Baylor Alumni Association

Since its creation in 1859, the Baylor Alumni Association has been busy keeping the bonds between members of the Baylor family strong—from generation to generation.
By Todd Copeland

Way back when Baylor University was located in Independence, among the rolling hills of fertile farmland northwest of Houston, Stephen Decatur Rowe became the school's first graduate in 1854. The next year, Mary Gentry Kavanaugh evened things out in the battle of the sexes by becoming Baylor's first female graduate. However, it took a few more years before these pioneers could be said to belong to an official Baylor alumni family.

That's because it wasn't until 1859 that Baylor President Rufus Burleson announced the creation of an alumni association and Baylor alumni began formally meeting. By the time of commencement in June, forty-two former students—twenty-three men and nineteen women—qualified for membership.

Ever since then, the Baylor Alumni Association has been Baylor's recognized general alumni organization, serving as an ardent supporter and a loyal defender through times of plenty and times of difficulty alike. Of course, the Baylor family has grown—a lot. Today, more than 130,000 graduates and former students are flinging their "green and gold afar" in communities across America and around the world.

Incorporated as an independent, nonprofit organization since 1978 and governed by an elected board of alumni volunteers, the Baylor Alumni Association is a group of diehard supporters who have come together to keep Baylor strong and to enjoy the bonds of the Baylor family. And the results of their labors have been significant. The alumni of Baylor, through their coordinated involvement in the life of their alma mater, have proven crucial to the university's vitality over the decades.

This year, the Baylor Alumni Association is celebrating its sesquicentennial, marking 150 years of dedicated, unwavering service to Baylor University and Baylor alumni. Reaching this remarkable milestone offers the association's members and all those in the extended Baylor family an opportunity to celebrate past accomplishments and embrace exciting possibilities.

As part of this celebration, during the course of 2009 the Baylor Line will tell the story of the Baylor Alumni Association through a series of four feature stories, illustrating how the alumni association’s history of service to Baylor extends to present-day programs and activities.

First up—a look at the Baylor Alumni Association's role in bringing together the extended Baylor family in fellowship and support of Baylor.

Welcoming Back, Reaching Out
The word "family" often pops up in conversations about the Baylor community. And for good reason—Baylor people are a close-knit bunch who welcome newcomers, seek out opportunities for fellowship, and take care of each other. The Baylor Alumni Association (BAA) stands at the heart of this family, enabling alumni to stay connected or to re-connect with former classmates, professors, and the university itself. The association also helps alumni make new connections through programs that allow them to meet Baylor grads they didn't know before.

Over the decades, these connections have been fostered through a variety of association-sponsored programs. Certainly, the most prominent of those programs has been the reunions organized by the BAA at Homecoming each year. These meetings formed a centerpiece of Baylor's first Homecoming, which occurred during the week of Thanksgiving in 1909. After a reception hosted by President Samuel Palmer Brooks and an "old-time soirée" in Burleson Hall on Wednesday, November 24, returning alumni gathered for class reunions starting at nine o'clock the next day, on Thanksgiving. After a subsequent program of speeches, on such topics as "Dr. Burleson's Chapel Talks" and "How I Came to Love the Baylor Girls," the festivities concluded with the first Homecoming parade and a victory over TCU in the football game.

As the Round-Up summarized the event in that year’s edition (which also featured the illustration of the "Good Old Baylor Line" shown at left), "The purpose of the Homecoming was to give an opportunity for the joyful meeting of former student friends, an occasion when old classmates could again feel the warm hand-clasp of their fellows, recall old memories and associations, and catch the Baylor spirit again."

Whether it's a far-flung group of relatives or a cadre of guys who shared a dorm fifty years ago, getting together to celebrate Baylor relationships and catching the Baylor spirit again have been what Homecoming has been all about ever since that first big get-together. These days, the BAA hosts a number of events to keep the Baylor family thriving.

On Friday night of Homecoming, the alumni association organizes special seated gatherings for the twenty-five- and fifty-year classes, as well as reunion classes of the Heritage Club—an organization for those who attended Baylor fifty or more years ago. Then on Saturday, the Reunion Picnic and Class Meetings are held between the parade and the football game at Floyd Casey Stadium. All alumni and friends are welcome at the picnic, but special reunions are held for every five-year class. During Homecoming 2008, tents were set up for classes ending in the years "3" and "8," including the Fiftieth Anniversary Class of 1958 and the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Class of 1983, as well as a tent for our newest grads from the Class of 2008. Overall, about twelve hundred people took part in the picnic and class meetings on Saturday (including the group from the Class of 1978 shown below at right).

