Foundation Grant Benefits Texas Tech Summer Institute

Texas Tech has received a second $100,000 grant from the J. F Maddox Foundation to fund the Texas Tech Summer Institute.

The two-year residential summer program targets incoming sophomores from the five high schools in Lea County, N.M., and offers them an opportunity to participate in a dynamic and realistic college experience.

During the program, students attend academic enrichment classes in university classrooms, seminars about attending college and participate in daily recreational activities. Academic enrichment classes are offered in the following disciplines: architecture, art, animal science, law, green engineering, theater arts, anatomy and physiology, laboratory science, robotics and forensics.

Each participant attends a morning and afternoon class followed by a mentoring session that focuses on issues facing many college students. The mentors for the sessions are Texas Tech students from a variety of student organizations.

The Texas Tech Summer Institute is organized through the IDEAL program, a unit of the Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement. It was first implemented in 2009.

The Maddox Legacy

Jack and Donovan Maddox both majored in Textile Engineering, both served as Student Government Association presidents, and were recognized as Distinguished Engineers and as Distinguished Alumni.

Donovan, younger brother of Jack Maddox, graduated in 1934 and served as Student Government Association president in 1931-32. He was named a Distinguished Engineer in 1971 and a Distinguished Alumnus in 1972. Donovan was selected by the Alumni Association to receive the Lauro F. Cavazos Award in 1988. Donovan, who died in 1993, had a long and successful career as a textile executive, primarily in Gastonia, N.C. He succeeded Jack as chairman and CEO of New Mexico Electric Service Co. and related entities in Hobbs, N.M. in 1978.

Jack and Mabel Maddox established the J. F Maddox Foundation in 1963 to serve the citizens of southeastern New Mexico. Donovan served as president of the J. F Maddox Foundation from Jack’s death in 1978 until 1990. Additionally, Donovan made certain that the first major grant by the Maddox Foundation after the settlement of Jack’s estate in the early 1980s be made to create the Jack Maddox Distinguished Engineering Chair, in honor of Jack. The J. F Maddox Foundation, a nonprofit corporation based in Hobbs, is governed by a board of directors primarily composed of Donovan Maddox’s two sons, Don and Jim, and their children.