Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Each month, Texas State University President Dr. Kelly Damphousse sits down with faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and community members for a conversation about all things TXST — the past, the present, and the bright future of the university.
Part of the TXST Podcast Network: https://www.txst.edu/podcast-network.html
- What about you? Best advice you ever got?
- I guess, you know, people that gave me advice that you'll never learn anything with your mouth open.
- [Kelly] Yeah, that's good.
- That sort of stuck with me.
- Two ears and one tongue.
- Yeah, that's right, yeah. But I mean, my code is, I think, loyalty. I learned that from my father, and that is really great advice.
- My name's Kelly Damphousse. I'm the president here, and I'm really excited today for an opportunity for me to share with you some background, some backstory from my friend Jack Martin. Jack, thank you for joining us for the podcast.
- Thank you. It's an honor to be here.
- So you and I go way back. So you were actually on the search committee that hired me.
- I was.
- And so, thank you for that. Great choice in hiring. You have a great taste in presidents.
- Well, let me add that it was unanimous.
- Well, tell me more.
- Yeah.
- No. I remember being in the meeting and actually before the meeting kind of reading about-
- Right.
- The people who were on the search committee. And your name kind of stood out to me because you're distinguished alumnus but also a former regent.
- Right.
- And been very active in the world around not just here on campus, but, you know, around the country and had a distinguished career in DC. And I thought your story was fascinating. And the more I read about it, the more interested I was. And actually, you and I have never really had a chance for you to tell me all that you could tell me about your story. So there's a great opportunity for us to do that here in the podcast.
- Well, thank you. It's an honor. When I was chairman of the Board of Regents, we created a search process that we used 30 years later in hiring you.
- You grew up in San Antonio.
- I did.
- And so what brought you to Southwest Texas State all those years ago? Not that many years ago.
- Well, no, it was a long time ago. I was born in a little farming community, Taylor, Texas.
- In Taylor.
- Williamson County. And we moved to San Antonio right before the first grade. And my dad was a firefighter. And when I got to San Marcos, I'd never been on an airplane. And so-
- Is that right?
- This was close to home. I loved the community. It just fit, and I thought I could be at home here, and it's now, you know, the most important place in my life as far as the foundation I had.
- I think a lot of people kind of had that experience, right? You grew up, you know, through grade 12, and then there's a time when your life changes dramatically. And probably the most biggest change is if you get a chance to go to college, that's where things kind of change-
- It did.
- Tremendously for you, yeah.
- Certainly for me.
- And you actually, when you came to campus, eventually got involved in the student politics.
- My first semester I ran for the student senate from our dormitory, which was a brand-new dorm on the campus called Jackson Hall.
- Yeah, a brand-new dorm. It's still standing, by the way.
- I understand. And so I ran for the student senate first semester of my freshman year.
- Why did you do that? Were you involved in student government in high school or?
- No, I was the editor of the newspaper in high school, but I just always had a fascination with politics, and I thought that would be a good way to get involved. And I ran and won by three votes. Really was a real important thing for me to do. In later years, it was a real foundation.
- Yeah, and so you become student body president, and then-
- Well, actually I was president of the student senate, and so there was a distinction.
- [Kelly] Oh, I did not know that.
- But the second semester of my freshman year, the fellow that had the job before me, let's just say, may not have had high academic credentials, and so there was a vacancy. So I ran, and as second semester freshman, became president of the student senate.
- So you're president of the senate. We don't even have that anymore. Now it's like a student body president. And while you're doing that, our very first distinguished alumnus comes back to campus, Lyndon Baines Johnson.
- Well, he was here... I was here in '72 and '73 when he was still active. That was the time that he was here when I was here, and he visited frequently. He was, of course, the most distinguished alumni. And my family were all farmers and country lawyers from his original congressional district.
- Oh, really?
- And so that helped us with a connection, and so I got to know him. I mean, for me, a kid having heard about him all my life, it was like meeting Elvis.
- Yeah, so what was it like? Like, what was he like?
- Well, he was incredible. I mean, he was larger than life. He was on the campus, and he loved interacting with the students. And he wasn't the kind of person that would come here and sit in an office. He'd be all over the campus. Our student government office was in his boarding house when he was here as a student. The university ended up owning it. So I saw him on half a dozen occasions during the last year or so of his life. He was here eight days before he died.
