Item: Historical marker dedicated at Rather Memorial Park

From the May 17 edition of the Item: A City of Huntsville historical marker was dedicated at the Rawley Samuel Rather Memorial Park at the corner of University Avenue and 13th Street.

The park is located on the home site of Rawley Samuel Rather and his wife, Mary Caroline Henry — lifetime Huntsville residents — and their five children — Marian Leigh, Rawley Goss, John Henry, who died in infancy, Edward Seay and John Henry.

The Rathers’ oldest child, Marian Leigh, was the first woman elected to the local school board and served as the Walker County chairman of the women’s suffrage movement. Marian Leigh was a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. She taught math of Sam Houston Normal (later Sam Houston State University) and wrote the college song for homecoming in 1910.

The house was demolished in 1977, and the Rather-Powell family made the site available to the City of Huntsville for a downtown park in 1979.

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Today@Sam: Approval For Two New Degrees Among Actions Of Board of Regents

New degrees, new standards for transfer students, a new building to house a portion of the forensic science program, a new intercollegiate sport and a holiday schedule were all approved Friday for Sam Houston State University.

• The forensic science facility will be a garage-like structure costing about $115,000, with a small pond, and will be used for the study of body decomposition in the unique climate of East Texas.

Today@Sam: New Sam Houston Statue Honors World War II Hero M. B. Etheredge

A new statue of General Sam Houston has been erected at Sam Houston State University. It is a smaller replica of the 67-foot "Tribute to Courage" on I45 south of Huntsville. SHSU donor Ron Mafrige provided funding for the statue and said it honors M. B. Etheredge of Huntsville, the United States' most highly decorated surviving soldier of World War II.

Item: Regents OK Performing Arts Center

The May 2 Huntsville Item (as well as Today@Sam) reports that SHSU has been given the go ahead by the Texas State University System Board of Regents to begin construction on a $38.5M Performing Arts Center:

The Regents unanimously approved the project during a Thursday morning conference call. The project had been submitted for approval twice previously but withdrawn for further work.

Construction could begin as early as September 2008, pending approval of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Bond Review Board. The Coordinating Board meets in late July. Completion of the center is estimated in the fall of 2010.

The new building will be constructed on the parking lots just north of the Music Building and Theatre Center, uniting the three into a Fine Arts Complex.

Something about Henry Pritchett

SHSU’s fourth president, Henry Carr Pritchett, was the son of William Ira Pritchett, who in turn was the brother of Carr Waller Pritchett (1823-1910). Henry's uncle Carr Waller had migrated from Virginia to Missouri in his youth and as an adult was a preacher, astronomer, and later founded the Pritchett School Institute in Glasgow, Missouri.

“Legend has it that Berenice Morrison, 17-year-old niece of [Carr Waller] was staying at the home of Pritchett.... The two were observing Coggia's comet pass overhead when Pritchett expressed his desire to have a proper telescope to observe the heavens.

“Morrison, the heir of her deceased parents' considerable fortune, obliged Pritchett's wish. The young woman pledged $100,000 for the construction and endowment of an astronomical observatory at the school. The facility — the first permanent observatory west of Chicago — was completed in 1875 and featured a state-of-the-art Clark telescope.”
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The Morrison Observatory remained in Glasgow after the closing of the Pritchett school in 1926. A decade later it moved a few miles southeast to Central Methodist University where it still stands to this day.

Houstonian: Alumnus leaves mark on university with statue

Information about Ron Mafrige's latest gift to the university appears in today's issue of the Houstonian. A newly erected 15-foot statue of Sam Houston now graces the east mall area between Academic Building One and the Smith-Hutson Business Administration Building:

"The statue of Sam Houston was donated by Mafrige earlier this month. It is sculpted by local artist David Adickes, who Mafrige believes, will eventually be known as one of the better artists of our time. The statue is aptly located adjacent to the Smith-Hutson building, where Mafrige has made such large contributions. Mafrige said the statue adds to the university that carries its name and since it was created by a local artist, offers tradition too.

'I felt the combination of what [Adickes] did with the Sam Houston statue and the fact that he was the artist was a double hit,' Mafrige said.

The location for the statute is one of two selected by an art committee formed by the university. Mafrige is pleased with the placement and Lewis said he couldn't be happier about it."

Today@Sam: Exhibit Reflects ‘Past, Present, Future’

he Political Science Junior Fellows and Huntsville Main Street are showing the “past, present and future” of the city with an art exhibit in the Lowman Student Center Gallery.

