Houston. 1836. The new Republic of Texas had just won freedom. Years of tension with Mexico followed by what comes with revolution: detrimental battle leading to Texas blood shed for the liberty and victory of her citizens.
One year later. A Texas Society cultivated to “establish the collection and diffusion of knowledge subscribing fully to the opinion of Lord Chancellor Bacon that “knowledge is power.” So stated by the Philosophical Society of Texas.
That same Society would later possess members to include University President Jesse Rogers, Charles N. Prothro, Kathryn “Kay” Yeager, Elizabeth Yeager, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, former President George W. Bush, former first lady Laura Bush, Sen. Ted Cruz, and former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
“One of the greatest honors I have ever received was being invited membership into the Philosophical Society of Texas,” Jesse Rogers said.
He was announced in 2006 at the annual meeting held that year in Dallas, at the Fairmont Hotel. The topic during the preceding was Texas Tomorrow: The Impact of Immigration.
Annually, the society will gather in a designated location in Texas. The locations vary but all have been documented consistently since the society’s revival in 1936. Each session has a predetermined topic that is presented, it is the theme of the proceeding.
And not just anybody can expect membership.
According to the Society, “Membership is by invitation. Active and associate members must have been born within, or must have resided within, the boundaries of the late Republic of Texas” and “is limited to 200 persons of distinction whose life and character have furthered the purposes for which the Society was established.”
A handful of those distinguished members have roots tied to MSU and Wichita Falls.
“The meetings draw members, their spouses, family and guests, and we all get together. You get to see friends you’re not able to see all of the time”. Rogers said.
It seems there should be an area dedicated to the members who reside in Wichita Falls.
“Sometimes I won’t see Kay [Yeager] all year, but then we are both there at a Philosophical meeting, along with her daughter, Elizabeth,” Rogers said.
One meeting that was particularly educational and interesting for Rogers was held in 2012. The topic was water, the needs of it, costs, and growth in the state.
“The data presented was fascinating. I wish you all could have been there. It all goes back to learning everything you possibly can about every subject you can. Never pass up a chance to learn something. I have become very compassionate about our water situation,” Rogers said.
Along with recycling their used water, the Rogers’ do not run their dishwasher.
“I have learned to wash dishes by hand, even to the surprise of my wife.” Rogers said.
As for the meetings, they are not all about the presentations. The members and guests of the Society get the opportunity to meet people involved in their distinguished organization.
“At a session in Dallas, I kept trying to see the name-tag of a gentleman; it said ‘Steven Weinberg’. He has won a Nobel Prize in physics and studies abstract issues of space, like particle physics, big bang and dark matter. I had to say something to him”. Rogers said.
He continues, “But really, what do you say to Steven Weinberg? I thought for a second and asked him, “Well Mr. Weinberg, what have you been thinking about?” And I guess I asked the right question because he immediately jumped in with “Strange you should ask, I’ve been thinking a lot about dark matter as an intrinsic property of space” and we sat there and had an entire conversation.”
Steven Weinberg and his wife Louise are both active members of the society and both professors at the University of Texas at Austin.
With Rogers in 2006, fellow Wichita Falls resident, Elizabeth Yeager, was inducted.
Elizabeth Yeager is on the Wichita Falls ISD board of trustees and serves as treasurer for the Wichita Falls symphony orchestra. She is the granddaughter of Charles N. Prothro and Elizabeth Perkins-Prothro. Her mother, Kathryn “Kay” Prothro Yeager was the first female mayor of Wichita Falls from 1996–2000.
Kay Prothro Yeager was inaugurated into the Philosophical Society in December 2004 at the meeting held in Denton. There were 22 new members inducted that year and the topic was Texas Military History.
“Our names were announced and we were given our certificate of membership. They told a little bit about each new member and gave us a book on the history of the Philosophical Society of Texas,” Yeager said.
Like Rogers, Yeager remembered the 2012 meeting.
“I found the meeting on water extremely interesting to hear because of what is happening with water here in Wichita Falls. The presentations gave insight and perspective on the water situation and how it is in fact affecting the whole state of Texas,” Yeager said.
Yeager goes to as many Philosophical summits as she can.
“You can’t miss many meetings as an active member. I may have missed only a few times since I was invited membership. I’ve been to meetings in Galveston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, but I could not make it to the meeting in Tyler two weeks ago, I’ve had a lot going on”. Yeager said.
Not just in Wichita Falls, Mrs. Yeager was in Yellowstone because she serves as chair of the board of the Yellowstone National Park Foundation, the park’s official fundraising partner.
In Wichita Falls, she serves as vice president and trustee of the Perkins-Prothro Foundation.
Students and alumni have benefited from the Perkins-Prothro Foundation not only from the generosity in scholarships awarded every semester, but in facilities on the campus itself. There is no question why the College of Humanities and Liberal Arts is named Prothro-Yeager.
Her other namesake is Kay Yeager Coliseum, which was added to the Wichita Falls Multi-Purpose Events Center and completed in 2003.
According to the House of Representatives of the 75th Texas Legislature, Kay Yeager “was appointed to the board of regents of Midwestern State University in 1988, and was reappointed to her second six-year term in 1994; and whereas, elected the first woman to chair MSU’s board of regents in 1991.”
Yeager’s father, Charles N. Prothro was the first citizen of Wichita Falls invited membership into the Philosophical Society of Texas in 1963. He and his wife, Elizabeth Perkins-Prothro, who has also served on the MSU board of regents, attended their first proceeding held in Nacogdoches.
“My father loved going to the Philosophical meetings. Each year has a different topic with presenters from different professions which make the discussions all the more informative,” Yeager said.
The spirit of the founders still lives. The Philosophical Society of Texas continues to possess and inaugurate members having varied backgrounds and unusual personal excellence. They discuss a variety of topics: from the oceans, the land, medicine and medical policy in the 21st century, the arts, the genetic revolution, water, immigration and world population.
Members from the Prothro and Yeager families have been invited into the society because they continue to further the fundamental roots the founders of the society saw the potential for.
And as for Rogers, the Philosophical Society of Texas says he is one out of 200 distinctive citizens the Lone Star State has to offer.
In the memorial adopted at the founding, the Philosophical society knew that they wanted for the future of their new Republic when they wrote, “Texas has her captains let her have her wise men.”
