Jon Mark Beilue: Getting Their Diplomas — Again

15 Family Support Services employees get WT degrees destroyed in fire

Jim Womack still has his cap and gown from earning his master’s degree from West Texas A&M University in 1990. It has remained in his closet, pulled out once for a Halloween costume party.

But the CEO of Family Support Services (FSS) in Amarillo quickly put on the commencement dress prior to his name being called at a Wednesday staff meeting. With a few laughs and a few claps, he walked to the front to again receive his WT diploma – one of 15 with Family Support Services to do so.

Other than Womack’s impromptu cap and gown, there was little pomp and even less circumstance. Instead, it was a simple and kind gesture from a university to 15 employees, all WT graduates, whose work lives had been turned upside down for the last month.

“It’s obviously very touching in the midst of this chaos,” said Amy Hord, who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work in 1996 and 2011. “It’s something we wouldn’t really have time for until things got settled. It’s very humbling to me and its one less burden to deal with.”

For FSS, their world forever changed in the early hours of Jan. 19.  A fire, possibly started by an electrical malfunction, engulfed the building at 10^th Avenue and Polk Street in downtown Amarillo about 4 a.m. FSS offers professional assistance to victims of sexual assault and family violence, offers family and individual mental health counseling, as well as an array of services to military veterans, families and surviving spouses.

The headquarters for FSS was a total loss. Flames were seen out of the building still at 8:30 a.m. that Sunday morning. Womack, Hord and other FSS employees could only watch in the pre-dawn darkness as their offices and everything that was theirs in that building were consumed.

“To be sitting in the parking lot and watching the building on fire and to be receiving calls of how can we help you and we can offer you this and that – before it even hit the news – was overwhelming,” said Hord, FSS’s director of Behavior Health and Wellness.

WT’s role in recovery didn’t start in the early dawn of the fire, but not long after – like 24 hours later. Hord called Dayna Schertler, the University’s director of Student Counseling Services. Unlike a house fire, an office fire doesn’t completely destroy many personal items.

Yet there are some – framed pictures on a desk, cards and letters. Then there’s college diplomas and professional licensing certificates. Not only is it a symbol of academic achievement that represents commitment, time and money, but for those in Hord’s department, they are required to display them in the workplace.

“So much of the Amarillo community was educated at WT,” said Schertler, who at one time supervised Hord’s clinical licensing. “WT has also contributed so much to the non-profit community. To reach out and keep the connection seemed like something we could do.”

Schertler called Ronnie Hall, whose first day as executive director of the alumni association was that day, Jan. 20, to see if the alumni association could help. That was an unexpected first-day item on Hall’s to-do list.

“I said, ‘Absolutely.’ I loved the idea,” said Hall, who was area coordinator for residential living at WT the previous 26 years. “WT is committed to giving back to them. We want to build lifelong relationships with our alumni.

“This has been a tragedy, but our alumni would want us to step up and help other alumni any way we can. So many people and agencies have reached out to them, and this is a small token on how the University can do what it can.”

There were 15 employees with WT degrees, four of them with two degrees. With the help of Brandy Pacheco in the provost office and Tana Miller in the registrar’s office, they worked on identifying names with degrees and years. There was also the tedious work of securing licenses from state boards for professional counseling, social work and marriage and family counseling.

Hall could have mailed the diplomas or had them available to be picked up. But the University thought they could do better than that. It took more than two weeks, but leather-bound covers were ordered.

In the last month, FSS has piecemealed locations for their services. One division of FSS used a location at 601 SW 10^th Avenue provided by Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch. But for the foreseeable future, the majority of their work will be at the Park West Complex, Building B, at 7116 West I-40, which is owned by the Amarillo ISD.

Last Wednesday, FSS had a working lunch at the Panhandle Turn Center, which is five blocks south of its former headquarters. Among the subway sandwiches and chips, there was a graduation ceremony.

“Family Support Services is vital to the Amarillo and Canyon communities and the Texas Panhandle,” Hall told the group. “From the outside, I’ve seen Amarillo and Canyon rally around your programs because we’ve all been touched by Family Support Services through the years. At WT, we care deeply about our alumni and our hope is that you feel like WT is committed to giving back to you.”

Hall told of a shared tragedy between the two entities. In 1914, four years after the school opened, a gas torch exploded in a worker’s hand in the construction of the administration building. That ignited a large fire. Faculty and students saved what they could.

A fire truck from Amarillo arrived in 32 minutes, but there was little that could be done. The administration building was a pile of ashes in two hours.

“The next day, President Cousins gave his famous speech,” Hall said. “He said the disaster was a temporary inconvenience, and declared great institutions do not burn. If West Texas State is nothing more than brick and mortar, it ought to die.”

Classes resumed the next day, and two years later, in 1916, the four-story administration building, Old Main, opened.

With that, Mandy Houk, Guadalupe Schneider, Patricia Bradford, Dolores Scott, Kathleen Tortoreo, Alexis Roberts, Estefania Chavira, Alicia George, Amy Hord, Terry Stroud, Linley Laster, Jim Womack, Germaine Padilla, Brea Berry and Halei Story received the new old degrees.

“You, too, will rebuild,” Hall said “and come back stronger.”

Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu.

—WTAMU—