Distinguished Alumni

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81-90 of 331
Dr. Robert L. Walker ’58

Dr. Robert L. Walker ’58
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Year Awarded: 2016

College Station, Texas

DR. ROBERT L. WALKER ’58 received a bachelor’s degree in marketing; as a student, he says, his greatest accomplishment was marrying his sweetheart, JoAnn Nolen, in All Faiths Chapel in 1958. He was a member of the Corps of Cadets and valued spending one summer selling Bibles in West Virginia with four other Aggies.

He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for A&M during a career that included 30 years as A&M’s vice president of development as well as leadership at A&M foundations; he has been described as A&M’s “chief friend maker.”

He has been named Spur High School’s Alumnus of the Year and an honorary A&M Singing Cadet, and received Pepperdine University’s Distinguished Christian Service Award.

He has spoken at Aggie Musters for 49 years and was the 1987 speaker at the main campus Muster. He is a member of The Association’s Endowed Century Club. He serves on the Pepperdine University Board of Regents and chaired the board of A&M’s Institute of Nautical Archaeology.

He is on the Community Foundation of Brazos Valley board and has been a board member and officer of the Ed Rachal Foundation and a board member and president for two years of the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce.

His family includes his wife, the late JoAnn Nolen Walker, M.A. ’92; children Rebecca Lynn Walker Elkins ’81, Sidney Allen Walker ’82, the late Richard Nolen Walker ’86, William Lawrence Walker ’88 and daughter-in-law Shawna Chrane Walker ’90; and grandchildren Abigail Margaret Sawyer ’12, William Davis Walker ’13, Robert Wesley Walker ’15 and Brazos Walker Elkins ’16.

Dr. Charley V. Wootan ’50

Dr. Charley V. Wootan ’50
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Year Awarded: 2016

College Station, TX

DR. CHARLEY V. WOOTAN ’50 received bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics; he was a member of the Corps of Cadets’ Company E, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, Alpha Zeta Agricultural Honor Society and Phi Kappa Phi Collegiate Honor Society.

He was director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute from 1976 to 1993 and director emeritus from 1993 to 2001, the year he passed away. In 2003, he was inducted into the Texas Transportation Hall of Honor. He received the Luther DeBerry Award from the Texas Department of Transportation, the S.S. Steinberg Award from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and honors from the Transportation Research Board.

He was the founder and first president of the Council of University Transportation Centers in 1979. He was a Silver level member of The Association’s Century Club, with 32 years of giving.

He served in the Pacific theater 1944-46 in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Reserve 1950-56.

He was the head timer at A&M men’s and women’s track and field meets 1974-1994, a frequent Muster speaker and an A&M economics professor.

He chaired the board of the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation, which in 2001 named the Charley V. Wootan Grant Program for him. In 2012-13, the program awarded $5 million to 1,500 students.

His family includes wife Doxie Wootan; children Richard Charles Wootan ’74 and Debra Alice Wootan Roberson ’75; and Aggie grandchildren are Clint Charles Roberson ’00, Thomas Ross Roberson ’03 and Steven Paul Roberson ’06. His brother was the late A.B. “Pat” Wooten ’42.

Col. Edward Vergne Adams ’29

Col. Edward Vergne Adams ’29
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Year Awarded: 2015

Col. Edward Vergne Adams, Class of 1929, received a bachelor’s degree in English from the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, where he played in the Aggie Band and later returned for a master’s degree. He studied music at the Cincinnati Conservatory and other institutions and was a high school teacher and band director before serving as a U.S. Army chemical warfare officer during World War II. He organized the first bands at Humble, Nederland and Bryan high schools. He also directed bands at Donna and Palestine.



He is recognized by the Texas Bandmasters Association as having had a major impact on the early development of bands in East Texas and is in the Phi Beta Mu band director Hall of Fame. He served as director of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band longer than any other individual for 27 years from 1946 to 1973, pioneering maneuvers other band directors called “impossible.” He is credited with inventing the two-way crisscross at close interval and the minstrel turn (co-invented with Roy Ben Wallace at Palestine).



He grounded thousands of young bandsmen in discipline and dedication and is remembered for his kindness and understanding as well as his precision; he, insisted on a strict military cadence of 120 beats per minute and specified 30 inch strides. He gave the Aggie Band its style and its look such as filling the bugle rank with seniors for an unbroken line of boots and its standard of perfection shown in televised performances that spread its fame nationwide.



