March 2005
2005 Distinguished Alumnus and Athletic Hall of Honor inductees named
Schreiner University has announced its 2005 Distinguished Alumnus and Athletic Hall of Honor inductees: Dr. Tom Pruett and the late Claude R. “Chena”
Gilstrap, respectively. The two will be honored at a banquet on April 9 during Recall.
Dr. Tom Pruett
In his nomination of Dr. Tom Pruett ('50) for the 2005 Distinguished Alumnus award, Ross Harris ('66) says, “Here is an atypical distinguished alumnus—not a check writer, but a deed-doer. A contributor, some would say, to the much bigger cause of his fellow man. I believe that Dr. Pruett shines as a living example of our school motto, 'Learning by heart'.”
Pruett says he had no idea what lay in store for him when he and a few colleagues went to Juarez, Mexico, in 1980 to visit with a missionary couple who were caring for a few dozen small children from the poorest families in town. His group from the Brazosport area expected to offer free dental and eye examinations to the group of children, make a few fixes here and there, and then return home happy with having done good work.
Instead they found that not only had the children never seen a doctor of any kind in their life, neither had the members of their large, extended families. Pruett remembers, “We were underprepared and overwhelmed. Here they came— aunts, uncles, grandparents, even neighbors and friends. People were sleeping in front of the doors to the mission in freezing temperatures just to get a spot in line. Many of the older people were blind, but we knew that relatively
simple cataract surgery could give them back their sight. By mid-week we called an eye surgeon to pack up his tools and come to Juarez. He did, and by Saturday we were performing eye surgery in a converted garage.”
The group returned to Juarez in 1981, and then again in 1982. Each time there were huge numbers of new patients, and the group's need for equipment and supplies began to outrun their resources. They applied for and received a large grant from Rotary International, and began to expand the scope of their free services. His group now distributes thousands of pairs of eyeglasses, acquired
through an innovative eyeglass recycling center located in Houston. And besides eye and dental surgery, they offer plastic surgery to correct children's cleft palates and other congenital deformities that otherwise would condemn
these children to a fringe existence even beyond the suffering of poverty.Pruett's group now conducts two clinics a year in Juarez with a team consisting of optometrists, ophthalmologists, dentists, plastic surgeons, opticians, anesthesiologists, chiropractors, nurses, technicians, cooks, carpenters,
plumbers and electricians. They have completed a modern 7,000 square foot clinic in Juarez, and have been instrumental in starting a similar program in Guerrero, Chihuahua, where, in 2001, the first eye surgery ever available to the poor was performed. That was the start of a program that now rivals the Juarez project in scope.The Mexican Minister of Health recently told Tom that their clinic provides 60 percent of the indigent health care available in the entire state of Chihuahua.
Typical of those whose true vocation is service to others, Pruett insists that he had little to do with the miracles that he has wrought. “We went on one trip to attend to the needs of 65 preschool children, but God obviously had a different
agenda. It is the most gratifying work that I think I can do. We spend billions of dollars on enjoyment in this country, but I have never done anything I enjoyed more than going down there and doing those clinics. It is pure joy.”
Claude R. “Chena” Gilstrap
His Schreiner Institute classmates knew him as “Chena” in the 1930s. Schreiner students and athletes in the 1950s knew him simply and affectionately as “Coach.” Claude R. Gilstrap played many roles during his long and distinguished life—mentor, friend, athlete, visionary, humorist, inspirational leader, colleague, role model, and outstanding citizen.
He was born in 1914 in Granger, Texas, and by the time he got to Schreiner he was already a physical and moral force to be reckoned with. Gilstrap's older brother, H.C. “Bully” Gilstrap, had preceded him to the Institute in 1925
and became famous as the coach who built Schreiner into a football powerhouse. Chena arrived in 1933 as a student and is remembered as one of Schreiner's outstanding athletes.
In 1950, after coaching high school and junior college teams across Texas, the younger Gilstrap took over the reins of Schreiner's football program from Leo Daniels and promptly led the Mountaineers to their most successful season in a decade. He left Schreiner in 1953 to become head football coach and athletic director at Arlington State College—now University of Texas at Arlington—where he spent 22 years and coached more winning teams than
anyone else in that school's history.
During Coach Gilstrap's tenure at Schreiner and again while he was at Arlington State, he was honored as Coach of the Year by regional and national sports organizations, and was inducted into both the Texas Sports Hall of Fame
and the National Football Hall of Fame. Many of Coach's players went on to distinguished careers in sports, public service and business. At his memorial service in 2002, these protégés returned with heartfelt words of praise not
only for his leadership and inspiration, but also for his integrity, dignity, patience, compassion, self-discipline, respect for others, high ideals and ethical standards, and for his sense of humor.
One of these protégés, Bobby Lane, who had been an assistant coach under Chena at Arlington and went on to become a National Football Hall of Famer himself, said“He was probably the greatest motivator of kids I have ever known. If anyone should have a lasting legacy, it's him, for the number of lives he touched and the young men he meant so much to over the years.”
