March 16, 2005 - P.G. "Buck" Eckels '52 and Sandra Eckels of Houston have committed an estate gift valued at $700,000 to establish a professorship at Mays Business School. The Sandra and P.G. "Buck" Eckels '52 Endowed Professorship funds the teaching, research, service and professional development activities of a Mays faculty member.
"Our faculty are our greatest resource," said Dean Jerry Strawser. "The Eckels' most generous gift will allow us to recruit and retain the very best minds to Mays Business School. Coupled with the university's faculty reinvestment program, endowed professorships will provide our very best faculty with the environment needed to educate the next generation of business leaders."
Eckels graduated with a BBA in 1952 before fighting as a platoon leader in the 7 th Infantry Division in Korea. He negotiated oil leases after the war as a land man for oil and gas businesses in Corpus Christi before starting his career as a title underwriter. In 1974, he bought Lawyers Title Insurance in Houston, retiring 30 years later as president, chair and sole stockholder. He and his wife Sandra, a University of Texas graduate and former teacher, have been married for 30 years.
"The business school is where I started, and it's been good to me," Eckels says. "We've been very lucky to be able to give back."
The Eckels' gift counts in the One Spirit One Vision Campaign, the university's multi-year fundraising effort to help Texas A&M attain national top 10 status among public universities while sustaining the distinctive A&M spirit. The volunteer-led campaign, coordinated by the Texas A&M Foundation, encompasses all private gifts benefiting the university.