His entry in the Corps of Cadets Hall of Honor notes, “Colonel Adams retired in 1973 with 209 consecutive halftime victories.” The band hall was renamed for him. Adams passed away in 1982.



He and wife Ida Belle Higgs Adams had a son, Edward V. Adams Jr. ’61; their grandson is E.V. “Rusty” Adams III ’96.

"E.V. Adams was more than a band director. He was a leader, a role model, and a mentor to generations of Aggies, whose impact extended well beyond our lat Final Review."

  - Excerpt from letter from Class of '66 Aggie Bandsmen

Stanton P. Bell ’54

Stanton P. Bell ’54
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Year Awarded: 2015

San Antonio, TX

Stanton P. Bell, Class of 1954, received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Texas A&M, where he served as Corps Adjutant, executive officer of the Ross Volunteers and commander of the firing platoon for Silver Taps, Muster and other events, was a Distinguished Student and Distinguished Military Student and was involved with groups including Student Senate and MSC Council.



He served in the 24th Infantry Division in Korea and was selected as aide de camp to the commanding general. Bell is president and CEO of Bell Hydrogas, a propane company serving San Antonio and six counties. He has been a vice president and director of Mission Gas Company and has also served as a director of Compass Bank and the Valero Texas Open Golf Tournament.



Bell served five years as captain of the 12th Man Foundation’s Champions Council, created and funded the annual Ross Volunteer Spirit Award and is involved with the San Antonio A&M Club and has sponsored A&M functions.

He is a President’s Endowed Scholarship donor, Sul Ross Scholarship donor and a member of the Texas A&M Foundation’s Legacy Society.



Bell is a past president of the Rotary Club of San Antonio, the second-largest club in Rotary International. He is also a past president of the San Antonio Country Club, club golf champion, five-time club senior golf champion and served 23 years as a United States Golf Association committee member and rules official. He was elected King Antonio of Fiesta 1989, is a past president of the San Antonio Better Business Bureau and a past president of the San Antonio Golf Association.



His father was Stanton F. Bell ’29 and he has a daughter and a son.

"Stanton Bell stands tall on the pillars of honesty, integrity, leadership, fellowship and service. His record of service as an Aggie places him at the pinnacle of former students."

  - Gen. Joseph Ashy '62, USAF (Ret)

Dr. Charles H. Bowman ’59

Dr. Charles H. Bowman ’59
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Year Awarded: 2015

College Station, TX

Dr. Charles H. Bowman, Class of 1959, received a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State University and received both a master’s degree and doctorate in petroleum engineering at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.



Dr. Bowman rose to the top of the international oil industry, working with Gulf Oil Corp. for 24 years in all aspects of the business, concluding in 1982 with his appointment as president of Gulf Refining and Marketing Co. He then joined BP, where he spent 12 years, initially in the U.S. and Europe, then as managing director of BP Australia, and finally in 1993 becoming chairman and CEO of BP America. Following retirement from BP in 1997, he joined Texas A&M as a professor and head of the Department of Petroleum Engineering. He later led the negotiating team that created a new Texas A&M campus in Qatar, eventually serving as its interim dean and a member of its joint advisory board. He is dean emeritus of Texas A&M University at Qatar and professor emeritus of petroleum engineering.



Dr. Bowman and wife Lynn Holleran are Endowed Diamond Century Club members of The Association of Former Students and members of the Texas A&M Foundation Legacy Society. Their gifts to A&M include endowments for International Programs, the Department of Petroleum Engineering’s Resource Center and the College of Liberal Arts’ Cervantes Project, as well as a College of Engineering faculty fellowship.



He has served as a director of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, a trustee of Case Western Reserve University, a director of National City Corporation, a director and treasurer of the American Petroleum Institute, chairman of the Cleveland Ballet board, a director of both the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Opera, and an advisory board member at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think-tank.



With first wife Ethel Kenah Bowman, he has five children, including Lisa Bowman Villalobos ’90.

"Dr. Bowman's four-decade career in the oil and gas industry helped the world meet its energy needs. He is an exceptional individual with outstanding professional achievements, extraordinary contributions to society and dedicated service to Texas A&M."

