Service Award
Ernie Deats
Awarded 2024
Dickinson, Texas
Ernie Deats, recipient of the Sam Houston State University Alumni Association’s 2024 Service Award, embodies the art of elevating one’s community. Since graduating over 60 years ago, he has made it his mission to give back to the institutions that helped define his life and legacy.
Deats earned his bachelor’s degree in 1962 with a double major in physical education and English. While attending what was known at the time as Sam Houston State Teachers College, he quickly established himself as a respected leader among his peers through his service as president of his sophomore class as well as Delta Tau Delta Fraternity.
Following graduation, he spent four years teaching and coaching in the Hitchcock and Refugio Independent School Districts before returning to his hometown of Dickinson, Texas, a tight-knit community in Galveston County that his great-grandfather settled in 1872. Here, he shifted his professional focus to business and has continued his passionate ranching and farming work as owner of K-Bar Ranch. He has also established himself in the industry with a number of successful agricultural-related ventures.
His proudest and most dedicated venture, however, has been his steadfast commitment to the betterment of Dickinson and surrounding areas. His service to his hometown includes vast work with the school district through internal involvement as well as benefit projects. These efforts include helping to purchase and provide 480 bicycles to primary school students as an incentive for reading.
As a published author of over 13 novels, which mainly focus on local history, ranch life and the power of a strong work ethic, Deats has always been an avid storyteller with an appreciation for the written word. All of the profits from his books are given to benefit scholarships for less fortunate students at Dickinson ISD.
In 2010, SHSU’s College of the Mainland Foundation honored Deats as one of the Mainland Heroes for his philanthropy and service to his beloved Dickinson and the surrounding coastal communities. He previously served on COM’s Board of Trustees and SHSU’s University Alumni Association’s Board of Directors. He now stands as a Life Member of the Alumni Association.
One of his life passions is taking care of the Dickinson City Cemetery, a task that has been in his family since his great-grandfather bought the land to build the town’s Methodist Church and first school building in the 1870s. He has donated the site to Dickinson Historical Society to preserve when he is no longer able.
His work in Dickinson has earned him the town’s Citizen of the Year and Community Legend honors. Other charity involvement includes the Dickinson ISD Education Foundation, M.I. Lewis Food Bank and his work in the Methodist Church.
Deats is a firm believer in the power of education and personifies the power of hard work and determination despite humble beginnings. His life and work have never deviated from one of his earliest mantras, which he learned from his mother: it is everyone’s duty to leave their church, city and schools in a better condition than how they found them.