{"id":3212,"date":"2018-07-25T17:21:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T17:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3212"},"modified":"2018-07-25T22:01:15","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T22:01:15","slug":"tstc-visionary-murray-watson-jr-remembered-for-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/?p=3212","title":{"rendered":"TSTC Visionary Murray Watson Jr. Remembered for Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WACO) \u2013 Texas State Technical College mourned Wednesday the loss of former Texas legislator Murray Watson Jr., who filed legislation in 1969 to separate what was an arm of the Texas A&M University system into a stand-alone institution for technical education that would become TSTC. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was ever a Mr. TSTC, it would be Murray Watson,\u201d said Elton Stuckly Jr., TSTC\u2019s executive vice chancellor and chief strategic relations officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watson died Tuesday at age 86.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watson was a state senator when he filed legislation to make the James Connally Technical Institute independent and rename it Texas State Technical Institute (now TSTC). Gov. Preston Smith signed the bill\u2019s final version in May 1969 in Austin.<\/span><\/p>\n

At TSTC\u2019s 50th Anniversary Celebration in April 2015 in Austin, Watson was honored with a Founder\u2019s Award.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s name is on TSTC\u2019s student recreation center on Campus Drive. That factored into his wife, Greta, having been honored with the nearby Culinary Arts building being named for her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMurray and I walked out of the old (TSTC) system\u2019s building, and we were about a million dollars short to build the new Culinary Arts Center,\u201d Stuckly said. \u201cI said, \u2018Mr. Watson, I want you to think about something. Your name is on that (the recreation center) building. Wouldn\u2019t it be nice for it (the new building) to be called the Greta W. Watson Culinary Arts Center? If you give us a million dollars, you could look at each other forever.\u2019 It wasn\u2019t a couple of weeks later that he called and said he was going to do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stuckly said Watson was a mentor who would give him advice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe always stayed in contact with me by email,\u201d Stuckly said. \u201cHe was always looking for ways and ideas of how to make TSTC a better college.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stuckly said he and Watson always found much to talk about.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe grew up in Mart, and I was raised in Penelope,\u201d Stuckly said. \u201cHe always wanted to ask about TSTC first, then talk about farm cattle and his feed store and what I used to do on the farm. He said, \u2018Elton, there aren\u2019t many people that I can talk to who relate to those times.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Verna Lastrapes, a TSTC college outreach specialist, grew up knowing the Watson family in Mart. She said Watson\u2019s family owned the local feed store, which she would visit as a four-year-old with her father at least twice a week to catch up with residents.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMurray Jr. was a senior at Mart High School then,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew him well because he and my sister, Barbara, were friends.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pete Rowe, TSTC\u2019s vice president for institutional development, hauled hay for Watson when he was a teenager in Mart. Rowe also graduated from Mart High School.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a personal loss for me because I loved him so much,\u201d Rowe said. \u201cHe was a great mentor to me. He and Mrs. Watson have always been very kind to me and have done a lot for me in my life and career.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastrapes said residents in Mart thought Watson would be president one day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe did not become president, but he did become our state representative and our state senator,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a teenager, I remember helping campaign for him. Just about everyone in Mart campaigned for him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The feed store factored into Watson\u2019s law career.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he lost the campaign for U.S. representative and went into private law practice, he had his office in Waco and one in Mart above the feed store,\u201d Lastrapes said. \u201cFor years that is where he conducted all legal transactions with my daddy and other rural area farmers and businessmen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rowe said Watson raised cattle andis sure he must have encountered on his ranch some of what TSTC teaches today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMurray was a highly intelligent person,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was way ahead of the curve in the education field. He really studied education. He knew what to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastrapes worked several years at the Brazos Higher Education Service Corp. Inc., which financed student loans. Watson was one of the organization\u2019s founders.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe had his own time schedule,\u201d she said. \u201cWe began to say, \u2018The starting time is when Murray Watson gets there.\u2019 That was for everything!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

John K. Hatchel, chair of the TSTC Board of Regents, worked with Watson as a member of the Brazos Higher Education Service\u2019s board of directors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very quiet, but he was consistent,\u201d Hatchel said. \u201cIf there was a person who needed something or help, he was the first in line to do his part. He did it not expecting any accolades or thank-you\u2019s. He just did it as a person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(WACO) \u2013 Texas State Technical College mourned Wednesday the loss of former Texas legislator Murray Watson Jr., who filed legislation in 1969 to separate what was an arm of the Texas A&M University system into a stand-alone institution for technical education that would become TSTC. \u201cIf there was ever a Mr. TSTC, it would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,13,6,8,9,11,12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abilene","category-breckenridge","category-brownwood","category-fort-bend","category-harlingen","category-marshall","category-northtexas","category-sweetwater","category-waco","category-wilco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3214,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3212\/revisions\/3214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.tstc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}