  - Dr. Mark Weichold '78, Dean and CEO, Texas A&M University at Qatar

Carri Baker Coleman ’84

Carri Baker Coleman ’84
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Year Awarded: 2015

San Antonio, TX

Carri Baker Coleman, Class of 1984, received a bachelor’s degree in marketing at Texas A&M, where as a student she served as tennis team manager, Diamond Darling and football recruiting hostess and was a member of the Delta Zeta sorority and Student Aggie Club (now the Student 12th Man Foundation).



She is Chief Operating Officer for the San Antonio office of Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP, a firm she has helped lead to national recognition in serving governments at all levels in collecting receivables. She was the first woman chairman of the 12th Man Foundation and led projects such as Kyle Field’s successful Zone Club, a critical asset to raising funds for expansion. She chaired the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women and has been inducted into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame. She co-founded and chaired the San Antonio ISD Foundation, which invests more than $1 million annually to ignite innovation and excellence in inner city schools. She received the highest honor given by a Girl Scout Council, the Trefoil Award, and was recognized as a Girl Scout Great during the 100-year anniversary of Girl Scouts. She received the Women’s Legacy Award from the Women’s Former Student Network.

She served on the board of the San Antonio A&M Club, is a co-founder and board member of the A&M PAC and serves on the development council of A&M’s Mays College of Business.



Her Aggie family includes her late father, Bill Baker ’62, her brother, Will Baker ’92, and her uncle, Robert Baker ’64. She and husband Tullos Wells have a daughter.

"Carri Baker Coleman is selfless in her willingness to serve. I am not aware of her ever declining to participate when she has been asked to contribute her talents in a variety of ways to Texas A&M."

  - Fred Palmer '59, Distinguished Alumnus

Stephen F. Cooper ’78

Stephen F. Cooper ’78
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Year Awarded: 2015

El Campo, TX

Stephen F. Cooper, Class of 1978, earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Texas A&M, where he participated in intramural sports and took part in numerous campus activities.



For 28 years, Cooper was president and owner of La Tierra de Esmeralda/Emerald Sod Farms, specializing in quality turf grass, sod and services in the Rocky Mountain region. He was the first sod producer to sod an entire golf course. He is involved in various businesses, from farming and ranching, real estate development and financing, investments to venture capital as owner and/or partner of Emerald Ag Investments, 2 Big Partners, New ICM, Rancho de los Amigos and Borrachos de Vino.



He served on the West Wharton County Hospital District board and helped form the El Campo Memorial Hospital’s 501 (c)3 operating entity, of which he is vice chairman. For the numerous entities involved with the El Campo Little League Project, he has served as organizer and advisor. He has helped A&M’s College of Agriculture as a mentor, speaker and guest professor and is a representative at large of The Association’s Leadership Council. He has chaired the Wharton County Agri-Life Leadership Advisory Board and serves on the Wharton County A&M Club’s board of directors.



Cooper is an Eppright Distinguished Donor and a member of the The Association’s Endowed Century Club, the Champions Council and Athletic Ambassadors of the 12th Man Foundation, the Chancellor’s Century Council, the A&M Department of Agricultural Economics’ Tyrus R. Timm Honor Registry, the College of Agriculture development council and the Texas A&M Foundation Legacy Society.



He and wife Kimberley have two daughters, Alexis Anne Cooper ’12 and Shelby Suzanne Cooper ’13.

"Steve Cooper has been dedicated to Texas A&M since 1974 when he first walked on the campus. He embodies the true meaning of being an Aggie and his continued success to his profession, his university and his community is second to none."

  - Linc Lutrick '98

Lupe Fraga ’57

Lupe Fraga ’57
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Year Awarded: 2015

Houston, TX

Lupe Fraga, Class of 1957, received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas, where he played baseball from 1953 to 1957 and was a letterman. He was inducted to the Phi Eta Sigma honor society and won the T.W. Mohle Accounting Award for Excellence.



After serving in the Army, Fraga built Tejas Office Products into one of Houston’s largest minority-owned businesses. It has been named in the Hispanic Business Magazine Top 500 Companies. He has chaired the Houston branch of the Federal Reserve Bank Dallas, the Greater Houston Visitors and Convention Bureau and the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.



Fraga was appointed a Texas A&M University System regent by Governor Rick Perry ’72 and served from 2005 to 2011. He was honored by the Houston Aggie Moms’ Club in February 2015, and his company made the Aggie 100 both in the list’s inaugural year and in 2011. He was named a Texas A&M Mays School of Business Outstanding Alumnus in 2003 and was honored as one of 2004’s Fathers of the Year by Community Partners.



