Vernon Faulconer’s interests were as wide as his impact on East Texas has been. Faulconer died on Aug. 7. He was 76.

The Tyler oilman and philanthropist will be remembered by the many, many Tyler area minority students who have benefited from the Faulconer Scholarship, which he established in 1990. 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’s example of philanthropy – with a focus toward specific outcomes – is something to be applauded and emulated. Sometimes, the urge to endow programs results in too great an emphasis on the donor, and too little on the recipient. Faulconer’s model brings about maximum impact, and ensures that the benefits will be seen by this community and others for many years to come.

Many of the 750 students – so far – who have benefited from the Faulconer Scholarships began their education at Tyler Junior College.

“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.”

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 explained. “He really believed that the key to opportunity was education.”

In 2008, Faulconer’s gift of $1 million founded the Amy and Vernon E. Faulconer Distinguished Chair in Medical Science at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Houston.

But Faulconer’s wide-ranging interests also included art. The Dallas Museum of Art benefited from his generosity.

“Vern Faulconer was a selfless and discerning supporter of the Dallas Museum of Art. Beneath his gentle and self-effacing manner was a man enthralled by the highest forms of contemporary creativity, and generous beyond measure in his support of the Museum,” said Maxwell L. Anderson, the Eugene McDermott director of the museum. “We have lost one of our greatest friends.”

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