- Yeah, I remember hearing about that. And so you all established this relationship where he knows who you are.
- He knows who I was, but more importantly, he had an aide named Bill Wright, who was a former student body president here and who became a very, in life, a very, to this day, dear friend of mine. And Bill really facilitated my relationship with President Johnson because he was with him all the time, and Bill was in the first class of the LBJ School, and he was an aide to the president. And President Johnson just really encouraged Bill to introduce him to people. So there was a San Marcos connection more than just the president himself.
- And if I remember right, Bill also had another role in you meeting Senator Bentsen.
- Well, Bill, so the last time the president was here, we put on a event for him and filled up an auditorium full of kids so he could speak. It's the last time he spoke in public. And Bill was there, and the president really liked it. And that led to me being recommended to go on Senator Bentsen's staff, and that's where Bill ended up. So, president dies. Bill ends up on Senator Bentsen's staff and then gets me the job.
- And so you graduated from Texas State. Were you working there before you graduated?
- No, I transferred from here to UT Permian.
- [Kelly] Oh, got it.
- Right around my junior year. But I then went to work for Senator Bentsen. I got a job at a council of governments right out of school. But then when I was still 20 years old, Bill got me the job, and I became the travel aide to Senator Bentsen when I was 20.
- And so Senator Bentsen has a huge influence in your life as well, right?
- Yeah, that has a huge influence in my life. Being here and then working for Senator Bentsen probably along with the Perot family are the three huge things in my life. But when I went to work for Senator Bentsen, I didn't own a suit of clothes. I had a sport coat that was way too loud. And let's just say I wasn't schooled in the etiquette of life fully. And so my first suit I ever owned as a aide to Senator Bentsen was when he took me to Dallas and took me to Brooks Brothers to buy me a suit. And 'cause I was with him all the time, I think he was a little embarrassed at the looks of his aide.
- This kid I got hanging around here with the sparkly sport coat.
- So when we went to Dallas to Brooks Brothers, I thought the two guys waiting on us were the Brooks Brothers. He bought me and said, "Here, I got a blue suit." And he said, "Monday through Friday, the pants match the coat. And on the weekends, you can wear a sport coat, but not that one."
- That's hilarious.
- Yeah.
- Besides meeting President Johnson and his aide and then this relationship with Senator Bentsen, talk about other experiences you had at Texas State that were life-altering.
- Yeah, I mean, the whole thing was altering. I had some very dear friends. You know, one of my early mentors in student government was a man by the name of A.D. Muller, who really was the one that encouraged me to take his place. And we had a great group of people all in student government, but it was a small campus. There were 12,000 students. San Marcos was a small town at the time, so it wasn't lost on them that you had 12,000 students now of voting age and a smaller town. And so they began to include us in things like the Chamber of Commerce. And it was great education for me in terms of, we were active in the community and active in politics in the community. It's to this day my favorite experience in my life outside of my family.
- Now you leave here, start working for Senator Bentsen, and then start getting involved in national politics.
- Yeah, well, he was a US senator and one of the most highly respected in the Congress. So that's how I got involved in national politics. But then as time went on, I worked for him from 1975 through really till the end of his career and ended up being his executive assistant, worked in three of his campaigns, ran two of them.
- And the presidential campaign?
- Well, we ran for president briefly in '76. I was still the travel aide at that point, but then as he ascended in terms of his political, he became chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Well, anyway, I got a reputation as a pretty good political consultant, totally thanks to him, by the way. And so I ended up working in national campaigns and started as a senior advisor in Washington to the Democratic National Committee and became very active in politics. Ann Richards had become a dear friend of mine, and ran her campaign. Bob Bullock, my closest friend until he died, was lieutenant governor. I ran his campaign. It really was an important part of my life until one day I quit.
- But you ended up starting-
- Public Strategies.
- Public Strategies.
- Yeah, a firm. That was in 1988. It was right after the last Bentsen campaign. I started a firm called Public Strategies. And in the first few years, we still did some political stuff, but I've always been fascinated with business. My mother was a real estate person, an entrepreneur, and my family on her side were all like small-town entrepreneurs. And so I just was real fascinated with business. And a few years after I started Public Strategies, it became a well-known business advisory firm, and we did work all over the world.
- It's not really a PR firm.
- No.
