Brother honored with Mays finance department fellowship

Stuart W. Murff ’73

A new fellowship honoring Stuart W. Murff ’73 has been established to benefit the Finance Department at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School. Stuart is a Fort Worth businessman who is actively involved in community service.

A $100,000 gift from Stuart Murff’s older brother James D. “Don” Murff ’70 and his wife Jeanie endowed the Stuart W. Murff ’73 Fellowship in Finance. “We are pleased to establish this fellowship to honor my brother’s friendship and to commemorate his highly successful business career and his many contributions to his community,” said Don Murff, a retired civil engineer. The fellowship is greatly enhanced by the generous ExxonMobil matching program.

“Don’s decision to honor his brother is consistent with Texas A&M University’s focus on family,” said Mays Dean Jerry Strawser. “Through his generosity, we will be able to attract top graduate students to our Department of Finance and provide support for them during their studies at Mays.”

Stuart Murff is currently managing partner of a private investment partnership formed in 1997 following the sale of Central Bancorporation to Norwest/Wells Fargo. Prior to that, he was president of Central Bancorporation, a publicly held local banking group with $1.1 billion in assets. Stuart previously owned and operated a bank consulting and data processing firm. Following graduate school, he worked in various corporate finance capacities at Mercantile Texas/MCorp a banking group.

He has a BA in economics, an MBA in finance and doctoral studies in economics from Texas A&M. He has been on the faculty of The Graduate School of Banking at Boulder, Colo.

Stuart is an active member of the Fort Worth Community with a particular interest in organizations serving children, having served on the Boards of Lena Pope Homes, The Boys and Girls Clubs, The Tarrant Metropolitan YMCA and Communities in Schools. He was Chairman of The Metropolitan YMCA and on the Board of Trustees for YMCA Foundation and Chairman of Communities in Schools as well as Chairman of CIS Foundation. Through his work in the community, he has been honored with YMCA’s Chi Rho award and the Fort Worth Star Telegram STARS award recognizing community service.

Stuart and his wife Melissa live on a horse farm outside Fort Worth, where they breed, raise and train Three-Day Eventing Sport Horses. They have four children — two of whom are Aggies — and seven grandsons.

James D. “Don” Murff ’70 served in the U.S. Army for five years and is a retired Exxon Research Engineer. He received his BS from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and MS and PhD degrees in civil engineering from Texas A&M. After retirement from Exxon, Don served 10 years as a visiting professor in A&M’s Civil Engineering Department. He now serves as an industry consultant.

Don and Jeanie, a retired nursing home marketing director, live in the Village of the Hills near Austin. They have two sons and two grandchildren.

About Mays Business School

Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School educates more than 5,000 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in accounting, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and supply chain management. Mays consistently ranks among the top public business schools in the country for its undergraduate and MBA programs, and for faculty research. The mission of Mays Business School is creating knowledge and developing ethical leaders for a global society.