The Story of Oilman Earl Hankamer: Sharing the Wealth

Summary

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Picture Earl C. Hankamer, benefactor of Baylor's Hankamer School of Business, with the soft smile and neatly combed hair that many people know from photographs. Hankamer was born Jan 16, 1892. His education began in a small, one-room building three miles from his home, according to The First Seventy Years, a history of the business school at Baylor written by Dr. Emersson O. Henke and Judith A. Corwin. He left home at the age of 13 to work in his married brother Roy's dry-good store in Sour Lake, TX, and live with Roy and his wife, Rosa. By night, he sold the Houston Chronicle on the streets of Hankamer. Eventually he saved $1,000, which paid his way to Baylor -- then named Baylor Academy -- in Waco. In 1938, Earl Hankamer left the mercantile business, giving his two long employees each half of the store. That was one example of Hankamer's sharing of his material successes with others.

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The Story of Oilman Earl Hankamer: Sharing the Wealth

Picture Earl C. Hankamer, benefactor of Baylor's Hankamer School of Business, with the soft smile and neatly combed hair that many people know from photographs.

Now imagine this dignified man chuckling with a grandchild who is combing grandpa's hair "every which-way." The second image is just as accurate as the first, said grandchildren Earl C. Hankamer III and Katherine Morris. The two Houston residents remember their grandfather not only as a successful merchant and oilman, but as a family m...

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