R. H. "Steve"
Stevens, Jr. ’62
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Year Awarded: 2013
Houston, TX
R. H. "Steve" Stevens, Jr., Class of 1962, earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Texas A&M University. As a student, Stevens was involved in the Corps of Cadets as executive officer of the Ross Volunteers, a member of the Permanent Firing Squad, Supply Officer and Lieutenant Colonel on Corps Staff and the Cadet Court. He was a member of the Brazoria County Hometown Club, where he served as president his senior year, the Accounting Society, SCONA, the Aggie Sweetheart Selection Committee and the 12th Man Bowl.
After graduation, Stevens served as an officer in the United States Air Force in Reno, Nev., and then in Paris, France, at Dreux-Louvilliers Air Base until 1966, and received an Outstanding Unit Citation. He went on to become a certified public accountant and provided tax services to clients in various industries, including oil and gas, real estate and agriculture, for 40 years. After 33 years with Arthur Andersen, he retired from the firm in 1999 and became managing partner of Stevens & Matthews LLP, another accounting firm. Currently, he serves as both managing partner of Stevens & Matthews LLP, and Chairman of the Board at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, where he has been an active member for many years. Stevens joined the Show in 1975 and volunteered on numerous committees before being elected to the Show’s Board of Directors in 1987, and then vice president, where he served as officer in charge of 16 committees. He has served on the Show’s Executive Committee since 2005. He joined the American Quarter Horse Association’s Board of Directors in 1987, and later the Association’s Executive Committee in 1999, before becoming president in 2003. In 1986, he served as president of the Texas Quarter Horse Association. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2009.
Stevens has given his time to Texas A&M in many ways. In 1983, he served as president of the 12th Man Foundation, and he was appointed to the Board of Regents of The Texas A&M University System in 1999, where he served as chairman of the Finance and Audit Committee and special liaison to the Board for Lease of University Lands until 2005. He has been a member of the A&M Legacy Society, the Chancellor’s Advisory Council, the Development Council for the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Mays Business School, Class Agent for the Class of 1962, The Association of Former Students’ Board of Directors, and he currently serves on the 12th Man Foundation’s Champions Council.
Stevens and his wife, Kay, live in Houston. They have two daughters, and a son-in-law who graduated from Texas A&M, and four grandchildren.
Enjoy every minute of your time at Texas A&M. Learn all you can. Experience all you can. But most of all, learn the Aggie way. The Aggie way is filled with integrity.
Joe R.
Straus, Jr. ’50
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Year Awarded: 2023
Selma, TX
Straus’ love of horses and agribusiness stemmed from his childhood in San Antonio. His family owned L. Frank Saddlery, a manufacturer of saddles and other horse equipment. The company later became Straus-Frank Co. and sold wholesale auto parts, but horses remained an important part of the family’s story. He headed to A&M to study animal husbandry, also serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
Returning to San Antonio after graduation, Straus worked at Straus-Frank Co. for 55 years, eventually retiring as president.
He is also a partner in the family-owned Straus Medina Ranch, where he successfully imported the first full-blood Simmental cattle into the United States. The European breed had been notoriously difficult to bring in, due to U.S. regulations meant to prevent disease in livestock. He and his partners were able to quarantine a small herd in Germany and move them through Norway before finally establishing the breed in Texas.
Straus remains best known for the role he played in Texas horse racing. In 1973, he founded the Texas Horse Racing Association, which advocated legalizing pari-mutuel wagering in Texas. After this new legislation passed, he established the Retama Park Association in 1989, eventually co-founding and constructing Retama Park Racetrack.
Straus is a longtime member of the Texas A&M College of Agriculture Development Council. He and his late wife, Jocelyn, gave generously to A&M through The Association of Former Students, the Texas A&M Foundation and the 12th Man Foundation.
The Strauses have three children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
“Joe R. Straus, Jr. ’50 has a knack for turning dreams into reality.”
- Phil Adams '70
Bob J.
Surovik ’58
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Year Awarded: 2012
Abilene, TX
Bob J. Surovik, Class of 1958, received a bachelor of business administration degree in accounting from the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas and continued on to earn a doctor of jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas Law School in 1961. While a student, he was president of the Student Senate and the Singing Cadets, Sophomore Class Secretary and he was listed among the Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities in 1958. He was on the Southwest Conference Sportsmanship Committee, Town Hall Staff, Election Commission, MSC Council, Arts and Science Council, Accounting Society and the Pre-Law Society. He was Adjutant in the Second Battalion, Second Regiment Staff in the Corps of Cadets, and a member of the Student Government Association.
After college, he was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves in Austin, and then a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss. In 1963, he earned an Army Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service and started practicing law. After working as an accountant for the Texas Department of Agriculture, he was an instructor of business law at the University of Texas at Austin, state representative aide in the Texas House of Representatives before becoming president and shareholder of McMahon, Surovik, Suttle, P.C.
