Fan Support

One person on the riverbank often cheering on Baylor crew is Doris Smith, BA '42. She and her late husband, Vernon, BA '43, JD '48, have supported Baylor for years with their gifts, but when Doris Smith learned last fall that Baylor crew members had to rent their competition boats out of Austin, she provided the funds necessary to purchase an eight-person shell.
Others have chosen to support these hard-working students in their sport as well. H.W. Butcher, a retired employee of Exxon, and his son and daughter-in-law, Frank and Linda Butcher, all of Baytown, donated funds that helped with the purchase of another eight-person boat and construction of a new boathouse at the Baylor Marina named in memory of Mary Lenamon Fife, BA '56, MSE '62, the mother of Linda Butcher, BA '70. Because the Exxon/Mobil Education Foundation is a leader in corporate matching gift programs, H.W. Butcher's gifts to Baylor were matched three-to-one.
"With the help of these generous donors, the crew club has been able to purchase a trailer for the crew boats and one eight-man shell and is in the process of constructing an open-air crew boathouse to secure the boats and preserve them from the elements," says Dr. Kim Scott, director of campus recreation.