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Sept. 24, 2003

Blinn Ex-Students Association to recognize outstanding alumni, person of the year

The Blinn College Ex-Students Association will present its first Outstanding Alumni and Person of the Year awards during homecoming on Oct. 11.

The first Outstanding Alumni honorees will include Teddy Boehm, Rosa Lee Fuchs and Mr. and Mrs. Waldo Moeller. A posthumous award will be presented to the late Walter Schwartz. The recipient of the Person of the Year award will actually be two persons—Dr. and Mrs. W.W. O’Donnell.

Teddy Boehm	Rosa Lee Fuchs	Edna Moeller	Waldo Moeller
Walter Schwartz	Regina O'Donnell	Dr. W. W. O'Donnell

The honorees will be recognized during the association’s annual meeting beginning at 1 p.m. in the campus student center banquet room.

Boehm attended Blinn in the late 50s after graduating from Giddings High School in 1956. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas in 1959 and her master’s degree from Texas A&M in 2001.

She is married to Dr. Henry J. Boehm Jr., a local family physician, and they have four children and 11 grandchildren. Presently she is a partner in a family partnership operating her husband’s family medicine office.

Boehm is a member of the Blinn College Foundation board of directors and the Blinn College Ex-Students Association. She and her husband are seat patrons for the Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center.

Her numerous volunteer and service activities include: the board of Trinity Medical Center, the Brenham Economic Development Foundation where she is the first female member, and the Washington County Women’s Leadership Forum.

Other organizations in which she is involved include the Texas Academy of Family Physicians Foundation and the academy’s auxiliary, Washington-Burleson County Medical Auxiliary, Washington County Goodfellows, Washington County Historical Commission, German-Texan Heritage Society, Heritage Society of Washington County, Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Burton Cotton Gin Museum, Independence Historical Society, Brenham Fortnightly Club, University of Texas Ex-Students Association, Washington County Council and Washington County Genealogical Society. She is also active in her church, Grace Lutheran Church of Brenham.

Fuchs attended Blinn in the early 40s after graduating from Brenham High School. In 1949 she became Washington County treasurer and held that elected position for the next 41 years.

She was a charter member of the County Treasurer’s Association of Texas, which was founded in 1949. In 1976 she was honored as the "Outstanding Treasurer of Texas." She was elected president of the CTAT in 1985. She retired as county treasurer in 1990. In 1999 the CTAT adopted a resolution honoring Miss Fuchs as "matriarch of the association." At the same time she was also saluted by the V.G. Young Institute of County Government, the Texas Agriculture Extension Service and the Texas A&M University System. She was one of the founders of the Young Institute.

Among her many honors and awards are: Public Service Award from the Washington County EMS in 1987 and Washington County Outstanding Service and Leadership plaque in 1990. She has received the Washington County Chamber of Commerce Woman of the Year Award, the Washington County Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Award, Brenham Maifest Hall of Fame induction and a certificate of service from the State of Texas and the Texas House of Representatives.

Her numerous volunteer service interests include the American Legion and Disabled American Veteran auxiliaries, Pilot Club, Brenham Business and Professional Club, Washington County Chamber of Commerce, Beta Sigma Phi, American Cancer Society, Brenham Maifest Association and Washington County Fair Association. Fuchs received the 100-1000 hours of volunteer service pins at Olin E. Teague Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Temple and at local rest homes for visiting and assisting the war wounded veterans. She has also been active in her church, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Brenham.

She is a member of the Blinn College Ex-Students Association and is a seat patron in the O’Donnell Center.

Waldo Moeller attended Blinn and his wife, Edna, did not, but both are being honored because of their joint contributions to the college.

In 2001, the couple presented a donation to the college that made possible the renovation of the former performing arts theater into a new state-of-the-art studio theater within the Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center. The MRW Theater is named in honor of the Moeller, Reue and Weiss families.

