Trailblazers: Notable leaders who helped shape Texas Tech from the beginning
From the founding of the college to becoming a university to now, Texas Tech has a long list of alumni, faculty, and staff who have raised the bar of success for the university.
Looking back to the beginning, the following individuals helped nurture the newly founded college in West Texas into what it is today.
Senator William Bledsoe
State Sen. William Bledsoe of Lubbock is the lawmaker Texas Tech has to thank for creating Senate Bill 103, also known as the Charter of Texas Technological College.
Entitled “An Act to establish a State college in that portion of Western Texas lying west of the ninety-eight meridian and the north of the thirtieth parallel, to be known as the 'West Texas State College'...”, the bill took 26 days from being introduced in the senate to being signed by Gov. Pat Neff.
According to the state legislative reference library, Bledsoe had a long history of serving in both houses of the state legislature. Bledsoe served in the 34th and 35th legislature as a member of the house of representatives. While serving in the 36th legislature, Bledsoe won the senate seat of his predecessor in a special election. While in the senate, Bledsoe served until the 40th legislature.
Founding Board of Directors
Tasked with making Texas Technological College a reality, the founding Board of Directors had their work cut out for them.
Appointed to the board by Gov. Neff was:
Chairman Amon Carter of Fort Worth
John Carpenter of Dallas
Claude W. Meadows of Waco
William Hobby of Beaumont
R.A. Underwood of Plainview
Charles DeGroff of El Paso
Mrs. J.E. Nunn of Amarillo
Mrs. Florence Drane of Corsicann
Clifford B. Jones of Spur
Immediately diving into their task, the board of directors looked for architects to build the new college, and a leader to guide the school in its infancy.
Drane is one of four women who have a building named after them on campus. Her building is Drane Hall, an academic support building. Jones went on to become chairman of the board, and the third president of the college. Jones Stadium is named after him.
The Board is now comprised of:
Chairman Mark Griffin of Lubbock
Vice Chairwoman Ginger Kerrick Davis of Webster
Michael J. Lewis of Dallas
John Steinmetz of Dallas
John Walker of Houston
Dusty Womble of Lubbock
Arcilia Acosta of Dallas
Cody Campbell of Fort Worth
Pat Gordon of El Paso.
The students of the system are now represented by Hani Michael Annabi of El Paso, who attends Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso.
President Paul Whitfield Horn
Chosen by the Board of Directors on Nov. 22, 1923, President Paul Whitfield Horn was the first president of Texas Technological College.
Horn arrived in Lubbock on Dec. 5 with much fanfare. As reported in the Lubbock Morning Avalanche, a reception was held to welcome the new president into the city. At the reception, Horn was noted for boasting about West Texas becoming his new forever home and said he "is expecting wonderful things from the school."
Horn would become known as the "architect of Texas Tech," leading the school until his death in 1932.
President Horn was a champion for academics and saw the university soar to new heights. In honor of that, the board of regents for the Texas Tech University System created the Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professorships.
Codified into the university’s Operating Policies & Procedures, the professorship is "the highest honor that the university may bestow on members of its faculty, are granted to tenured professors in recognition of their attainment of national and/or international distinction" that has a significant impact in their field of study.
In order for a professor to obtain such an honor, they must go through several levels of intense nomination procedures before the president makes their nomination to the Board of Regents, which has final say on the appointment.
According to the Southwest Collection, the first professorship was given to four professors in 1967 - Carl Hammer Jr. of the Department of Classical and Romance Language, Alton Wade of the Department of Geology, Ernest Wallace of the Department of History, and Elo J. Urbanovsky of the Department of Horticulture and Entomology.
The list has since grown to include 88 other professors.
Founding Deans -
Other than Horn, there were five other leaders on campus interacting with students on a daily basis.
James Marcus Gordon - dean of the School of Liberal Arts and the dean of Men
William Miller - dean of the School of Engineering
Arthur Leidigh - dean of the School of Architecture
Margret Weeks - dean School of Home Economics
Mary Doak - dean of Women.
The dean of Men and the dean of Women positions would later be combined into the position of dean of Students.
Student Leaders
From the beginning of classes, student-led organizations have been a cornerstone of student life on campus. The three founding student organizations still around today include the Student Government Association, The Daily Toreador and La Ventana.
As reported on Aug. 9, 1923, in the Lubbock Morning Avalanche, as soon as Lubbock received word from Fort Worth that the city would be home to the new college, potential students began campaigning for class president.
The university officially created a student government in 1925 where, according to La Ventana, John Young was elected as the first freshman class president. Over the years, the student government evolved and grew into what the Student Government Association is today.
Founded in 1925 with the first edition publishing on Oct. 3, two days after classes started, The Toreador was, and still is, the only independently student-led publication on campus that reports the news.
Led solely by the editor and their staff, the editors of The DT have the sole discretion over what is published today. Harry Montgomery was the first editor. Arianna Flores is the current editor as of spring 2023.
As of 2020, Davian Hopkins was the last official editor of La Ventana with Rachel Bauldree being hired as the editor for the publication’s centennial yearbook later in 2020. LV started with the newspaper as another independent student-led publication led by James B. Biggers in 1926.
Mateo Rosiles is a journalist covering Breaking News and Trends in Lubbock and around the area. Send him news tips at mrosiles@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Notable individuals who helped shape Texas Tech from the beginning
