Standing Tall in Texas

In Texas, there is a hall of fame for just about everyone. The Texas Rangers have theirs in Waco, the cowgirls one in Hereford, and sports stars are memorialized in Arlington. Now there is also the Texas Business Hall of Fame.

Businessmen in Texas have always had an outsize impact, whether they were cattle ranchers, oil wildcatters or the modern-day bankers and real estate financiers. Says Scott Bennett, executive director of the Texas hall: "Business is a state religion in Texas." The Hall of Fame is supposed to be its cathedral, but no permanent site has yet been selected.

Nonetheless, the organizers, a group of Texas business leaders, have already raised $200,000 for Hall of Fame programs. The nine inaugural Hall of Fame members include: two oilmen, W.D. Noel, founder of El Paso Products, and L.F. McCollum, former chairman of Continental Oil Co.; Robert J. Kleberg Jr. of the King Ranch; Jesse Jones, publisher, real estate developer and head of the Reconstruction Finance Corp. during the New Deal; J. Erik Jonsson, former head of Texas Instruments; George and Herman Brown, who developed the giant Brown & Root construction firm; Retailer Charles Tandy of Tandy Corp.; and Arthur Temple, who retired in January as chairman of Temple-Eastex and vice chairman of Time Inc. Three of the four living members, McCollum, Noel and Temple, attended ceremonies last week inaugurating the hall.

The Texas Business Hall of Fame screened a list of 200 potential candidates before coming up with the honorees. One rule is that hall members may not be actively involved in their businesses on a day-to-day basis. That excluded two of the state's richest and best-known businessmen: Bunker and Herbert Hunt. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.