Susan "Sue" Owen '94 July 19, 2019 5:26 PM updated: February 19, 2020 8:57 AM
To highlight the wide range of Aggie Musters, we covered six in April 2019 for an upcoming story in Texas Aggie magazine. We’re putting out sneak peeks to encourage Aggies to volunteer for and attend Musters in 2020! Read the series: tx.ag/ComeAndMuster
Drive on NASA Road 1 a few blocks past the entrance to the Johnson Space Center (with its many Aggie employees), and you’re at the NASA Hilton Clear Lake.
An upstairs ballroom has tables set for 150 or so with a vista across Clear Lake, a six-mile-long harbor that flows into Galveston Bay.
Aggies are beginning to arrive—getting a glass of wine at the bar, deciding how much to bid on a LEGO Kyle Field kit and other auction items.
During dinner, discussion at the Bay Area A&M Club volunteers’ table ranges across some fascinating topics: Vehicle docking, robot arms and booster rockets, as well as what happens when you breathe nitrogen tetroxide (not good).
Sitting with his dad (Jason Foltyn '92) is high school student Jared Foltyn, a prospective future member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. He has brought his trumpet, and will play Taps for the ceremony.
Like many Musters, Bay Area determines which names it will read by printing out the full 1,600-name list from The Association and asking attendees to mark those they want called.
Typically, they read between 20 and 50 names, says Club president Mark Sprague '89.
Tonight, one of the names is his father’s: Charles Sprague '61. Here.
Texas railroad commissioner Ryan Sitton ’97, who lives nearby in Friendswood, serves as Muster speaker; he talks about how important it is that A&M teaches leadership and service, and how he believes Muster represents “that value of service, that we put everybody else ahead of ourselves.”
“This Aggie tradition is not like a eulogy; it’s not like a funeral,” he says.
“We get together, for all those people who are no longer with us, and celebrate the fact that each and every one of them touched somebody’s life. And that’s why somebody is here when they are absent to answer the call.”
The Bay Area A&M Club will hold Muster in the same location for 2020; here are details on how to attend. More links:
Every year, donations allow The Association of Former Students to provide services to hundreds of Aggie Musters. Add your support at tx.ag/give.