Surovik has served many organizations in Abilene, including the Abilene Industrial Foundation, Abilene Chamber of Commerce, First Financial Bank-Abilene, The Community Foundation of Abilene, the Abilene YMCA, the Volunteer Council at Abilene State School, Hendrick Home for Children, and the Public Responsibility Committee of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, and the St. Paul United Methodist Church Foundation, among others.
He is an active supporter of Texas A&M through the A&M Legacy Society, Endowed Century Club at The Association of Former Students, the Former Student Body President Association, the Texas A&M Foundation Planned Giving Council and the Texas Aggie Bar Association. In 1973, he was named Outstanding Young Lawyer by the State Junior Bar of Texas, and he was the Texas Aggie Bar Association’s Aggie Lawyer of the Year in 2011. In addition, he is a past Chairman of the Texas A&M Foundation Board of Trustees, past Chair of the Board of Directors at The Association, past area representative (West Texas) for The Association, and past president of the Abilene A&M Club.
Surovik resides in Abilene. Two of his three children graduated from Texas A&M.
"At Texas A&M, I gained discipline, a good work ethic, and the realization that all of us have special gifts and talents to share with others."
Joseph B.
Swinbank ’74
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Year Awarded: 2018
Houston, TX
He started his first business while still an A&M student, and today is co-founder and co-owner of Sprint Companies in the construction waste and industrial service sectors. He has been a leader and catalyst throughout the formative and ongoing stages of A&M’s Rural Entrepreneurship Program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; mentoring, serving as a “Prof for a Day,” taking part in a yearly symposium and supporting a seminar series, graduate teaching assistantship and new classroom. In 2014, he led the establishment of the M. Edward Rister ’74 Chair in Rural Entrepreneurship. He has been a member of The Gardens at Texas A&M committee, Chancellor’s Century Council and the Agriculture and Life Sciences development council.
He is a Diamond Century Club member of The Association with 36 years of giving and a member of the A&M Legacy Society.
He has also supported Texas State Technical College and spoken at high schools, educating students about industrial job opportunities. In Fort Bend County, he has served on boards for the Work Force Commission, Habitat for Humanity and Economic Development Board.
“I am proud to be an Aggie. And as an Aggie I find the greatest personal satisfaction encouraging, sharing my experience, successes, struggles and failures with Aggies and others paying forward what has been given to me,” he said.
His family includes wife Shirley; three children, including Will Swinbank ’02 and Reagan Swinbank ’03; eight grandchildren; sister Jill Swinbank Norris ’80 and brother-in-law James F. Connally ’71.
“Challenges in life, school and business only helped to develop personal and professional strengths needed to succeed.”
- Joseph B. Swinbank '74
Van H.
Taylor ’71
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Year Awarded: 2016
Bryan, Texas
VAN H. TAYLOR ’71 received a bachelor's degree with honors in mechanical engineering; he served as Corps Commander his senior year and as sergeant major of the Corps his junior year and was the first recipient of the Rudder Award. He was a member of the Ross Volunteers, the Student Engineers Council and both Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma engineering honor societies.
Taylor had a 34-year career with Southwestern Bell/SBC/AT&T, retiring as president of network services for the southwest region of AT&T. During his career, he also served as president and CEO of Technology Resources Inc., the research subsidiary of SBC Communications, from 1994 to 1997, and relocated the entire organization from St. Louis to Austin. His numerous officer-level positions at SBC/AT&T included engineering, operations and marketing positions.
Serving on the Association of Former Students Board of Directors from 2000 to 2007, he chaired the board in 2006. On the Texas A&M Foundation Board of Trustees from 2010 to 2017, he served as chairman in 2014-2015. He is a member of the Association's Endowed Century Club and has been a Century Club member for 45 years. He and his late wife, Carole, supported the MSC OPAS permanent endowment and the enhancement of the Clayton W. Williams Jr. Alumni Center, the MSC and Kyle Field; they also created both a President's Endowed and a Rudder scholarship.
He served on the Dwight Look College of Engineering Advisory Council from 1997 to 2012 and is now an emeritus member. He has served on the boards of the Community Foundation of the Brazos Valley, Habitat for Humanity and the Boy Scouts of America Circle Ten Executive Council.
His family includes his late wife, Carole; daughters Suzannah Taylor ’97, Sally Taylor Reyes, Kaycee Taylor Crisp ’05 and Melissa Taylor; and six granddaughters. His father-in-law was the late James M. Cunningham ’42.
Cynthia B.
Taylor ’84
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Year Awarded: 2016
Houston, Texas
CINDY TAYLOR ’84 received a bachelor’s degree in accounting; she was an honors student, business fraternity member and intramural activist.
In 2007, she became the CEO of Oil States International, a diversified oilfield services company that she helped take public. She was among the first female CEOs in the energy industry, the first public company female CEO in Houston and currently one of only 50 female CEOs in the Fortune 1000. She was ranked the No. 2 Energy Services CEO in 2013 by Institutional Investors.