"We provide a number of services to alumni and Baylor throughout the year, but Homecoming is something special,"

said Jan Dodd, coordinator of programs for the alumni association. "And the reason it's special is because the bonds between the Baylor family are special. Our goal with these events is to create a way for alumni to reconnect with their Baylor friends and their alma mater."

In addition to organizing events for alumni on the Baylor campus, the BAA believes in the importance of bringing alumni together in their hometowns. And through its clubs and regional networks, the alumni association is helping to keep the Baylor spirit strong and to encourage alumni to support Baylor through gifts and service.

The first known Baylor Club meeting occurred at the turn of the twentieth century in Lancaster, Texas. That same year, in 1900, a club meeting was held in Temple. By 1986, the BAA supported more than fifty-five active Baylor clubs in cities across the state, as well as thirty-six in other states and seven abroad.

For a time, a major component of the BAA's outreach efforts was a program called Baylor Nationwide, which Baylor began in 1977 to connect with alumni across the country by holding alumni gatherings in major cities and establishing program leaders in all fifty states. The alumni association began overseeing the program in 1979.

In describing the new arrangement, Dr. Herbert Reynolds, then Baylor's executive vice president, wrote, "One of the most positive changes at Baylor in recent years has been the growth in effectiveness of the Baylor Alumni Association. Alumni have always been vitally interested in Baylor's future and have contributed immeasurably to Baylor's progress. However, the advancements of the association in the last four or five years are particularly notable. Response to the new organization with a dues-paying membership structure has been tremendous. The new alumni center is among the finest such facilities in our nation. The staff continues to grow and can undertake more programs to benefit Baylor."

Today the BAA supports the activities of alumni chapters in several Texas cities and regions, such as the East Texas Baylor Club, and special-interest groups, such as the Central Texas Baylor Women's Club and the Baylor Black Alumni Club, and is gradually widening the scope of its work in this area.

"We hope to draw alumni together for meaningful activities and fellowship and to energize them to serve as ambassadors for Baylor in their local communities," said Beth Michaelis, director of membership and marketing for the BAA.

That Good Old Baylor Line
On September 14, 1962, the then-named Ex-Students Association sponsored the first Freshman Convocation. Dr. George Stokes, the association's executive director, told the freshmen that the event's purpose was to "present the freshman class to the official Baylor family and impress upon you, the Class of 1966, that you have joined not only a great student body but also an illustrious line of alumni. You will be a member of the student body for four years, but for the rest of your lives you will be a member of the alumni."

This attention to the newest members of "that good old Baylor line" has continued over the years at commencement, when an alumni association representative welcomes the graduating class into the ranks of Baylor graduates and charges them to have a care for Baylor and remain active members of the Baylor family.

The Baylor family is truly multigenerational, with graduates from 2008 joining those who graduated as far back as the 1920s. And the BAA has specific programs available for those alumni who proudly claim the most seniority. The Heritage Club honors those who attended Baylor fifty years ago or more. All alumni are eligible, even if they didn't complete their Baylor degree.

Members are honored with a Heritage Club celebration held on campus each spring that typically attracts more than five hundred participants. (Several attendees of the 2007 Heritage Club are shown to the left.) Much like a Homecoming designed especially for older graduates, the spring gathering includes interesting programs, campus tours, and plenty of opportunities for good, old-fashioned visiting. The highlight of the three-day event is a banquet and the presentation of "Golden Anniversary" diplomas or certificates to the fifty-year class and "Diamond Anniversary" diplomas or certificates to members of the seventy-five-year class.

In addition, the Heritage Club has a special reunion during Homecoming in the fall, and regional Heritage Clubs are supported by the alumni association in several areas of Texas.

Established in 1977, the Heritage Club was the brainchild of then-Baylor president Abner McCall and vice president of development Tom Parrish. The name derived from a development campaign that was ongoing at the time. The "Heritage Campaign" was the successful effort to raise nearly $8 million to restore Old Main and Burleson Hall and to build Draper Academic Building. The name of that campaign, Parrish said, was rooted in the idea of preserving the past to pass it along to future generations. "That was the perfect concept," he said, "so we called it the Heritage Club."