- It's more of like a-
- It was really more of, if you've got an interaction with the public, they hired us. We really invented something that at the time now's called public affairs, which was unheard of at the time. But we had Fortune 500 clients all over the world.
- You've led a very interesting life, but let's talk about your public service now. How did you get appointed to the Board of Regents? What does that story sound like?
- In my case, Senator Bentsen had run for reelection in 1982, and the person that got elected governor the same year was Mark White, Governor Mark White. And I was sort of credited with having come up with the model that we used to have all of them win.
- Got it.
- It was a surprise that everyone won as big as they did, including Mark White.
- And Ann Richards also-
- Was treasurer. She ran for treasurer at the same time. So that was her first statewide race. Well, anyway, Governor White and I had already been friends since his days as secretary of state, and he knew I was an alum. And I think he had some reason to wanna do something for one of Bentsen's guys that had helped him a lot. And so at the grand age of 30-
- Youngest regent ever.
- Yeah, yeah. He appointed me to the Board of Regents. Within a year or two, I became chairman of the board, and I was also then like 34, so.
- I can't imagine being 34 and being the chair.
- Well-
- Because other people are on the board that are probably far your senior, right?
- When I first went on the board, we had people that had been on there 12 and 18 years. And they were all, you know, in their 60s, 70s. One was in his 80s. So if you can't imagine me being chairman of the board at 34, imagine how they felt.
- Exactly. Who is this guy?
- Yeah, I'm not sure that it was... This required a lot of training on my part in a hurry. But it was a wonderful experience, and we did some incredible things when I was on the board as a group. We got The Wittliff Collections here, for example.
- Huge.
- I sponsored that on the board. We had a controversy about it, and so it got turned down the first time. And so I thought it was very important, and so I sponsored that on the board. As you know, it's become a critical part of the university.
- It's a stopping point of any VIP tour. We're gonna go to The Wittliff Collections, see the Lonesome Dove Collection. But also, there's been a series of collections that have been added over the years.
- Oh, yeah.
- So it's unbelievable that-
- Well, Bill and Sally Wittliff gave an incredible gift to this university, and believe it or not, the Board of Regents turned it down the first time it came up, and then I forced it through. And then Patsy and I gave the first gift to The Wittliff Collections when they started the endowment at the first banquet, and so I'm very proud of that. We also made some advances in campus health, and we also had... As I said, the search that we did for the new president for the first time ever included faculty, students, alumni, townspeople. It was a complete, open national search, first time it had ever happened.
- Looking back, what is your... Like, The Wittliff Collections certainly has gotta be up there. Is there a specific change that you saw happen during your tenure that you think was really game-changing for the university?
- There's a rumor that I might be reflective of the years when this was a party school.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- [Jack] But-
- I've heard that rumor.
- Yeah, yeah, but, but, by the time I became chairman of the board, wiser heads prevailed, and they really moved forward in enhancement of academics here.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- They had already added the Baptist Academy land at that time, but the real design for it and the real explosion of it happened while I was on the board. We got the new library approved while I was on the board. Once again, the coordinating board turned it down the first time. So I happened to have a friend that was chairman of the coordinating board, and he flew down here, and we talked him into it. So that's how we got the new library. But also President Johnson on his last visit here said to us, and you're aware of this because you led this recently, "If you all will put together a speakers program, I'll bring everybody down here that comes to see me." Unfortunately, he died eight days later. But when I got on the board, the very first thing I did is tell the president that I wanted to create the LBJ Distinguished Lecture Series. And I raised the money to start it, and it really didn't achieve, I think, the stature that it has today till you got here.
- I think what it took was having the connection because I think President Johnson could have done that had he lived.
- Right, right.
- Every time someone came, a head of state or whatever, he could have brought them down to San Marcos. And it turns out he wasn't able to do that, and I think we just kind of stalled and spun our wheels for a while. But you helped us do something really special last fall because of your connection with President Bush, where he was able to come and speak to a group of folks. We had an event up in Austin, and that was really... That's the kickstart now to the new, the reimagining of the LBJ Lecture Series.
- Well, it meant a lot to me because I was here at the inception. It was my idea to start it. And then here I have one of the finest human beings I've met in my adult life, George W. Bush, as your speaker.
