Houston Couple’s Gift Completes Memorial Student Center Fundraising Campaign

Six years after the launch of a $20 million campaign to renovate and expand the Memorial Student Center (MSC) at Texas A&M University, the Texas A&M Foundation has reached its goal­­ through a $2 million gift from Kaye and Steve Horn of Houston.

The capstone gift for the MSC is one of several contributions to support Texas A&M University the Horns have made over the years. Steve Horn, a 1979 graduate with a degree in petroleum engineering, has been a longtime supporter of his alma mater. The couple previously established two President’s Endowed Scholarships and has also supported the Department of Petroleum Engineering, the Stevenson Companion Animal Life-Care Center at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, and The Association of Former Students.

As a student, Horn served as chairman of the MSC Great Issues Committee, an organization that presented programs on social and economic issues of local, state, national and international importance to the Texas A&M community. He was also on the MSC Council. Today, Horn is managing partner of Ronin Partners LLC, which makes private equity investments in energy companies.

In honor of the Horns’ MSC gift, the university will name the Stephen Horn ’79 Flag Room. According to Tom Reber, interim vice president of the Division of Student Affairs, this is a fitting honor for a person who was such a leader at the MSC during his time as a student.

“This very generous gift from the Horns will preserve the uniqueness of the flag room for current and future generations of Aggies,” said Reber. “Their generosity will allow countless more students and visitors to enjoy the ‘living room’ of campus as the place to study, sleep, visit with friends and listen to the piano.”

While at Texas A&M, Horn was mentored by the legendary Wayne Stark ’39, who played an integral role not only in overseeing the construction of the original MSC but also in the development and implementation of student programs such as the Opera and Performing Arts Society and the Student Conference on National Affairs.

“Considering I was an engineering major, I greatly benefitted from my involvement in MSC programs and my relationship with Wayne Stark. I developed other interests and acquired leadership skills,” Horn said. “Wayne and the MSC experience were responsible for my attending the Harvard MBA program, because I realized that managerial leadership was more interesting to me long-term than being a practicing engineer.”

The MSC also contains significance for Kaye Horn. “I admire the premise that the MSC stands for in honoring soldiers that sacrificed their lives for our freedoms,” she said. “Steve and I are both big history fans, and we recognize that it was those individuals that provided our liberties and our strong country.”

MSC President Zach Rozinsky says the Horns’ gift directly benefits every student at Texas A&M, whether they are involved in the MSC or not. “If it weren’t for generous and committed donors such as the Horn family, the Memorial Student Center and Texas A&M University would not possess the unique capability to develop leaders of character like it has for so many years,” said Rozinsky, a senior industrial distribution major as well as a Texas A&M Foundation Maroon Coat.

The total cost of the MSC renovation, which was completed in April of 2012, was $125 million. Student fees covered about $82 million of the project. The renovation updated the MSC facilities to accommodate a growing student body and comply with standard American with Disabilities Act regulations.

Other significant named spaces within the MSC include the grand ballroom, named for Deborah ’76 and John Bethancourt ’74; 12th Man Hall, named for Trisha and L.C. “Chaz” Neely ’62; the West Courtyard and Garden, named for Betsy and Pete Forster ’63; as well as numerous other rooms and pillars.