Friends and Family

The Alvarez Family Endowed Scholarship Fund in business was created by Chad and Tiffany Alvarez of Colleyville, TX. Their son Wes is a member of the Baylor Class of 2022. This scholarship supports finance majors.

Carole Stoker and her family attended an Oct. 15, 2020, ceremony at which the City of Odessa, TX, honored her late husband Ray Stoker Jr., BBA ’62, JD ’64, by renaming a section of Loop 338 the Ray C. Stoker Jr. Memorial Highway. Ray died Aug. 31, 2018, of pulmonary fibrosis. He was a native Odessan, born on Feb. 19, 1939, and attended Odessa High School, where he played quarterback. He was captain of Baylor’s golf team, as was his father, Raymon Stoker, three decades earlier. Ray was a member of Tryon Coterie, which is now part of the Texas Lambda charter of Phi Delta Theta, and briefly played baseball at Baylor. He married Carole, who also attended Baylor, in 1963. Ray was briefing attorney for Chief Justice Robert W. Calvert of the Texas Supreme Court in Austin. After his year at the court, Ray and Carole moved back to Odessa, TX, where he practiced law with the Shafer, Davis, O’Leary and Stoker firm for the next 53 years. In 1986, Ray was appointed to the Texas Highway Department, later renamed the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT). He served under Texas governors Mark White, BBA ’62, JD ’65, Ann Richards, BA ’54, and George W. Bush. Ray became the first TXDOT chairman in 1991 and served until he served until leaving the commission in 1993. He was thereafter chairman of the Texas Good Roads/Transportation Association until 2003, the longest-serving person in that position. Upon Ray’s departure from TXDOT, a ferry boat was named in his honor and continues transporting passengers and vehicles between Galveston, TX, and Port Bolivar, TX. The Ray Stoker Jr. Ferry is green and gold, showing his allegiance to Baylor. Contact at 1435 Sweetbriar Circle, Odessa, TX 79761.