(WACO) –Texas State Technical College in Waco’s Auto Collision and Management Technology recently received a 1936 Ford Tudor Sedan as a donation from the Gill family of Lott.

Marye Gill donated her late husband’s favorite project for over 25 years to TSTC in hopes of sharing the same joy it brought to her husband.

“He worked on the car whenever he had the money to, and when he didn’t, he would just stare at it waiting to work on it again,” Gill said.

After Charles Gill passed away in December 2017, Ms. Gill debated selling the vehicle. When she did not receive a quality offer, she elected to celebrate her husband’s life by to donating it to TSTC.

“I prayed about it and talked to friends and decided that it was best to donate it to the folks at TSTC so the students could experience it and let them learn and get joy out of it like he did,” Ms. Gill said.

TSTC’s Auto Collision and Management Technology program was honored and excited to receive the gift and will begin restoring the vehicle this fall.

“I think this will make an excellent recruitment tool and showpiece for the department and the school. We will have students do all the work with the help of instructors, but it will be all the students,” said Clint Campbell, the program’s statewide chair.

The restoration will take several years to allow multiple students access and will then be used as a showcase piece and potentially as a fundraiser for the technical program.

“My husband and I, and our three sons, are all college graduates, so we appreciate programs like TSTC that aren’t the four year-university that still give an opportunity to change someone’s life and offer a higher education,” Ms. Gill said.

TSTC’s Auto Collision and Management Technology program provides hands-on experience to prepare students for careers in auto body repair and related work fields.

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