The Award

Past Recipients

Peggy and Lowry  ’57 Mays 

Lowry and Peggy Mays‘ support has elevated our beloved school to higher levels for several decades. It is only fitting that our namesakes are the inaugural honorees of the Peggy and Lowry Mays Impact Award.

In 1996, the school was endowed by Mr. Lowry Mays ’57, founder and CEO of Clear Channel Communications. In honor of this $15 million gift, the college was renamed the Lowry Mays College & Graduate School of Business. In 2002, the school was renamed Mays Business School.

In 2009, Mr. Mays and his wife Peggy continued their investment in Mays Business School with a $7.5 million gift to support a number of endowed faculty chairs, including the Benton Cocanougher Chair which was named on behalf of Benton Cocanougher, dean emeritus and professor emeritus of Mays Business School. The gift also supported one eminent scholar chair in the name of Peggy and L. Lowry Mays, which is currently held by Dean Eli Jones.

In 2010, the Texas A&M Foundation Board of Trustees honored Mr. Mays with its Sterling C. Evans Medal for his philanthropy to Texas A&M. Famous for reshaping the cultural and economic impact of radio, he is well-known for his generosity to Mays Business School and the George Bush Presidential Library.

Jerry ’72 and Kay Cox ’02

Jerry and Kay Cox have long supported Mays Business School with their resources and their time. The Cox Hall  – a wing in the Wehner building that houses Mays Business School – bears their name, in recognition of donations totaling more than $2 million. The pair also created the Jerry and Kay Cox Endowed Chair at Mays and a scholarship fund for the Business Honors Program.

Jerry Cox received a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1971, a master’s degree in theological studies from Houston Baptist University, and an honorary doctorate of laws from Pepperdine University. Kay Cox received a master’s in educational psychology from Texas A&M in 2002.

In 1977, Cox founded Cox & Perkins Exploration, Inc., an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, where he serves as president and chairman. His peers in the oil and gas industry praise Cox as an adroit investor and businessman who operates with high integrity and honesty. Cox is a member of Hydril Company Board of Directors and the Pepperdine University Board of Regents.

He was inducted into the Corps Hall of Honor in 2009 and has been honored as a Distinguished Alumnus by both Mays Business School and The Association of Former Students.

The Cox’s have been major donors behind several enhancements of Texas A&M, including the Cox-McFerrin Center for Aggie Basketball. Jerry Cox has served on many boards and committees at Texas A&M, including the Texas A&M Foundation, the Dean’s Advisory Board at Mays Business School where he serves as chair, and the Corps Development Council. He is a former director and president of the 12th Man Foundation and was the presiding chairman of the One Spirit One Vision campaign.