He has served as a trustee of St. Thomas University and a member of the Galveston-Houston Catholic Diocese development board as well as serving other organizations including the Metropolitan and National YMCA, Houston Hispanic Forum, Strake Foundation, Houston Urban League, Houston Proud, Sam Houston Area Boy Scouts, United Way of Greater Houston and Greater Houston Partnership.



Fraga and wife Irene have three children, including Stephen M. Fraga ’97, and five grandchildren, and his brother Thomas Fraga ’55 is also an Aggie.

"Very few people I know can demonstrate the power of the Aggie experience to the people of Texas, the nation and the world better than Lupe Fraga."

  - John D. Schiller, Jr. '81

Raymond Hannigan ’61

Raymond Hannigan ’61
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Year Awarded: 2015

Bryan, TX

Ray Hannigan, Class of 1961, received a bachelor’s degree in general business from the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, a student manager for the baseball team and four-year letterman, a SCONA member and participant and a Distinguished Student inducted into Phi Kappa Phi.



Hannigan was president and CEO of Kinetic Concepts Inc. from 1994 to 2000, and before that, he was president of the international division of Sterling Drug and president of Beecham SmithKlein Canada. He was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry ’72 to the State Board of Health and served four years. In San Antonio, he has served on the board of directors for Christus Santa Rosa Hospital, Our Lady of the Lake University and Southwest Research Foundation. He is a Meals on Wheels volunteer in Bryan and has served on the leadership council of St. Mary’s Catholic Center in College Station.



His involvement with Texas A&M’s Mays School of Business has included serving on the advisory council to the Center for International Business Studies, serving as a guest lecturer and receiving the Outstanding Alumnus Award. He established in 1998 the Raymond R. Hannigan, Jr. ’61 Endowed Overseas Study Scholarship Fund. He and wife Patty have established three President’s Endowed Scholarships.



Hannigan has been a host and speaker for Aggie Musters in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Caracas, Venezuela. Irish American magazine named him one of the Top 100 Irish Americans in Business in 1999.



His Aggie family includes his late brother Edward Hannigan ’67. He and Patty have three children, including Chris Hannigan ’92 and Rush Hannigan ’09.

"Ray Hannigan's actions have earned him the respect of businessmen, politicians, faculty, religious leaders, and most importantly, fellow Aggies. He exhibits the selfless spirit that makes Aggies one of a thousand points of light."

  - Richard Box '61

Fred W. Heldenfels IV ’79

Fred W. Heldenfels IV ’79
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Year Awarded: 2015

Austin, TX

Fred W. Heldenfels IV, Class of 1979, received a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Texas A&M University, where he was chapter proconsul (vice president) of Sigma Chi fraternity and served on the Student Body Judicial Board and Moore Hall council.



Appointed by Gov. Rick Perry ’72 in 2006, he served as chairman of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board from May 2010 to September 2013. He has served as chairman of the 12th Man Foundation board of trustees and twice as a member of its executive committee. He is the current chairman of the A&M PAC Board. He is founder, president and CEO of Heldenfels Enterprises, Inc., an Aggie 100 award recipient in 2005, 2006 and 2010. He chaired the industry’s national trade organization, the Precast/ Prestressed Concrete Institute, and was inducted into the Corpus Christi Business Hall of Fame in 2010.



Heldenfels has chaired both the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Foundation and the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, where he helped initiate support for tort reform in the Coastal Bend and creation of a four-year university within the Texas A&M University System. He has long taught Sunday school classes at Hyde Park Baptist Church and serves on the Austin Chamber of Commerce board as vice chair of state advocacy.



His Aggie family includes brothers Ken ’82 and Gil ’85, father Fred III ’56, grandfather Fred Jr. ’33 (also a Distinguished Alumnus) and great-grandfather Fred W. “Fritz” Sr. , Class of 1909. Frederick and wife Elizabeth Pfaff Heldenfels ’79 have three children, including Amy Heldenfels Jerke ’05 and Holly Heldenfels ’09, and two grandchildren.

"Fred Heldenfels has taken our core values and applied each and every one of them in his career, his family, his service to country, state and school, and in every area of his personal life. His selfless service is, indeed, a model for all Aggies."

  - Sam Torn '70, Past Chair, 12th Man Foundation

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