Texas Techsan magazine (2026)

02/11/2025

Join us to celebrate five extraordinary Red Raiders at the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Dinner on Nov. 14 at the McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center. The event will begin with a reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m. This year’s Distinguished Alumni are Joseph Imamura, Ph.D. '00, '06, '07, '12, '16; Dan Taylor '64, '68; and Christopher Zook, Sr. '90 and Lisa LaBrant Zook '89. Carrie Phillips '22 will receive the Raider on the Rise Award.

Tickets are on sale now at texastechalumni.org/DADinner.

13/10/2025

Fall is in the air and the fall Texas Techsan is in mailboxes! Inside this issue, you can read about art and innovation on campus and about alumni who are doing exciting things in their lives. To receive the magazine and to take advantage of the opportunities that membership in the Texas Tech Alumni Association offers, join us by visiting http://www.texastechalumni.org.

11/09/2025

PHILLIS INEZ BRUCHMILLER - BS '71
"The classes I liked the most were some of my child development classes and working in the child development lab that we had there. We were required to do that, but I didn't mind. It was a joy to do it. My nutrition and culinary classes led to being what I really went into quite a bit. I ended up being a culinary teacher in high school and teaching other kids to get ready to work in restaurants. I ended up doing that my first year right before I went into regular teaching. The job I wanted was not available in the South. They had one where it was a preschool, and they said, 'We have this right now and then next year we can get you into the high school.' I took that, and I was glad I had taken that. I had all that child development and live experience because it came in quite handy doing that. Even though it was just one semester of me doing that, it helped a whole lot. I was able to get jobs that I wanted fairly easy and without a lot of work. I worked in five different districts in the 36 years that I taught."

“Every Red Raider has a story,” and Matador Memories exemplifies that. We will be sharing some of those stories here. Enjoy!
A limited number of published copies of Matador Memories is available for purchase, which includes a one-year membership in TTAA. Contact the TTAA at [email protected] for more info.
Texas Tech Alumni Association

04/09/2025

MEREDITH LEE MARTIN - MA '12
"I chose Texas Tech because both of my parents went there. My mom was born and raised in Lubbock. When I was visiting my grandparents, we would walk around Tech campus all the time. My mother's maiden name is Jones, so when I was really little my parents took me to football games and I believed we owned the stadium. I love Tech and I miss it. The faculty was incredible and my advisor was a godsend. Dr. Mark Gring really helped me through the thesis process, being a grad student, and trying to figure out how that whole world worked. My cohort was phenomenal. We started together and were teaching assistants together. Those are still some of the absolute best friends I have today. Everything was great. I come back frequently. I have season tickets, so I come back for football games. Tech prepared me incredibly well to be a PhD student, which is a fact I did not appreciate until I got into the PhD program at Texas Woman's University. They prepped me well to do research, work in the academic arena, go to conferences, and do all of that stuff that I had no idea I was going to be doing. Some of my closest friends I made at Tech. It's a family and legacy thing. We are all so very proud to be Red Raiders. It's been really special to be part of Texas Tech and continue the Red Raider legacy with my family."
“Every Red Raider has a story,” and Matador Memories exemplifies that. We will be sharing some of those stories here. Enjoy!
A limited number of published copies of Matador Memories is available for purchase, which includes a one-year membership in TTAA. Contact the TTAA at [email protected] for more info.
Texas Tech Alumni Association

28/08/2025

LILIANA VALERIA LAZARIN - RDH, BS
"Once I was there, I knew I was going to go to Texas Tech and that's where I wanted to come. Besides getting that experience of moving away to a different city, I actually applied to study abroad and got a scholarship to study in Australia. I did the spring semester, January to July, of my junior year there. It opened my eyes to the world and to know that there's more than just where I am. It helped me grow as a person, and I developed friendships with people who are still living over there. We keep in touch through social media. Looking back, I don't think studying abroad was very advertised when I was there, and I don't know what got me thinking that I wanted to study abroad. That's when I went to the office where they do all of that and then went through the process and everything. I had to seek it because there's an opportunity there. It definitely took some time getting used to how Australians speak because it's English, but they would talk so fast. I was like, 'I have no idea what you just said.' I know English, but the slang and the accent, took a little bit of time to get my ear used to hearing them talk. I think my favorite part was that any beach is beautiful. Sydney is super nice."
“Every Red Raider has a story,” and Matador Memories exemplifies that. We will be sharing some of those stories here. Enjoy!
A limited number of published copies of Matador Memories is available for purchase, which includes a one-year membership in TTAA. Contact the TTAA at [email protected] for more info.
Texas Tech Alumni Association

