After the wonderful celebration of Lamar's 50th Anniversary on October 17th 1987 on the Lamar school grounds, an interested group of alumni formed (certificate of amendment from the secretary of state dated Dec 19, 1989) the Friends of Lamar Foundation as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The idea was to use the surplus from the event, approximately $50,000, to aid the school. Subsequently, more money was donated in honor of a beloved former math teacher, Lel Red, which increased the amount of money being held to approximately $70,000. This fund was used to create an annual award, named the Ms. Red Award, for the outstanding teacher each year. The award included a gift of $1,000 to a teacher selected by the students. Later, the Powell Foundation created by the parents of Nancy Powell (Class of 1958), Marion Harrison (Class of 1959), and Ben Powell (Class of 1964) made a contribution that further increased the assets of the organization.

The organization name has been changed (May 20, 2005) to the Lamar High School Foundation.

On May 20, 2005, the bylaws were amended to include three groups on the board: three appointed by the Alumni Board, three from the PTO and three from the original Friends of Lamar.

The present board members are:
Richard Bean	(Class of 1962)	Friends of Lamar
Burt Ballanfant	(Class of 1965)	Friends of Lamar
Trudy Hutchins	(Class of 1961)	Friends of Lamar
Sheryl Androphy	(Parent)	Lamar PTO
Linda Ittner	(Parent)	Lamar PTO
Vicki Lange	(Class of 1969)	Lamar PTO
Ellen Heemer	(Class of 1958)	Lamar Alumni
Phil Santamaria	(Class of 1958)	Lamar Alumni
David Redford President	(Class of 1958)	Lamar Alumni

The Foundation has over $100,000 in assets. The board voted recently to give an additional $1,000 teacher award. Last year a four year $1,000 a year scholarship was given to a graduate, Yovel Chapa, who is attending UTSA. More scholarships will be given in the future to deserving students who are usually at least B students, who may not qualify for the larger scholarships. A major mission of the Foundation will be to increase its assets so that more scholarships can be given. The fund raising initiative will be by class. The initial classes with contributions are 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960 and 1961.

If anyone is interested in assisting with this scholarship initiative, please contact Ellen Heemer at 713-668-9005 or any other board member.

There were 10 founding members of Friends of Lamar Foundation (and they were):

Beth Ann Bryan	(Parent)
Richard Bean	(Class of 1962)
Trudy Hutchings Herolz	(Class of 1961)
Kathy Lord	(Parent)
Linda Hamm Lucas	(Class of 1957)
Karen Tellepsen Robinson	(Class of 1959)
Leone Guthrie Reeder	(Class of 1956)
Louis Sklar	(Parent)
George Stubblefield III	(Class of 1954)
Ronnie Veselka	(HISD, later-Lamar Principal 1989 - 1990)

Return to Lamar HS Alumni Home