(MARSHALL) – The Welding Technology program at Texas State Technical College recently received equipment from the family of a Hallsville resident.

The in-kind donation included three oxygen bottles, three acetylene bottles, three torch rigs, two cutting torch buggies, a toolbox, a welding machine and three worktables. The equipment was valued at $2,000, according to information from The TSTC Foundation.

The equipment belonged to Hallsville business owner Hugh Lee Morris II.  Morris, who was born in Cuero, died at age 86 on Aug. 26 in Longview.

“His daughter and son wanted to give back to the program by donating his equipment to the welding program in honor of their father so it could be used to let others learn about the welding trade,” said Daniel Nixon, an instructor in TSTC’s Computer Aided Manufacturing program in Marshall.

Morris’ daughter, Rebecca Freer of Fort Worth, said her father took welding classes at the Marshall campus.

“He was kind of a pack rat,” she said. “We wanted to declutter. It was just faster and easier and much more beneficial to donate to some people who could use it than let it rust and sit there or try to sell it. Dad would have liked his welding equipment to be used to teach other welding people.”

Freer said her father made cattle guards, upright fence posts and horse wash stalls on his 32-acre property between Hallsville and Marshall.

“He loved doing it himself rather than hiring it to be done,” she said.

More than 50 students are enrolled during the fall semester in TSTC’s structural welding certificate program.

For more information on how to make a gift, go to tstc.edu/tstcfoundation/giving.

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.