Vernon Faulconer

Tyler oilman and philanthropist Vernon Faulconer died on Friday at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. He was 76.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at Marvin United Methodist Church. A private graveside service will follow at Rose Hill Cemetery in Tyler.

In 1990, Faulconer established the Faulconer Scholarship that has allowed 750 Tyler-area students to attend Tyler Junior College. And in 2008, his gift of $1 million founded the Amy and Vernon E. Faulconer Distinguished Chair in Medical Science at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Faulconer was the 2005 recipient of the T.B. Butler Award.

“He was such a selfless, giving person,” said Dr. Mike Metke, president of Tyler Junior College. “Those scholarships have had such an impact on the community and in the lives of the people who he has helped. He had no natural connection to TJC, but he saw what a value it was, and he became a real partner to us.”

Faulconer Scholarships are awarded to highly motivated African-American and Hispanic students who display a strong desire to advance themselves through higher education. Scholarship recipients receive up to five years of financial support while working toward a bachelor’s degree.

Faulconer Scholars are required to attend TJC for their first two years and may transfer to any accredited college or university in Texas to complete their undergraduate degree.

“These are often the first generation in these families to attend college,” Metke said. “It’s such a wonderful opportunity for them.”

Longtime friend Ron Gleason agreed. Gleason is now the director of the Faulconer Scholars program.

“Vernon Faulconer used his success in the oil and gas business to create opportunities for Tyler students to go to college – students who might not have had the opportunity to go,” he said. “He really believed that the key to opportunity was education. He saw that in his own life, and in the lives of the people around him.”

Gleason said Faulconer was anything but “the stereotypical oil-and-gas man.”

“He was very unique,” Gleason said. “He had a very profound, but a very quiet impact on Tyler. He was very humble, and he was always interested in you. He found value in everyone. And he took a long view, both in his business and in his support of education.”

Faulconer was born on June 4, 1939, in El Dorado, Kansas. He grew up on a dairy farm and attended Grinnell College in Iowa. It was there he met Amy Hamamoto, who was to become his wife.

Faulconer started a small oil-and-gas leasing and equipment firm. As the oil fields in Kansas started to play out, Faulconer moved his family to Tyler in 1970. In 1981, he formed Vernon E. Faulconer Inc. That company now operates wells in nine states.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, two sons, a daughter and a brother.

Visitation is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday at Stewart Family Funeral Home, 7525 Old Jacksonville Highway.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Dallas Museum of Art, 717 Harwood, Dallas, Texas 75201, the Chinati Foundation, 1 Cavalry Row, Marfa, Texas 79843 or any charity.