“University Corridor: Past, Present and Future” features more than 100 historic photographs, dozens of contemporary photographs specially commissioned for this project and several renderings of future possibilities for the area between downtown Huntsville and SHSU, according to junior fellows adviser and political science visiting professor Mike Yawn.

The “corridor” is an ideal focal point because it “is Huntsville’s street,” said Huntsville Main Street director Harold Hutcheson.

“It was originally called ‘Main Street,’ and for 160 years, it has been a vibrant part of the city,” he said. “We hope to celebrate its rich history.”

The exhibit’s photos date back to 1863 and include such landmarks as the Walker County Courthouse; the district attorney’s office; Rather Park; Old Main; and the Rogers-Baird home, the oldest extant dwelling in Huntsville; the Wynne Home; Gibbs-Powell Home; Sam Houston Memorial Museum; and City Hall.

Local photographers Melody Gathright and Dena Shipley contributed to the exhibit by donating “their time and talents and were wonderful assets to the project,” Yawn said.

Another part of the city’s “past, present and future,” Huntsville’s nine living mayors, will be in attendance at the exhibit’s reception on Monday (April 14), from 5:30-7 p.m. in the gallery.

The exhibit will run through April 25.

Today@Sam: College, Alumna To Remember Bowers At Dedication

SHSU’s College of Education will dedicate a statue donated by the daughter of former university president Elliott Bowers on Tuesday, April 1, 2008.

The ceremony for the Frances Handley Bowers Statue, which depicts a boy pushing a girl on a swing, will be held at 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of the Teacher Education Center.

The statue was given to the university last year by alumna Linda Bowers Rushing and her husband, Charles, who purchased the statue during a fundraiser auction at Alpha Omega Academy, where their daughter teaches.

“It reminded me of how my mother always taught school,” Rushing said. “It was the first thing I saw when I walked through the door, and I decided on the spot that I wanted to buy it.

“It’s very whimsical, and I thought it was a very sweet statue,” she said.

A Huntsville resident for more than 50 years, Frances Handley Bowers’ ties to SHSU and the community ran deep.

She came to Sam Houston State University as a drum major for the Bearkat Marching Band and earned her bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees from the university.

One of her master’s theses was on the history of the Country Campus, “the second largest city in Walker County” that housed 850 veterans after World War II and where the Bowers family had lived for five years, Bowers had said in an interview.

She also taught, mainly the fifth grade, within the Huntsville school district for 23 years and “stayed busy” in the Huntsville community through civic organizations after she retired.

She died in 1999.

A reception will follow in the Teacher Education Center.

Houstonian: Campus Master Plan

The March 6 edition of the Houstonian reports on the Campus Master Plan discussion that was held Wednesday, March 5 on campus. Three potential plans were presented by JJR, as reported in the article:

"Alternative A involves changes with just the current campus layout. Possible plans include more residential areas in the north and south, additional recreational fields and center expansion, more storage and service, three new parking structures, parking on the agricultural campus with shuttle services, street alterations, a new student center, north and south dining, an expanded library, a new hotel/conference center, a new alumni center, a new art office, administrative services in an expanded AB2, a new business school, and a new science building and expansion of the Criminal Justice building.

"Alternative B involves north and south expansion, residential expansion, recreation and athletics expansion, two new parking structures, road changes, removal of the west plant with a new south plant, an expanded student center, a new library, a satellite recreational center on the agriculture camps, a new hotel/conference center on the agricultural campus, the alumni center in a renovated AB2, the library on Sam Houston Avenue behind Austin Hall with a connecting bridge, a new business school, new science building, new admin services, the Criminal Justice building expanded, new art office and reconfigured complex.

"Alternative C involves two new parking structures, with more surface parking and new land acquisitions, possibly selling part of or all of the agricultural portion, a new student center, north dining, new library, expanded recreational center, a new alumni center, a new business school, new science building, new administrative services, expanded Criminal Justice building into the horseshoe and a new and relocated art complex."

Today@Sam: Team To Unveil Three Potential Campus Plans

JJR, of Ann Arbor, Mich., SHSU’s campus planning team, will present three alternatives for the university’s 2010 Master Plan for public consideration on Wednesday, March 5.

The meeting will be held from 3:30-5 p.m. in the Lowman Student Center Theater.

In addition to the 45-minute presentation on the progress of SHSU’s Master Plan, which will include three potential concepts for how the campus could be developed in the future, the open forum will include 45 minutes of interactive dialogue, during which participants will be asked to give feedback and vote on alternative aspects.

The input received will aid the consultant team in identifying a preferred direction for the next steps of the master planning process.