- And he did a great job. I'll tell you that what was really impressive, you know, there's a system for doing this. And first off, he comes in, and the VIPs come in and take a picture, and it's like a treadmill. You go in, take a picture, and you leave, and the next person comes in. And then he went downstairs, and we had three student groups in little clusters. And we were gonna come in, and he was gonna take a picture with the group. And I was just so impressed that he said, "No, I'm not in a hurry here." And we had a little bit of time anyways, but he said, "Where are you from, and where are you from?" And he knew someone in every county, every hometown. I've heard stories about his familiarity with people and how comfortable he makes people.
- I'll say it again. He's one of the finest human beings I've met in my entire career.
- Yeah, and it's unbelievable, and the students were like in awe at first, but then he made them feel very comfortable.
- Yeah.
- It was interesting. At the end, we had a little bit of time, and I didn't know what we were gonna do. And he said, "Well, Kelly, why don't you and Beth just sit down here, and we'll just talk for a while?" And then before long, Carl Rove came in, and I'm feeling like you probably felt the first time Lyndon Baines Johnson came, like, a little bit in awe of these people you've seen on TV. And who moved you in the past are now sitting in your presence. You know, what was really interesting, like, they said no pictures, no video, no note-taking, and he gave a real honest, from-the-heart talk that to a person everyone said it was like the best thing they ever attended.
- Well, he's a very honest man.
- That probably was the highlight of my time here at Texas State so far. There's more to come. Winning a bowl game helped. That was also a lot of fun. But that moment was really special for us, and I can't wait to keep that momentum going. Again, but it's connections, right?
- Right.
- And knowing people who know people.
- Right. Well, the university attracts a lot of that too. What you've done since you've been here has really helped I think.
- I think, yeah. I think there has been... When I talk to alumni of your era, I think that's a thing they know. First, it's bigger, of course, more students and so on. But it's not just bigger. It's different.
- That's right.
- It's evolved into a place that... And we want this to be the case where you're now proud of what we're doing here.
- Well, I've always been proud of it, but I've never been more proud than I am since you got here.
- Yeah, well, I appreciate that. And you know, one of the jobs I feel like I have is to improve the value of your degree. It's like you've invested in Texas State like buying a stock.
- I'd like to take full credit for your being hired, but as I said, your interview was last, as you know.
- I remember that day.
- And as soon as you interviewed, it was unanimous that we'd found the right person.
- Well, that was a crazy day. It was a long day. I was late. My plane was delayed.
- [Jack] Yeah.
- And we got in a room, and right before I walked in, the person who was running the interview says, "Man, they've had a long day. You're gonna have to bring the energy," and I said, "OK."
- Yeah, well, you did.
- Well, but then you guys, it was so easy to feed off you guys because I felt like there was a real pride in that room-
- There was.
- About the university. And I feel sometimes people discount Texas State because they don't know it very well, but people who do know, people who lived your experience, have an appreciation for what we're doing here. We're changing people's lives here.
- Well, I know most of the people that I know from my era that went to school here to this day say that it shaped their entire life. It certainly did mine.
- Yeah, so many people come here, even now, that are first-generation college students or coming from relatively poor backgrounds-
- Right.
- Maybe not just economically, but also educationally. They didn't go to a great school. And our goal is to make sure that everyone who comes here has the ability to finish and to graduate. Having the biggest freshman class is great, but the biggest graduating class is way more important. Let me talk about two more things before I wrap up. One is you call me a year and a half ago and said, "Hey, I've got an endowment, some money and a scholarship that's going on over this other place here, but I kind of feel like I wanna put it somewhere else. What do you got?" And I was kind of caught off guard. I said, "Well, here, I got this thing, and I got this thing, and I've got this new thing that Beth and I are starting called Leadership Scholars, the President's Leadership Class. And it's a freshman program to teach future leaders on our campus." And you like said, "That's it. That's what I want," like instantly. Like, that caught your attention probably because of your first year here where you learned about being-
- Well, I'm a first-generation college student, and I came here on student loans. And when you told me about it, and then I found out that it was first generation, I think, I was sold. And plus, Kelly, the honest thing is it's you. I mean, the fact that you did it, you started it, and you're here meant a lot to me.
