Vaughan Benjamin Meyer

Vaughan Benjamin Meyer was born December 13, 1920, in Eagle Pass, Texas, the son of Genevieve Curtis Vaughan Meyer and Otto Charles Meyer. He attended school in Eagle Pass and spent summers on the family ranch in Mexico, where he became fluent in Spanish. At age 15, he stood six feet three inches, became center on the basketball team, ran the mile and also played polo, hurting his back, which years later resulted in a painful limp. He was a well-known raconteur, often using himself as target of his own stories. In his words, he would have said 'played basketball badly, ran the mile slowly, and played polo clumsily'. He graduated in 1941 with a degree in mechanical engineering from Rice University, where he was a member of the National Honor Society of The Sigma Xi. He went on to graduate study at California Institute of Technology, cut short by World War II. He joined the Navy as an Ensign and performed ordnance design. He guided engineering projects on miscellaneous ordnance, 40 millimeter anti-aircraft guns and torpedo tubes, making them operable in the extreme cold of the North Sea. He co-authored three Naval Ordnance Standards. At war's end, he was a Lieutenant Commander with recognition from the navies of the United States, Russia and France. In 1946, Meyer moved to San Antonio, where he became manager of Alamo Lumber Company's San Antonio yard and rose to become the firm's Executive Vice President. In 1961, he traded his inherited interest in the lumber company, George C. Vaughan & Sons and bought three lumber yards of the Eagle Pass Lumber Company and five of Alamo Lumber Company to form Eagle Lumber Company of Texas, of which he was President. He later formed Eagle Sand and Gravel, Inc. and in 1964, took over Art Homes, Inc., an Eagle Pass land development and home-building firm. He sold the former Alamo Lumber Company yards in 1973, Eagle Lumber and Eagle Sand and Gravel in 1984 and liquidated Art Homes in 2000 after having developed some 1,000 properties in Eagle Pass. In 1960, Tom Slick named Meyer a Trustee of Southwest Research Center, making him a founding member of the Board of Governors of the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research when it evolved from the Southwest Research Center the following year. He served a term as Chairman and remained on the board for the rest of his life. During his career, Meyer also served as Trustee of the Retina Research Foundation, Vaughan Foundation, Vaughan B. Meyer Foundation and the Raymond Dickson Foundation. He joined his aunt and uncle, the Henry Meyers of Houston, in endowing three chairs at the Baylor College of Medicine. He provided initial funding for the Meyer Professorship in Professional Ethics at Saint Mary's University. The senior dormitory at Saint Mary's Hall and the Argyle Verandah are named in his honor. He served on the boards of the Witte Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, Sunshine Cottage School for Deaf Children and Saint Mary's Hall, of which he also served several terms as Chairman of Development and Board President and Co-authored Saint Mary's Hall The First Century. Due to his background, he also served on the building committees of those institutions. Meyer was a Director of Vaughan & Sons, the Lumberman's Association of Texas, the San Antonio Public Library Foundation, a member of the San Antonio River Corridor Executive Committee and a City of Terrell Hills Councilman and Board of Adjustment Chairman. He was a member of the governing board of the Argyle Club for 45 years, beginning in 1954, and served as its President for five terms. He was also a member of First Presbyterian Church, San Antonio Country Club, Texas Cavaliers and Club Giraud. Meyer loved dogs and one formerly accompanied him to the office daily. He enjoyed swimming (twice daily for many years, joined by one or two Labrador dogs, each evening), reading (two books a week during much of his adult life), travel (including annual stays at his favorite vacation spot, Acapulco for four decades) and the pursuit of genealogy, which led him to write a three-volume, 700 page-plus family genealogy. Meyer was preceded in death by his first wife, Courtenay Langdon Lyon Sargeant, whom he married in 1946; his second wife, Alice Gertrudis King Kleberg Reynolds, whom he married in 1972; and a daughter, Courtenay Langdon Meyer, who died in a horseback-riding accident in 1963. He is survived by his wife, Anne de Rossette Orrison Meyer, whom he married in 1999; two daughters, Catherine Howard (Kitty) Meyer Lange and husband, Rich and Beverly Vaughan Meyer; and by a grandson, Casey Abbott Lange. SERVICE: GRAVESIDE SERVICE TUESDAY 1:00 P.M. MISSION BURIAL PARK SOUTH MEMORIAL SERVICE TUESDAY 2:30 P.M. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH The Rev. Richard Kannwischer officiating. Honorary Pallbearers: Don Anderson, Craig Austin, Louis Bishop, Michael Bruns, A. Baker Duncan, Ben Foster, Jr., Col. Jack Grabda, Vince Green, Dr. August F. Herff, Jr., Dr. Roger Holland, David Kehl, Casey Lange, Rich Lange, Dr. Gresham Orrison, Jerry Pyle, Mike Sweeney, Curtis Vaughan, Jr., and Mel Weingart. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to Southwest Foundation for Bio-Medical Research, 7620 N.W. Loop 410, San Antonio, TX 78227; or Saint Mary's Hall, 9401 Starcrest Dr., San Antonio, TX 78217. Arrangements with Porter Loring Mortuary.