TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
Judy Kelley Morgan and students at the March 30, 2019 dedication of the soccer field named in her honor.
T he best kind of leadership does not announce itself. It shows up in board meetings that stretch past dinner, in checks written without press releases, and in phone calls returned on Saturday mornings. In Texarkana, that kind of leadership is embodied by Judy Kelley Morgan. Her fingerprints can be found in nearly every nonprofit institution in Texarkana. Not in headlines or grand gestures, but present in organizations that educate students, heal the sick, nurture creativity, and stand with the vulnerable. Her approach to giving is both strategic and deeply personal, marked by a rare combination of business acumen and genuine compassion that makes organizations stronger and communities more resilient. “Over the years, it has been my pleasure to serve on numerous committees with Judy,” says her friend Amy Torrans Thomas. “Through her leadership, I have learned that philanthropy is as much about giving as it is about creating the opportunity for others to give. Judy has a way of inspiring and unifying people to get involved and give back to their community.” Judy’s commitment to service did not emerge from a sudden epiphany or late-life awakening. It was cultivated at the dinner
table, where her father, Jack B. Kelley, demonstrated that business success and community investment are not separate pursuits but intertwined responsibilities. Her mother, Hazel, aspired to live by the Golden Rule, inspiring her children to do the same. Jack B. Kelley’s story reads like an American dream with Texas- sized ambition. Born in Sherman, Texas, in 1916 and transplanted to Amarillo as a boy, he returned from World War II service as a Navy chief petty officer with $500 in separation pay and an entrepreneur’s vision. What he built from that modest stake transformed Amarillo into the “Helium Capital of the World.” By 1946, Kelley became the first civilian to secure a government contract for the purchase and transportation of helium. When the space race accelerated demand in the 1960s, he designed and patented tube trailers that would come to represent 95 percent of United States production. Judy likens her father’s intuitive business venture to that of Henry Ford, who said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” But Jack Kelley’s legacy extends far beyond the compressed gas industry. His name graces the Jack B. Kelley Student Center at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, a gathering place where thousands
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COMMUNITY & CULTURE
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