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March 4, 2005
Sam Attlesey Scholarship Fund Gets
Boost from Dewhurst Dinner Roast
An upcoming dinner roast featuring Lieutenant Governor
David Dewhurst has already generated pledges
of more than $150,000 for the Sam Attlesey
Endowed Scholarship Fund for aspiring journalism students.
The funds that have been pledged for the scholarship account in
connection with the Dewhurst roast exceeds initial expectations
with 12 days remaining before the March 16 event at the Austin
Club.
The success of the fundraising effort surrounding the roast
is all the more impressive when considering that the scholarship
fund at the College of Communication at the University of
Texas at Austin has a current balance of about $32,000.
While the dinner event is already sold out, the total amount
it produces for the Attlesey scholarships could go even
higher with contributors having the ability to donate online
at www.friendsofsam.org.
A capacity crowd expected to be on hand to see Dewhurst
on the grill at the mercy of roasters such as Governor Rick
Perry and State Senators Florence Shapiro,
John Whitmire and Judith Zaffirini.
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The political celebrities will have help from several of
the scribes who write about them including veteran Dallas
Morning News reporter Wayne Slater, who
was the newspaper's bureau chief in Austin while Attlesey
was stationed here for 20 years as a reporter and columnist
covering state and national politics before his death in
2003. Christi Hoppe, the Dallas newspaper's
current Austin bureau chief, and Houston Chronicle Austin
Bureau Chief Clay Robison, the dean of
the Texas Capitol press corps, will be among those who will
take aim at the lieutenant governor with some good-natured
humor in tribute to Attlesey and the scholarship fund. Former
White House Counsel Karen Hughes, who Attlesey
knew well from his days reporting on George W. Bush's
rise from oilman to president, is the honorary chair for
the dinner event.
The cast of characters expected to attend the event includes
State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn,
Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, Agriculture
Commissioner Susan Combs, Railroad Commissioners
Victor Carrillo and Michael Williams,
Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones
and Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson.
Many of Attlesey's former colleagues and competitors from
the press will be at the event as well.
Attlesey had long been one of the state's most respected
and most popular journalists when he was struck by cancer
in 2002 and died a year later after moving back to his family
home in Sulphur Springs. The scholarship fund at UT will
help students who want to pursue a career in journalism.
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