- Well, it means a lot to us now because you and through generation of the Perot family have now funded that program. Once we start getting the endowment put together, all of those students now will be known as Jack Martin Scholars for the rest of eternity as long as that program-
- Everybody that was here when I was in school, they sort of raise an eyebrow when they call us scholars. But the Perot family, as I said, I've had a 35-year relationship with. And when Ross found out about this, he and Sarah gave $2 million to that program, and he loved the whole idea of it. And it is one of the greatest honors in my life.
- Well, we're grateful for him because it honors someone we hold in high esteem. And I mentioned earlier that you're a distinguished alumnus, but a new honor coming your way-
- Yeah.
- Future doctor.
- [Jack] Yeah.
- Yeah, tell me about that.
- Well, I found out that they were gonna give me an honorary doctorate, and I guess the Board of Regents approved that.
- It was a close vote. I had to bend some arms to get that done.
- Well, when I was on the board, everything was a close vote. So when I first heard about it, I thought, "Oh my gosh."
- Don't tell anyone until the vote gets done, right?
- But you got the best chancellor-
- Oh, unbelievable.
- That we could possibly dream of in Brian McCall. And you and Brian bestowed that honor upon me with the approval of the Board of Regents, of course. It brings it all full circle.
- Well, you know,
- I'm so honored.
- The very first honorary doctorate was LBJ.
- I know, and the very first distinguished alumni.
- Yeah, and very first distinguished alumni as well.
- Yeah, I tell people that I've got two college... George Strait and I went to college at the same time here, and I'm a huge fan of his as a human being and a singer. So the fact that I've got two things now that President Johnson and Strait both got, I'm in pretty good company.
- We've kind of come full circle now where you came here, you know, first generation.
- [Jack] Yeah.
- You know, all the cards stacked against you.
- [Jack] Yeah.
- Pretty early on found a leadership role, and now here we are all these years later. You've led the institution through the Board of Regents and now leading it through this PLC program. And your continued support bringing George Bush here and so on. What a great way for you to pay back the university that gave you so much. You've given us so much by doing that.
- Well, I mean, I got the most out of it. So, it changed my life.
- All right, Jack, we're now at the point now where you get to be the podcast interviewer.
- Thank you.
- Give you that. This is a question that's been submitted by one of our listeners.
- So here's the question. "What's a piece of advice you've received that you've always remembered?"
- This is easy. You know, you and I were just talking about our kids before we started here. When I was having our first child, the oldest child, my mentor, Ben Crouch, at Texas A&M and I were sitting in a car. He said, "There's a difference between being a dad and a father. Biologically anyone can be a father, but it takes something special to be a dad. And you've gotta work at this." And he said, "When you have your first child, you have no idea how tired you're gonna be. You're gonna lose sleep, and you'll be tired all the time. And there'll be times you'll come home, and you'll be too tired to give them a bath." But he said, "Play this game with yourself. Pretend when you're tired that you are an old man laying on your deathbed, and you're being granted a wish." He said, "I guarantee you'll never say, 'I wish I had one more meeting, one more cabinet meeting or one more donor visit or one more graduation ceremony.' Your wish will be to go back in time and spend time with your kids."
- That's so true.
- And so he says, "When your daughter needs a bath, play a game that you've got your wish." And I never gave my daughters a bath or got them dressed late at night for bed without thinking about Dr. Crouch telling me that I got my wish. It's the best advice I ever got.
- Well, I've seen you as a family person and a dad, and I think his advice stuck 'cause you're great.
- It definitely did. What about you? Best advice you ever got?
- I guess, you know, people that gave me advice that you'll never learn anything with your mouth open.
- [Kelly] Yeah, that's good.
- That sort of stuck with me.
- Two ears and one tongue, right?
- Yeah, that's right. But I mean, my code is, I think, loyalty. I learned that from my father, and that is really great advice.
- Yeah, I read a story about you one time where they were talking about an introverted leader. And you were in a room, and everyone's talking, and you weren't saying anything. And at some point they all stopped and said, "Well, Jack, what do you think?" And it was kind of like E.F. Hutton. When he's speaking-
- Well, usually 'cause I didn't know what to say, so, but it works sometimes-
- That lesson stuck with you too.
- Sometimes if you talk last, it works better.
- We're super proud of you, Jack. Thank you for all you do for us.
- Well, I'm so grateful to you and the whole group and the institution, and you're just doing a fine job.
- Well, thank you, appreciate that. And thank you all for joining us. Can't wait to see you back next time on "The Current."