Attending Blinn is a tradition that extends several generations in the Moeller family. Waldo Moeller earned his associate’s degree in 1950. His brother, four nephews, daughter, son, son-in-law and four grandchildren all attended Blinn, as did his four uncles Paul, Ernest, Edwin and Herman Weiss.

Edna Moeller did not attend, but her first husband, the late Alfred Reue, and her two sons did.

The couple are both members of the Blinn Ex-Students Association and are seat patrons for the O’Donnell Center.

Waldo Moeller is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, having served in the South Pacific during World War II. He started his own independent electrical contracting business in 1950, and then in 1960 went commercial and worked on projects throughout Southeast Texas. He was the electrical contractor on many of the building projects on the Blinn campus. He retired in 1996.

Edna Moeller was the Brenham Middle School nurse from 1980 to 1996.

In retirement the couple enjoys traveling and music and their blended family of four children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

They are active in their church, Salem Lutheran Church of Salem, and in the Industry Lions Club, Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion.

The late Walter C. Schwartz served Blinn for more than 50 years and, at his passing in July, was the chancellor of the college.

The Burton native attended Blinn in the early 40s after graduating from Brenham High School. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and his master’s degree from the University of Houston. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Japan during World War II.

He began his career at Blinn in 1948 as a night school instructor for returning veterans. From 1959 to 1984 he served as dean of students, and in 1984 he became the 11th president of the college. In 1994 he became the first chancellor. During his 10 years as president, Blinn’s enrollment grew from 3,500 to more than 9,000 students on campuses in Brenham and at several locations in Bryan/College Station. Near the end of his presidency he was instrumental in the initial steps taken to consolidate the Brazos County campuses into one unified campus at its current location. As chancellor he saw the college grow to more than 12,000 students and add a campus in Schulenburg.

Also important to Schwartz was the development of the college’s endowed scholarship program which consisted of six scholarships in 1984 and today has more that 130 valued at more than $6 million. Among them are four scholarships established either by or in honor of members of the Schwartz family.

In 1988 he received the Most Distinguished College President award from Phi Theta Kappa international academic honor society. A residence hall for men on the Brenham campus bears his name, and in 1990 the new student center was dedicated in his honor.

He also held numerous public offices including: two terms in the Texas Legislature from 1954-1959, membership on the Brenham City Council from 1982-84 and 1962-70 and the position of mayor of Brenham from 1994 until his death.

He was involved in numerous civic organizations including Washington County Little League, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Boys and Girl Scouts, United Way, March of Dimes, Brenham Maifest Association, Bohne Memorial Hospital, Trinity Medical Center and Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park Association. He was a member of the Blinn Ex-Students Association. He was also active in his church, First United Methodist Church of Brenham.

His family includes his wife, the former Annie Belle Kuehn, also a Blinn graduate, and their three children—all Blinn graduates—and four grandchildren.

The O’Donnells are being honored as Person(s) of the Year because they too work in tandem in support of the college.

In 1999, the couple made a major contribution to renovate and expand the performing arts building on the Brenham campus resulting in a center that has provided cultural and entertainment opportunities for the college community as well as the community at large.

The Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center opened in August 2001 and the couple has missed few performances since.

The retired physician and his wife, Regina, a retired nurse, live in the Wesley community where they raise commercial cattle on their Bar ‘O’ Ranch.

They have been property owners in Washington County since 1958 and residents since their retirement in 1988.

Dr. O’Donnell, a native of Columbus, Ohio, received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Ohio State University and his master’s degree from Kansas State University. He earned his medical degree from Baylor Medical School in 1952. He spent 35 years in private practice in Houston.

Mrs. O’Donnell is a native of Eveleth, Minn., and attended nursing school in Duluth. She became the head pediatric nurse at Hermann Hospital in Houston and was later hired as the first nurse at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston when it opened. She went to work for her husband’s private practice in 1958.

In addition to making the O’Donnell Center possible with their donation, O’Donnells are also seat patrons.

The Blinn College Ex-Students Association is open to all interested persons. Membership dues for the association are $10 annually or $100 for a one-time life membership.