21/08/2025

MARTINA R. VELASCO - BA '19
"Honestly, I think it was the fact that I applied to a lot of colleges in Texas, but none of them drew me in. I applied just to apply and see if I got in, but Texas Tech was different. At first, I didn't really know much about Texas Tech, and that's why I liked it. Also, it was also four-and-a-half hours away from home, so it wasn't too far, but wasn't too close either. I was part of Pegasus, a first-generation student organization, in TRIO, and then I was in HOSA. I had one favorite professor during my senior year; her name was Dr. Nadia Flores. I was the first member of my family to attend college. What made a great impression on me was the trees and the artwork on campus made it really beautiful, especially in the summertime. It just felt homey to me, and it was very beautiful, and I was like, 'You know what, I could live here.' What makes me smile or laugh was going to all the games I went to: the basketball games, football games, and all the games in general. My family doesn't really watch sports, and for some reason growing up, I would always love watching sports. Whenever I would go to the games, I would be really into it. I would get crazy a little and start yelling. Sometimes I would embarrass my friends, but you know we had a good time, and it's one of the things I miss the most. Honestly, it made me look at life differently. Because of going to college, there were a lot of hardships I had to overcome. Being so far away from my parents and dealing with financial aid, I thought I wasn't going to make it. I was just going to have all this debt, and I was not going to have anything to show for all my hard work. Now that I am graduated, I think back to those times and how I thought my life was over, how I did not want to be in college anymore, and just wanted to come home. Honestly, those years that I spent at Tech were some of the best years of my life, and at the time, I didn't see that."
“Every Red Raider has a story,” and Matador Memories exemplifies that. We will be sharing some of those stories here. Enjoy!
A limited number of published copies of Matador Memories is available for purchase, which includes a one-year membership in TTAA. Contact the TTAA at [email protected] for more info.
Texas Tech Alumni Association

14/08/2025

H. DON DAVIS - BS '70
"I grew up in Midland, and I have relatives who went to Tech. My cousin, who was 12 years older than me, went there and took mechanical engineering. My first wife, her father, and her three brothers went there, as well. My son, Jon Davis, went there and played football from 1991 to 1995. I went to Odessa College for my first two years. When I got married, my wife and I moved up to Tech, and we lived off campus. We had a mobile home. In my senior year, we moved to Levelland where she had a job, and I commuted from Levelland to the university. Four of my professors became my mentors, and one of them was Dr. H. R. Heichelheim in chemical engineering. Dr. A. J. Gulley was the chairman of the department at that time. For me, the Tech engineering program was much more practical than the other programs in other schools. After I got my degree, I went to work for Shell Chemical in Deer Park, Texas. I left Shell in 1974 to go to work for a very small engineering firm, Petronas. We grew that company from five employees to 110 or so by 1979. In early 1980, I left Petromas and joined with Ergon, Inc., in Jackson, Mississippi, as vice president of refining. Ergon owned a small crude oil topping plant in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I spent the next 37 years with Ergon growing our oil refining businesses. At the time of my retirement, we were selling specialty oils delivered to customers in 80-plus countries. The founder of Ergon always told the story that he 'had to have a Texan running things if you wanted to be successful in the oil business.' I retired in 2017 and am working as a consultant from my home office in the Florida panhandle near Destin, Florida. I have four daughters, one son, and seven grandsons."

“Every Red Raider has a story,” and Matador Memories exemplifies that. We will be sharing some of those stories her“Every Red Raider has a story,” and Matador Memories exemplifies that. We will be sharing some of those stories her . Enjoy!
A limited number of published copies of Matador Memories is available for purchase, which includes a one-year membership in TTAA. Contact the TTAA at [email protected] for more info.
Texas Tech Alumni Association

07/08/2025

SHERRY L. BELL (KADING) - BSE '77
"My dad was a big Tech fan, and he thought that Tech was the only school his kids could go to. I never looked back, and I loved it. I lived in Wall Hall for two years and roomed with my best friend from high school. I started dating my future husband in my freshman year. We are still married. After graduating, we moved back to Midland where I taught and went on to receive a master's degree. My career was definitely as an educator. I believe that a successful career depends on studying what you love. It was the advice my dad gave me, and it certainly holds true."
“Every Red Raider has a story,” and Matador Memories exemplifies that. We will be sharing some of those stories here. Enjoy!
A limited number of published copies of Matador Memories is available for purchase, which includes a one-year membership in TTAA. Contact the TTAA at [email protected] for more info.
Texas Tech Alumni Association

31/07/2025

DR. JUDY "CALDWELL" COPELAND ASHCROFT - MA '69; BA '73; EDD '91
"After I finished my bachelor's degree, I taught at Lubbock High School for three years while working on my master's degree. I worked in continuing education on campus and while I was doing that, I was working on my doctorate. I got really good at time management. Just before I finished my doctorate, we started some of the very first online learning platforms. We started the Correspondence Courses and Texas Tech Online High School, which is still going strong. Now that everybody's confined all of a sudden, their enrollment must be going up. When I did that, I was in a couple of professional groups and I became a specialist in online learning."
“Every Red Raider has a story,” and Matador Memories exemplifies that. We will be sharing some of those stories here. Enjoy!
A limited number of published copies of Matador Memories is available for purchase, which includes a one-year membership in TTAA. Contact the TTAA at [email protected] for more info.
Texas Tech Alumni Association

24/07/2025

WALTER "TERRY" TERRIS WINN, JR. - BS '72; MS '73

"I got a world-class education at Tech. I competed with graduates from other universities all my career, and I found myself as well-prepared or better-prepared than those people. I think success most of the time is due to individual effort and desire. My assessment is that the people that get out of Texas Tech have both of these things, but it certainly started out with a great education."
“Every Red Raider has a story,” and Matador Memories exemplifies that. We will be sharing some of those stories here. Enjoy!
A limited number of published copies of Matador Memories is available for purchase, which includes a one-year membership in TTAA. Contact the TTAA at [email protected] for more info.
Texas Tech Alumni Association

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Texas Techsan magazine

02/11/2025

13/10/2025

11/09/2025

04/09/2025

28/08/2025

21/08/2025

14/08/2025

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