Distinguished Alumni
Thelma Rosser Terry
Awarded 2001
Thelma Rosser Terry was graduated from Groveton High School in 1939, earned her bachelor of business administration degree from Sam Houston State in 1943 and her master of arts in business education from Sam Houston State in 1950.
She taught business education in secondary schools for 44 years, at Groveton from 1942-43 and 1944-86, and Sweeny for 1943-44. She retired from teaching in 1986 with the longest tenure in the history of the Groveton school district, having taught more than 4,500 students in her business education classes.
She has been active in a number of organizations, going back to her student days at Sam Houston State where she was a member of Kappa Delta Pi and Pi Omega Pi (honorary business society).
She is a member of the Gamma Chi Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society, an organization of key women educators, and served in every capacity of the local chapter in Houston and Trinity counties and on several statewide committees for the past 54 years.
She has been a member of the Groveton Reading Club, a study and service organization, for 55 years, and has been instrumental in raising over $100,000 within the last four years for the Trinity County unit of the American Cancer Society. She has been an active member of the Texas Retired Teachers Association since 1986, holding unit and district leadership positions.
She has also been active in the Trinity County Historical commission, First Baptist Church of Groveton, the Japonica Garden Club, and the Groveton Ex-Students Association. She has served as president of that association for the past eight years and executive vice president for four years before that.
In the past 10 years the assets of the association have grown to more than $600,000, and many of the recipients of scholarships provided by the group attended and continue to attend Sam Houston State. Her philanthropy has been inspirational as well.
"Due in large part to her influence, Robert Hutson and I began the Smith-Hutson Scholarship Program, for students requiring financial assistance to attend college," the founder of that program, and one of her former students, wrote in support of her nomination for the Distinguished Alumni Award.
As profiled at the November 9, 2001 Distinguished Alumni Banquet