Class Of ’42 Aggie Honored With Endowed Corps Scholarships

Family members of the late Thomas S. Gillis Jr. of Houston – his wife, Frances Gillis; his daughter, Amy Gillis Schwartz; and his Aggie son, Stratton Gillis – have funded a $100,000 endowment through the Texas A&M Foundation to create a Corps of Cadets 21st Century Scholarship in his memory. Thanks to a kind gesture by five members of the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets, Stratton Gillis subsequently chose to create a second Corps 21 endowment in his father’s name.

Corps 21 endowments perpetually fund scholarships for members of the corps. Each Corps 21 scholarship defrays tuition and other education expenses by more than 20 percent.

A Fort Worth native, Tom Gillis, who died April 19, left an indelible mark on Texas A&M. He was corps commander and valedictorian of A&M’s class of 1942, and was the first straight-A student in Texas A&M’s 66-year history. He was editor of the student newspaper and a member of the Ross Volunteers, the corps’ elite honorary unit. Also, he authored a now-legendary compilation of Texas A&M traditions, the Cadence.

After wartime Army service as a staff member for Gen. George Patton, Tom Gillis was appointed military governor of a German province. Upon returning home, he married Frances Roensch and earned accounting and law degrees. During his lifetime, he practiced both professions, owned an oil tool manufacturing company, authored a book on starting and growing a small business, and taught entrepreneurship, first at the University of Houston, and then at colleges all over the world.

Five Texas A&M cadets attended Tom Gillis’ funeral in Bellville on Muster (April 21), a sacred day of remembrance for Aggies around the globe. The family was touched that the cadets took the time to pay tribute to him and was especially moved when Corps Commander Brent Lanier ’10, who is also a Maroon Coat/student ambassador for the Texas A&M Foundation, presented Frances Gillis with his cadet colonel brass.

“It meant everything for the cadets to show up at the funeral,” Schwartz said. “It was inestimable how much the corps gave my father in terms of business and everything else, and he never failed to acknowledge that.”

Stratton Gillis, a 1977 A&M graduate, decided that a “thank you” was not enough to show his family’s gratitude. “I wanted to make an additional gift to the Foundation to honor the five cadets who came to my father’s funeral,” he said. “I thought that would be an appropriate gesture of appreciation.”

The first recipient of a Thomas S. Gillis Jr. ’42 Corps 21 Scholarship will be selected this fall.