The first gathering of the Heritage Club occurred in March 1977 and attracted about 115 attendees. One of the events on the program—which would become an annual tradition for many years to come—was a "State of the University" address from Reynolds, who was executive vice president at the time. In his subsequent roles as Baylor's president, chancellor, and president emeritus, he remained involved with the Baylor Heritage Club.

"I have always thoroughly enjoyed seeing all these people and how happy they are to be here," Reynolds said a few months before his death in 2007. "Joy and I used to sit at a head table at the banquet, and to look out on several hundred people and to think about how they came to Baylor at eighteen years old and to know how much Baylor has meant to them, that should deepen our commitment to being good stewards of Baylor. That's what I was always thinking—we need to be good stewards and create whatever kind of legacy that we can."

In 1979, the Heritage Club was moved under the auspices of the BAA from Baylor's development office. "It's a tremendous opportunity for people who have not been back to campus," said Dr. James Cole, who served as the alumni association’s executive director from 1978 to 1991. "And most people are just thrilled to death to receive their Golden Diploma, and it’s a reward that’s well deserved."

Widening the Circle
In addition to larger events like Homecoming reunions and the Heritage Club, the Baylor Alumni Association sponsors a variety of more specialized programs that bring together Baylor grads and friends—from twenty-somethings to retirees—for pleasure, adventure, and intellectual stimulation.

The alumni association's travel program offers more than a dozen trips each year, ranging from such domestic excursions as a cruise on the Great Lakes to adventures around the world. Several of the trips feature well-known Baylor figures, such as history professor emeritus Jim Vardaman, as hosts and guides. There is even a Graduation Tour of Europe that proud parents can give to their new Baylor alumni children.

The Lifelong Learning program, also organized by the alumni association, offers an array of opportunities to foster the expansion of the mind. The course offerings enable alumni and friends of Baylor to develop critical thinking, create awareness of international affairs, examine historical events, offer information on particular subjects, and teach specific skills—all while communing with other Baylor folks. The available activities range from the Baylor Institute for Learning in Retirement to Dale Carnegie Training and reading development courses.

And then there's a special program called Fling. Held every other spring, Fling is a two-day gathering of female graduates that is billed as a "Baylor event for women." Fling reconnects Baylor alumnae to each other and to the university, featuring on-campus events including seminar presentations, guided tours, and musical performances. In 2008 the event marked its twenty-fifth anniversary.

One of the more unique and popular outreach initiatives of the BAA has been its Alumni by Choice program. This program provides an opportunity for alumni to honor their friends and family members who love and support Baylor even though they didn't attend the university—designating them as an alumnus or alumna "by choice." Nominees are honored at an event where the BAA and Baylor's president present them with official "Alumni by Choice" diplomas as family members and friends look on. Begun by the alumni association in 1986, the Alumni by Choice program has welcomed thousands of longtime, green-and-gold-wearing Bears fans into the Baylor family.

Bestowing Awards
No honor is greater than one bestowed by peers, and such are the honors given by the Baylor Alumni Association. With nominations from alumni and selections by committees of alumni volunteers, the association’s awards have developed a reputation of prestige and have succeeded in reconnecting—or strengthening the connection between—a large number of outstanding alumni and friends to the university. At the top is the Distinguished Alumni Award, with other honors including the First Families of Baylor Award and the Herbert H. Reynolds Outstanding Young Alumni Award.

Baylor friends have always been quick to give each other a pat on the back and a congratulatory handshake. The BAA makes such affirmation more formal and institutional by recognizing the achievements and support of alumni and friends through a range of awards, most of which are bestowed annually. The alumni association's awards are designed to bring the Baylor family together and to celebrate the various special qualities of the Baylor family, with almost every constituency group of Baylor, except current students, being recognized by one of the awards.

The Distinguished Alumni Awards are presented every January at the Distinguished Alumni Banquet and honor Baylor graduates who have distinguished themselves in their professions and vocations. First given in 1965, the award has been bestowed upon such figures as former Texas governors Mark White and Ann Richards, scientist John Paul Stapp, author Robert Fulghum, football legend Mike Singletary, and business leaders Marjorie Scardino, Jim Turner, and Drayton McLane.

