldn't give this one up once I got it." But working outdoors in the Texas sun all summer was enough to convince him that a degree from The University of Texas might be worth the risk of quitting. 
The athletics department was able to allay any fears about finding work by setting Terry up sweeping gym floors his first year. Come football season his sophomore year, Terry was starting on the offensive line. Academically, Terry was unsure about which direction to take. "I didn't know what I wanted to do," he says. "All I ever knew was that I wanted to make money, so I figured a business degree was the best way to do that." A week after graduation, Terry went to work with the sales division of Procter & Gamble in Oklahoma. For the next few years he traveled around the Midwest. But in 1942, he enlisted in the Navy. And after six months of training, Terry was made the 25-year-old captain of a PT boat that patrolled the South Pacific. When he came back, Terry requested to be transferred to Houston. "I knew I didn't want to live in the Midwest all my life," he explains. Still working for Procter & Gamble, he was looking for something different. That something came along in the form of the Flato Lumber Company, a business much smaller than Procter & Gamble and based in Corpus Christi, Texas. Howard took over as the general manager of the business and stayed there for five years before heading out on his own. Over the next 30 years, Howard Terry would make a name for himself and fulfill that one wish of his. He took that lumber company and moved into development and then large real estate deals--businesses that led, one way or another, into other businesses. Before he was through, he and his partner acquired more than 130 banks and started Marathon Manufacturing, a company that mainly built oil rigs. That purchase led Terry into the oil business. How to explain such success from a man from Cameron? "It's a people thing, really," he says. "If you've got the right people, you can do anything." This sentiment plays a large part in his latest--and he considers his most important--endeavor, the Terry Foundation. Since its inception in 1986, the Terry Foundation has given scholarships to nearly 900 students at UT Austin and Texas A&M. The scholarships range from $1,000 up to $11,000 [1999]. The idea, says Terry, "is that the students won't have to take out loans or work through their four years in college, so they can concentrate on school." 
The difference in the amounts of each gift depends on the student's financial situation. If he or she has also earned other scholarships totaling $5,000, then the scholarship from the Terry Foundation will be $6,000 a year. (The $11,000 is the estimated annual cost of tuition, books, room, and board as figured by the admissions office in 1999.) One stipulation of the scholarship is that the recipient does not marry until after graduation. "Because your education should come first," says Terry. "If you're married, then your marriage comes first." Terry and his wife, Nancy, along with the foundation's board and former Terry Scholars, personally interview every candidate for the scholarships prior to selection. They do the same at the end of every school year to assess each student's progress prior to renewal. The reason for such diligence is simple. "They're going to be the ones running the foundation after we're gone," he says. In providing for the future of both the students and the foundation, Howard Terry is also ensuring the future of the state and its university. Peter Partheymuller, excerpted from Texas Alcalde magazine
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