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BUILDING THE VISION SECTION
A Ringing Desire To Give
 The sound of the Bearkat Fight Song resonates through campus at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily from the 65 foot bell tower that now stands in the center of campus.
That tune, among the many the tower can play with its chimes, will hopefully serve as a reminder for alumni of their times at Sam Houston State University and inspire both students and alumni to give back to the university, said Ron Blatchley, an alumnus whose donation led to the building of the tower.
“The whole purpose behind the bell tower was to create something that encourages people to give back to the university that has given so much. It doesn’t have to be millions and millions of dollars; it’s the giving that is important,” Blatchley said.
“We don’t really pay for the full education that we get, because there are so many things that happen on campus that you can’t pay for: the life you live, the friends you make, the atmosphere, the hoopla, all the things that go along with university life,” he said.
The idea to build the bell tower came when Blatchley and his wife Ruth were visiting campus to dedicate a clock in the Alumni Garden, which is west of the Lowman Student Center.
“We heard these bells go off, and they were chimes attached to the side of a building not too far from where we were,” he said. “About that time, (vice president for University Advancement) Frank Holmes said, ‘Someday we’ll relocate those or do something with a tower,’ and it just sparked a thought that maybe that’s something we could do.”
After “kicking around ideas” with university President James F. Gaertner and his wife, Nancy, over dinner, the Blatchleys decided that the tower would be a visible and affordable way to make another gift to the university. Longtime friends of the Gaertners, the Blatchleys met the two while living “two doors down” at the Gintz family apartments when Ron and the future university president attended graduate school at SHSU, Blatchley said.
“We wanted to do something that would be apparent to the visitor on campus, that would bring a smile to the face of the many who might hear it and then to ultimately encourage others to make gifts back to the university,” he said.
An entrepreneur who worked in higher education for 20 years before ultimately moving on to the home-building business in the Bryan/College Station area, Blatchley said he and his wife are thrilled with the finished product, which was dedicated during the 2005 homecoming festivities on Oct. 8, 2005.
“It’s spectacular. I know they embellished it some from what they could afford to do with the monies we gave them, so we’re just absolutely delighted,” Blatchley said, adding that the complete decision-making of the tower’s design was left to the university’s discretion.
“I’ve had two or three people who live here in Bryan/College Station say, ‘Ron, I’ve been in Huntsville, and I heard the bell chimes all the way downtown,’” he said. “It’s just wonderful.
“Sam Houston is one of the least supported by its former students, alumni, of any public institution in the state of Texas,” Blatchley said. “So every time that bell rings, every time they hear those chimes and hopefully get chills when you hear the fight song at 5, it ought to ring the bell for somebody’s thought about ‘what can I do for my university?’”
Ron and Ruth, who have been married for 43 years, live in the Bryan/College Station area.
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