Given at the first Pigskin performance at Homecoming each year, the Herbert H. Reynolds Outstanding Young Alumni Award recognizes alumni under forty years of age who have distinguished themselves in their fields early in their careers.

The First Families of Baylor Award is an annual honor recognizing families whose names are inextricably linked to Baylor University—families that have sent several generations of students to Baylor and whose members often have been university leaders. Created in 1980, the award is presented each year at After Dark during Parents Weekend and has honored such clans as the Abner V. McCall family, the J. M. Dawson family, and the Samuel Palmer Brooks family.

The Herbert H. Reynolds Retired Faculty and Administrators Awards honor retired members of the Baylor faculty or administration for professional excellence during their years of university service. Given annually since 1981, the award’s recipient list reads like a "who's who" of Baylor professors and administrators, starting with Guy B. Harrison and P. D. Browne and including Ralph Lynn, Ann Miller, and Virginia Crump.

The George W. Truett Distinguished Church Service Award, given annually since 1990, recognizes alumni, current or former members of the Baylor faculty or administration, or individuals closely associated with Baylor who exemplify the life and career of the late Baptist leader George W. Truett and reflect the true meaning of Baylor’s official motto, "Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana."

Named after a former Texas governor and U.S. senator, the Price Daniel Distinguished Public Service Award honors alumni, current or former members of the Baylor faculty or administration, or individuals closely associated with Baylor whose records in an elected or appointed local, state, or national office exemplify the spirit of selfless dedication to public service represented by the life and career of Governor Daniel and reflect the true meaning of the motto, "Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana."

Created in 1977, the W. R. White Meritorious Service Award is given each year at the Baylor Alumni Association’s annual meeting at Homecoming to any individual who has rendered outstanding service to Baylor University in any area. The recipients do not have to be former students or graduates of Baylor.

The Abner V. McCall Humanitarian Award, created in 1998, recognizes alumni who have exhibited a Christian response to situations and people around them in ways exemplified by the life of former Baylor president Abner V. McCall. And the Abner V. McCall Religious Liberty Award honors alumni or friends of Baylor who, by their lives and actions, have exemplified McCall’s courage and dedication to the belief in and commitment to religious liberty.

Deepening Involvement
In an interview with the Baylor Line a few months before his retirement as Baylor's president, in 1981, McCall said, "When I first came into the presidency, I had been the Ex-Students president just a short time before. It was kind of a test. I was the first person who had been active in alumni work to become president of Baylor. And I want to thank the alumni and the alumni association for their support and loyalty to the university during these years. The alumni have been more active and more supportive than ever before."

Having served as president of the alumni association from 1956 to 1958—and also in 1991—McCall understood the benefit to Baylor of an actively involved alumni community. Beyond its function as an independent voice for more than nineteen thousand members, the BAA has helped—through the recruitment and utilization of alumni on its governing board—to bring hundreds of individuals more deeply into the life of Baylor and to foster a culture of ongoing involvement and financial support among leading alumni as a result.

When you scan the long list of men and women who have served as president of the Baylor Alumni Association since its formation in 1859, you find people who have buildings on campus named after them—such as G. H. Penland and D. K. Martin, namesakes of two residence halls, and Curtis Hankamer, namesake of the business school. You also find families boasting leadership across generations, like the Dillard, Nash, and Cowden families.

Today, the Baylor Alumni Association is governed by a board of more than sixty alumni and Baylor supporters. In addition, more than thirty past presidents serve as permanent, non-voting members of the board, and an advisory group called the Alumni Council provides more than seventy voices of guidance and wisdom to help the organization achieve its goals of strengthening Baylor.

Those who have given their time and energy, over the decades, to govern and inspire the alumni association to greater heights of service have been brought into a deeper relationship with their alma mater as a result. It is, indeed, a win-win result for the Baylor Alumni Association and Baylor University. The long life and dynamic service to Baylor that characterizes the history and ongoing role of the Baylor Alumni Association is a reflection of Baylor University's own high standing among institutions of higher learning. As Dr. Milford Rouse, the alumni association’s president from 1941 to 1943, said when he took office, "The history of education in the United States shows clearly that the true greatness of a university may well be measured by the extent of the continued interest of its former students in the Alma Mater."

Site Map | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions