G.R. White Trust Endowment

The G. R. White Trust Endowment was established in 1994 to support graduate students in the Department of Range and Wildlife Management. The Department name has changed over the years and is currently the Department of Natural Resources Management.

George Rollie White (1875 - 1965) was a Brady, Texas rancher and banker. Rollie came to McCulloch County, Texas with his parents in a covered wagon in 1875. He and his three brothers, William Norton (Billy) White (1879 - 1965), Charles Thomas (Charlie) White (1883 - 1961), and John Edward (Johnny) White (1885 - 1941); and, his two sisters May White Wall (1877 - 1961) and Laura Lee White Wulff (1889 - 1977) all resided in McCulloch County and all worked together in supporting the family's ranching and other commercial interests.

Rollie was a long-standing advocate of Texas A&M University serving as Chairman of the Board of Regents from 1945 -1955 and as a member of the Board of Regents from 1926 - 1955. The G. Rollie White Coliseum is named after him.

Rollie White and Victoria Bingham White (1877 - 1965) had no children and on his death a portion of his estate was used to set up the G. R. White Trust. Under the provisions of his will, 17.65 percent of the income from the trust goes to a scholarship fund for A&M students. The remainder of the income is administered by a selection committee currently composed of Bart Wulff of Brady and Dallas, Clay Jones of Brady (a Texas Tech graduate) and Joe T. Lenamon of Fort Worth. Donald R. Smith, Vice President of J. P. Morgan Chase Bank in Fort Worth serves as the administrative officer for the Trust and assists the selection committee in its duties. From 1989 to 2006 , the late John W. Jones (a Texas Tech graduate) was a member of the selection committee. Mr. Jones served on the Texas Tech Board of Regents from 1997 to 2003 and was instrumental in setting up this endowment.

Since the inception of this endowment many graduate students in the Department have benefited from both the award itself and from the fact that the recipient of an award exceeding $1,000 annually is exempt from paying out-of-state tuition and certain fees. Thus the "benefit" to an out-of-state student is potentially far greater than just the monetary value of the scholarship award.

Criteria for award of the scholarships supported by this endowment are a GPA of 3.0 or greater and classification as a graduate student. The number and amount of awards vary annually as the endowment principal continues to build.