January 27, 2003
McCombs School Welcomes New Endowed Scholarship
Scholarship to honor pioneers in Austin development
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AUSTIN, TEXAS—Before Austin was a vast, sprawling metropolis known for live music, high-tech investors and fast-paced entrepreneurs, Clyde Copus and Nash Phillips had a vision for the city. The two ambitious but humble front men in Austin development foresaw a community where plenty of homes would exist for returning World War II veterans. To realize their vision they established a company where homebuyers could acquire a home on a lot bought, developed and built by Copus and Nash. This one-stop homebuilding shop, with a financial arm to help buyers secure mortgages, was the first of its kind and had a lasting impact on the homebuilding industry.
Now, homebuilding colleagues and friends will honor these two men through an endowed scholarship at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
“We just got together and said, ‘How can we celebrate and commemorate what they have done,’” said Ron Hammonds, a former employee of the Nash Phillips Copus Company (later shortened to NPC) who went on to found his own successful homebuilding company and helped organize the endowment fundraising effort. “The scholarship is intended to honor two wonderful men and keep alive the entrepreneurial spirit they cherished during their careers.”
Hammonds said Copus and Phillips valued their employees and instilled a sense of trust and empowerment in each one. NPC was an incubator for new businesses. Hammonds pointed out that NPC spawned hundreds of new companies across Central Texas and the United States.
“NPC was a household word for 30 or 40 years,” Hammonds said. “It was at a time when Wall Street was not sending any money to homebuilding companies. It was a tough thing to do, but they were fierce competitors and they made it work. They were the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit.”
Phillips and Copus were successful pioneers in homebuilding
beginning in Austin in 1945. The company built continuously
until 1986 and for decades was the largest builder/developer
team in Austin. NPC became the largest privately held
homebuilder in the country during the early ’80s. The company
built tens of thousands of homes not only in Austin, but across
Texas, Colorado and Arizona. Hundreds of companies operating
today have owners and founders who got their start at NPC. Nash
Phillips is still in the homebuilding industry, scouting land
for another company he started, Wilshire Homes. Clyde Copus
passed away in September 2003.
For more information or to contribute to the Clyde Copus and
Nash Phillips Endowed Scholarship, please contact Sandy Dorman,
Director of Individual Giving and Endowments at the McCombs
School, at 512-475-8179 or
sandy.dorman@mccombs.utexas.edu.
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.
