Ring of Jackie Price Dunn '02 added to memorial collection

From The Association's Texas Aggie magazine, January-February 2016:

Aggie Ring of Jackie Price Dunn '02 Added To Memorial Ring Collection

Family and friends remembered Jacqueline E. “Jackie” Price Dunn ’02 as a vibrant, high-achieving young woman who set examples for others as a loving friend, spirited Aggie and person of strong faith as they added her Aggie Ring to The Association’s Memorial Ring Collection on Oct. 4 [2015].

“It was a ‘Howdy,’ the simple friendly word spoken, that was the key that opened the door to the Aggie Spirit for Jackie,” said her mother, Martha Price, at the celebration in the Clayton W. Williams, Jr. Alumni Center. “Jackie hugged and loved everyone she met with a friendly ‘Howdy’ and a big Aggie smile.”

Jackie died June 19, 2013, following a cycling accident. At Texas A&M, she was secretary of the Class of 2002 Council, graduate school representative to the Student Senate and a member of the Silver Spurs and Kappa Delta sorority. She earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and a master of science degree in biological and agricultural engineering.

She continued to be an involved Aggie after graduation, organizing Musters while she lived in Italy, serving as a Class Agent and as the social program chair for the San Diego County A&M Club. She volunteered with the Military Community Youth Ministry program band, led the high school church group on mission trips to Slovakia and worked with middle and high school girls’ youth programs, Junior League of San Diego and as an earthquake relief volunteer in Haiti.

Her husband, Durward B. Dunn IV ’00, said she strove to excel at everything she did and in her relations with others.

He recalled how once on an eight-hour drive, she spent four hours organizing a Class of 2002 event by phone, and how at A&M as an engineering student her long nights in the lab led to her graduation with honors.

“She put in that extra effort it took not just to be good at what you do, but to be great at what you do,” he said.

“When we got married, that did not change,” he said; Jackie was “an amazing friend” to him as well as to the loved ones in her life. Citing the Biblical verse that says, “There is no fear in love,” he said, “I think Jackie lived that way, and I think she wants all of us to live that way too.”
Friends said that in their student days, Jackie never walked across campus without running into friends—not just familiar faces, but people she truly knew. “She didn’t just make friends, she really got to know you,” said Katy Lane ’02, who served with her as a Class Agent and said Jackie inspired her.

Valerie Walker ’04 said Jackie lived the Aggie Spirit. “Let everybody who sees her Ring here remember that we have that same Spirit and be encouraged to live it the way that Jackie did.”
Jackie’s Ring was placed by her husband and family in the Memorial Ring Collection case on the Neely Mezzanine of the Alumni Center. The collection holds Rings from 1965 to 2015 donated by family members of deceased Aggies. It is one of four Aggie Ring Collections, showcasing Rings dating back to 1891, within the Alumni Center.

Association Vice President Kathryn Greenwade ’88 said, “Her Ring is now placed alongside those of other outstanding Aggies whose names were called at Aggie Muster long before those families were ready to answer ‘Here’... but whose lives shone brightly to the world.”

Family and friends have created an Endowed Aggie Ring Scholarship in Jackie’s name that will provide a Ring to at least one deserving Aggie every year as well as a Jackie Price Dunn Memorial Scholarship for women in engineering.