Table of Contents | Past Issues | Share This Story

Mary Pat Stumberg

Mary Pat Stumberg and her family have touched lives across the San Antonio community and region through their philanthropy and generosity. Mary Pat and her late husband, Louis, have been longtime advocates of liberal and fine arts education in San Antonio. They have provided leadership that has been instrumental in moving UTSA towards its current status of an emerging Tier One research university. Most recently Mary Pat participated in a dollar-for-dollar matching opportunity from the H-E-B Faculty Research Fund and made a commitment to create the Stumberg Distinguished University Chair for the Dean of Liberal and Fine Arts at UTSA. Mary Pat said that she made this gift to ensure that the liberal and fine arts remain a strong aspect of a UTSA student’s education because she believes that they are key to preparing students for the workforce and providing skills that help them adapt to the ever-changing needs of society. When presented with the opportunity to create an endowment for the dean’s position in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, Mary Pat said, “Dan Gelo has been a great dean, so if this [endowment] can help him leave a good mark on the university and provide for quality leadership into the future, while at the same time honoring my husband, then I welcome the opportunity.”

Mary Pat is an inspiration to the entire COLFA community as she brings innovative ideas and approaches to solve real issues in San Antonio and the greater society. It is comparatively easy to quantify giving in terms of amounts given or events chaired. What is much more difficult, and in many ways more important, is calculating the effect such giving has on the lives of those benefited, and on future generations. Mary Pat Stumberg has not only given at extraordinary levels, but has committed herself to showing leadership in philanthropy. She has given in such a way as to inspire and challenge others to give. Her contributions cannot be measured, only commended.

John and Bobbie Nau

President and CEO of Silver Eagle Distributors John L. Nau III and his wife, Barbara “Bobbie” Nau, have pledged $1 million over the next five years to establish the Nau Scholars Program Fund. The fund will help UTSA recruit and support talented undergraduate and master’s students in history.

The Nau Scholars program will support undergraduate students in history by creating scholarships that will help them focus on their education. Additionally, it will create fellowships and teaching assistantships for master’s students in history. The fellowships, one focusing on Texas history and another on the U.S. Civil War era, will provide UTSA graduate students with valuable teaching experience. The gift also will allow UTSA to introduce new instructional technologies in the history curriculum, preparing students for matriculation into top doctoral history programs.

“John and Bobbie’s gift will go a long way toward raising UTSA’s visibility among high-achieving students around the country who are interested in pursuing history degrees,” said Dean Dan Gelo. “The gift also will help the UTSA Department of History position itself to develop a doctoral program.”

“This investment will help strengthen the history department by providing resources to recruit some of the best undergraduate and graduate students pursuing studies in history,” said Nau. “The UTSA Department of History has the potential to make many great scholarly contributions to Texas and to the U.S. I’m proud to help UTSA advance to Tier One.”

Nau is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history, and is an avid collector of authentic Civil War memorabilia. In 1995, he was appointed by Texas Governor George W. Bush to serve as chairman of the Texas Historical Commission. In 2001, President Bush appointed Nau to serve as chairman of the national Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Nau served in these roles until 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Wing Ching Lam

When Wing Ching Lam retired after a long career working as a mechanical engineer on five continents for Carrier International, he moved to San Antonio to be near his son Victor and daughter-in-law May, and their family. Life had not always allowed for family to be in close proximity, as Wing Ching and Wai Ching Lam were married during World War II while students at MIT, and found themselves stranded by the war and isolated from their families in the far east. In retirement, coming closer to family was a priority for Wing Ching, as was turning his focus towards his passion for history. They made many friends in the San Antonio Asian community as faithful participants in the San Antonio Asian Festival and several Chinese societies. Because of his keen interest in world history, particularly the migration of the Chinese peoples, they established The Wing Ching Lam Endowed Award in History at UTSA.

Wing Ching Lam, age 95, passed away March 30, 2012. He will be dearly remembered as a loving husband of 67 years, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, friend to many, and community advocate. He kept in touch with dear friends and relatives over the years and delighted in his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Their tribute to him in return was to provide memorial contributions to the Wing Ching Lam Award at UTSA. For more than one year, the gifts kept coming in from all over the country which ultimately allowed the Wing Ching Lam Award to be upgraded to an endowed scholarship for the Department of History. Wing Ching Lam’s legacy will now forever be a part of the history and fabric of UTSA and will support students and their love for history in perpetuity.