Three of Schreiner’s most distinguished former students recently received honors and recognition for their lifetime achievements at the Tribute to Schreiner Legends dinner during Recall 2005 weekend.
The late Claude L. “Chena” Gilstrap ’35 has been inducted into the 2005 Schreiner University Athletic Hall of Honor. In 1950, after coaching high school and junior college teams across Texas, Gilstrap took over the reins of Schreiner’s football program from Leo Daniels and promptly led the Mountaineers to their most successful season in 10 years. He left Schreiner in 1953 to become head football coach and athletic director at Arlington State College, now UTA, 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 then at Arlington, 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 Gilstrap’s players went on to distinguished careers in sports, public service, the professions and business, and at his memorial service in 2002 these protégés returned to Arlington with words of praise, not only for his leadership and inspiration, but also for his integrity, dignity, and compassion.
One of these protégés, Bobby Lane, who had been an assistant coach under Gilstrap at Arlington and went on to become a National Football League 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.”
Dr. Tom Pruett ’50 of Lake Jackson has been honored with the 2005 Distinguished Alumnus award by Schreiner University. 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 any members of their large, extended families. Pruett remembers, “We were under-prepared 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.”
upper left: Bette Gilstrap and family members, Frank and Dorothy Gilstrap; Tommy, Rebecca and Lesie Fitzpatrick;
Kelsey Goodman.
upper right: Dr. Tom Pruett and family: Thomas and Tina Pruett
and Heather and Hayley.
center: Coralie Croom and family: Andrew and Adrianne Wheeler; Shawn, Sterling, Brandon and Kim McCelland; Sally Pena.
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. Pruett’s group now distributes thousands of pairs of eyeglasses, acquired through an innovative eyeglass recycling center located in Houston. 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.
The 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.
The Schreiner Former Students Association proudly and affectionately extends its 2005 Distinguished Service Award to Coralie V. Croom ’46. Croom was the first of three generations of her family to attend Schreiner after which she “married the boy next door” and went on to a long, active life as an Air Force wife, editor of the Wives Club magazine at Chanute AFB, writer for the Air Force Times, and mother of two children. In 1978 she became a charter member of the local chapter of Schreiner Former Students Association and began a long and distinguished “second career” of service to Schreiner through SFSA, serving six years as a SFSA director and three years as a national officer.
Croom’s daughter Tricia ’94 and granddaughter Sally ’02 are both Schreiner graduates, and share her conviction that Schreiner is a unique place for learning, fellowship, and personal growth. Croom grew up in Kerrville and graduated from Tivy High School, coming to Schreiner Institute as a day student since “girls couldn’t live on campus back then.” A bright and capable student, she attended Schreiner on a Garland Lang scholarship but had to hold a number of odd jobs, including assisting in the registrar’s and dean’s offices and “jerking sodas at a downtown drug store” to pay for her books, writing tablets and the other bare necessities of college life.
Croom has special memories of “so many wonderful people who were a part of my early life at Schreiner.” She particularly remembers Pete Martinez, who was band director both at Tivy and at Schreiner, and Major Martin, who taught the Bible in a way that she will never forget. Coralie also has fond memories of Dr. Sam Junkin “running around the campus as a little cadet.” She also enjoys coming to Recall, especially because “on occasion I’m able to unearth secrets of the past, like who exactly shot out the light on the Weir building.”
Front Cover
m, Dr. Tom Pruett and Bette Gilstrap