She is a board member for AT&T and Tidewater Inc. Her business honors include being ranked on the All-American Executive Team for Energy Services and as a national finalist in Energy, Cleantech and Natural Resources in the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year program in 2012.
She has served as a trustee of the 12th Man Foundation and a member of Mays Business School’s Dean’s Development Council, and was named an Outstanding Alumna of the Mays Business School in 2011. She is a Gold level member of The Association’s Century Club, with 22 years of giving.
She received the McLane Leadership in Business Award in 2014; the Aggie 100 Summit Award in 2012; and the Women Former Students’ Network Legacy Award in 2010. A Mays Business School endowed scholarship was donated in her honor in 2011, which she matched.
She has served on the Board of Trustees for Texas Children’s Hospital, is a Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Laureate and was inducted into the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame in 2014.
Her family includes husband Allan W. Taylor ’83, sons Matthew Taylor ’12, Christopher Taylor ’14 and Gregory Taylor ’17 and daughter-in-law Misty Taylor ’12; her brother is Robert Berry ’82.
Hon. Olin E. “Tiger”
Teague ’32
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Year Awarded: 1966
Woodward, OK
Teague attended A&M College of Texas from 1928 to 1932, studying Agricultural Administration. He served in the U.S. Army, taking part in the allied landing in on D-Day. Teague was member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 32 years, most noted for his championship of veterans’ issues and his support of the space program.
His distinguished service awards include the AMVETS Congressional Silver Helmet Award, American Legion Award for Distinguished Public Service, VFW Award for Distinguished Public Service and Outstanding Representation of Servicemen, West Point Award for Distinguished Service of Behalf of the Corps of Cadets, and the Texas Agricultural Extension Service Distinguished Service Award.
Julian B.
Thomas ’11
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Year Awarded: 1974
San Marcos, TX
Thomas received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1911. He served as president and general manager of Texas Electric Service Co. In the early 50s, he fostered development of the futuristic “Gruen Plan” for downtown Fort Worth and served as chairman of a state water conservation committee appointed by Governor Allan Shivers.
Thomas was President of Dallas and Fort Worth A&M Clubs, President of The Association of Former Students, and a Trustee and Councilor to the Texas A&M Research Foundation. He was selected from more than 1200 nominees to serve on the A&M Century Council which recommended guidelines for the overall development of the university.
Clifton L.
Thomas, Jr. ’72
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Year Awarded: 2022
Victoria, TX
“I always want to be that business person who is successful, but does it the right way,” said Clifton L. Thomas, Jr. ’72 — and the core values at Texas A&M have helped him to do just that. “The core values are more than words — it’s the way you live your life.”
Thomas came to Texas A&M as a football recruit under coach Gene Stallings ’57. Football taught Thomas how to treat people right, manage adversity and work extremely hard, as well as how to build a team and be accountable to those teammates. He graduated with a degree in physical education, having married his high school sweetheart, Cathy, along the way. After a few years coaching high school football, he decided to change fields, and he took a job as manager of a small Exxon distributorship in Hope, Arkansas.
In 1981, Thomas purchased his own Exxon distributorship in Victoria, Texas, creating Thomas Petroleum and C.L. Thomas Inc. Thomas and his team had great success, becoming one of Exxon’s and Chevron’s top distributors. Thomas Petroleum grew to 36 wholesale terminals in 23 states, 230 dealer accounts and 165 Speedy Stop Stores with about 3,100 employees. In 2012, Thomas sold 143 Speedy Stop Stores to 7-11. Thomas currently owns and operates 23 Speedy Stop Stores and co-owns Pilot Thomas Logistics.
Thomas has contributed to A&M’s strategic development through The Texas A&M System Board of Regents. During his 11-year tenure, both as a committee member and as chairman of the board, the A&M System saw a number of new buildings and renovations across campuses, from RELLIS to Kyle Field, as well as a move to the SEC. Thomas has served his broader community through positions on the boards of Guadalupe- Blanco River Authority, DeTar Hospital System, Wells Fargo bank, and The University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Company.
Cliff and Cathy have three daughters, Ashlie ’17, Whitney and Beth, and three granddaughters, Preslie ’25, Ashbie and Sophia.
“No other person I know represents what is possible with a degree from Texas A&M better than Cliff Thomas.”
- John Sharp '72
Hon. Mayo J.
Thompson ’41
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Year Awarded: 1980
Houston, TX
Thompson received a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1941 and an L.L.B. degree from the South Texas College of Law in 1949. After becoming a noted specialist in admiralty law, he was appointed Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, a role in which he served until 1975.
He participated in the founding of Texas A&M University’s Center for Education and Research in Free Enterprise and serves on the Center’s Board of Consultants. Thompson was recognized nationally as Free Enterprise Man of the Year in 1976.
He served as an Alumni Counselor to the Corps of Cadets and has given strong assistance to Texas A&M’s annual Student Conference on National Affairs and is a founding member of the University’s President’s Endowed Scholarship Program.