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Red McCombs
The Man, The Money and The Mission
How Texas Entrepreneur Red McCombs Came to be
our Angel Investor
By Pam Losefsky
Naming a Business School
Business, McCombs believes, is the core of society. “Whether you practice business
or any other profession, or you’re involved in a church or a non-profit, if it’s going
to reach its ultimate level, there has to be a core business involved in the entity,
helping it to grow and stretch its vision,” he says. From planning, to fundraising, to
financing and operating, there is a business at the heart of every organization.
And that is precisely why McCombs gave $50 million to the Business School at The
University of Texas.
Through the McCombs Foundation, Red and his family make philanthropic decisions asking the same two questions of every proposal: ‘How great is the need?’ and ‘What will be the impact of the gift?’ “We all know this is a great school,” says McCombs, “But I don’t know how many people think about the kind of impact this school has. It is the blood supply for the growth and the hopes of Texas and the nation.” He continues, “Throughout this state, the nation, and the world, there is someone from the UT Business School operating the central core of a multinational company, a three-man business, a start-up—it’s amazing!” Charline agrees, “I feel confident that a better life for all of us will come to pass in some degree because of the impact that the Red McCombs School of Business will have on future generations.”
Interestingly, the quintessential Texas entrepreneur had never even imagined that his name might some day grace the walls of one of the best business schools in the country. Throughout his entire life he’d held The University of Texas in reverence. “To me it was bigger than life,” he says. “It still is.” Too poor to afford UT’s tuition (and not a good enough football player to earn a scholarship there), it wasn’t until a stint in the Army called him away from Southwestern, and provided him two years later with G.I. benefits, that he was able to attend. He entered in 1947, attending the business school and the law school, but he never graduated. A friend in Corpus Christi convinced him to try selling cars and his immediate success in that endeavor spelled the end of his formal schooling.
“It would never have even entered my mind that there would be any possibility that the UT School of Business could become the Red McCombs School of Business,” he says. “Even with all of my ego and love for the school.” It was something that just dawned on him as he assisted UT’s President Faulkner with the University’s Capital Campaign last spring. Discussions centering on how to make people more aware of the School’s quality and impact and how to take the School to the next level of achievement circled around to the need for a heavy hitter—a donor the caliber of which the School had never seen.
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Since the gift he had in mind had a lot of zeros in it, McCombs called his family together to gather opinions. “I didn’t make any big presentation about it,” he recalls. “But almost before I could get it out of my mouth, they were saying, ‘Dad, go for it, that will be great!’” With that rousing endorsement, McCombs set in motion his proposal to give $50 million to the school—in cash and completely unrestricted—over the next seven years. “Announcement day at the Business School was such a joy for me because Red was so happy and so elated that this gift was actually going to be a reality and make such a difference in so many lives,” says Charline.
At the May 11th press conference, emotions ran high. “Aside from my family, everything else I have ever been involved with in my life pales beside this,” he shared with the audience of students, university officials, and Business School faculty and staff. “This is truly the defining moment of my life.”
And what a moment for the School’s leadership as well. “To receive a gift of this magnitude would make any dean’s heart race,” admits Robert May, dean of the School. “But to receive such a gift from a man with the kind of integrity and vision that Red McCombs has, and from someone who so wonderfully epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit of Texas is just over the top. We couldn’t be more happy or more proud to be the Red McCombs School of Business.”
The kind of advances that the gift enables—endowments to attract more star-quality faculty, scholarships to woo top-tier students, program enhancements to keep pace with industry—are certain to propel the School into a leadership position among those at the top. From his past experiences with McCombs, Marty Wender predicts that within a few short years, the McCombs School will be one of the top three to five schools in the country. “He expects excellence and he makes it happen,” Wender says. “He won’t stand for anything but the best.”
While the immediate excitement of the gift has diminished, the strategic work of deploying it has just begun. For his part, McCombs will leave the planning up to academic officials, “They know better than I do what needs to be done,” he says. But he will be involved in any way he can with the School’s promotion, shining a light on the great things the School has to offer, and its primary product: the students.
Right now, he’s still basking in the joy of his investment. Red McCombs keeps a paper grocery sack underneath his desk holding all of the letters he has received from well-wishers since the announcement of his gift. “I will get around to giving them more appropriate handling,” he says. “But I have been so excited about the whole thing that I just enjoy having them right here.”
The Man, The Money and the Mission Part I
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
