I once wrote an account about meeting the temporary namesake of Fort Cavazos in Killeen (which Pete Hegseth changed back to Fort Hood), and noted that "one of the benefits of being a journalist is that you meet important people at important times in their lives."
So it was with Dr. Billy Frank Cowart, who founded Texas A&M International University in Laredo -but it’s a bit more complicated than that. First of all, I knew Doctor Cowart as “my uncle,” although family tree purists would likely consider him a “Great-Uncle,” but no matter.
The man I knew as “Uncle Billy” spearheaded “Upward Bound“ at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (then known as Texas A&I).
His modest off-campus home was always a lively place full of low-income Hispanic students playing “spoons” with his family and singing songs, with him either playing the guitar or the piano, in the 1960s—during a time of racial strife in South Texas and across the nation. My small hometown (Kingsville), which was home to Texas A&I, was not immune. He ignored the haters and continued to invite minority kids into his home.
Worth noting: He spoke fluent Spanish from growing up in the Rio Grande Valley and fluent German (from his South Texas farming family’s German roots).
After graduating from high school and completing university ROTC, he was assigned to Germany as a young US Army junior officer & translator in Nuremberg during the time of the Nazi trials at the end of World War II.
He seldom spoke of his service there (which I surmised included translating disturbing accounts by Nazi officers of the atrocities they committed), except to acknowledge that the salt and pepper shakers passed to him at lunch in a captured dining hall still bore the Swastika.
His delightfully spunky wife (and my Aunt) Janet was his first love, but Laredo was close behind.
After firmly establishing “Upward Bound” as an institution at Texas A&I in Kingsville, he agreed to accept a transfer to an extremely remote assignment along the Texas-Mexico border.
Improbably, from a study carrel in the Laredo Junior College library, he somehow established the first "upper level" (Junior through Senior) university in Texas on that campus in 1970 as Texas A&I Laredo, which became Laredo State University in 1977 and Texas A&M-International at Laredo in 1993.
The school graduated its first class of students - 21 in all - in 1971
Enrollment grew from 286 students in its first year to almost 9,000 today.
His model of an upper-level-only university was copied by the University of Texas System, which founded two-year campuses in Arlington and Richardson that are today the University of Texas at Arlington & University of Texas at Dallas, and are home to more than 72,000 students.
While TAMIU was being established, Dr. Cowart lived in a nondescript small suburban Laredo home (1,600 square feet - if that), where I visited his family for many years.
I vividly remember accompanying him, his wife, and my cousin to some “over the top” social appearances he was expected to represent his school in the City of Laredo, only to return to his small home in the outlying largely middle-class Del Mar subdivision, where he reminded his family that we had returned to the “real world.”
I am sure he would be gobsmacked to learn that a building on its campus now bears his name.
Sadly, due to Texas A&I’s politics (which also coincided with the two-decade rule of the Martin family’s "El Patrón" machine, that controlled Laredo with an iron fist), for reasons I have never been able to decipher, Dr. Cowart (”Uncle Billy”) was forced out of the campus he founded and loved after 15 years of service in 1984.
He went on to serve as Provost of Western Oregon University and as its Interim President for a time before retiring in 1995.
Dr. Cowart returned to his beloved state of Texas that year and lived in the Hill Country there until his death on Christmas Day in 2021.
I will never be the man that he was, but I shall always endeavor to try.
I wish you could have met him.
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Hi Jack,
This is Rick Cowart.I loved your tribute to my Dad. He was an amazing person to be around. I was him in this last days at Scott and White hospital in Temple, Tx. He will be missed. We also lost my Mom in 2019 from a Stroke. She was an active wonderful person to the end. I live in Oregon now. I moved up here when left the Air Force in 1989. I am now living in The Dalles along the Oregon/Washington border. I am married to a great lady Nickie we have been together for 34 years. We have 3 children and doing great.I get my Bachelor's in '23 and my Masters in '25. My wife is also working on her Doctorate. My Dad is being awarded for his work in Upward Bound during the Texas A&I homecoming game in October 24. I would like to keep in touch with you. Give me a good email address so I can let you know how we are doing.
Rick
Jack,
That's a lovely tribute to your Uncle. He sounds like a great influence on your life. Family ties are so important. Yes, I would love to hear more of your stories. Jack, I pray for your health every single morning.