Dr. Frazier to provide a wealth of knowledge and experience on all things Texas

Kerrville, TX – Schreiner University announced today the creation of The Texas Center at Schreiner University, under the direction of Dr. Donald S. Frazier, with an opening planned for this summer. A grand opening and reception for the public will be announced at a later date.

Don Frazier is the Director of The Texas Center at Schreiner University

The Texas Center at Schreiner University will promote the classic Texan virtues of spirit, fortitude and achievement in an educational ecosystem that offers opportunities for students – and the community – to learn and appreciate the uniqueness of Texan history, culture and people. Texas has become an exceptionally diverse state with a history of redeeming, restoring and transforming ordinary individuals into people who achieve the extraordinary.

Frazier is a graduate of The University of Texas at Arlington and Texas Christian University and is the award-winning author of five books on Texans in the Civil War including Blood and Treasure, Cottonclads, Fire in the Cane Field, Thunder Across the Swamp and Blood on the Bayou. His latest work, Tempest Over Texas, is released in May 2020. His other work includes serving as co-author of Frontier Texas, Historic Abilene and The Texas You Expect, as well as general editor of The U.S. and Mexico at War and a collection of letters published as Love and War: The Civil War Letter and Medicinal Book of Augustus V. Ball.

In addition to his teaching duties and scholarly activities, Frazier has been very involved in work on museums including The Texas Civil War Museum, The Buffalo Gap Historic Village and Frontier Texas!, Civil War and frontier heritage trails in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and work on historical projects in Europe and Mexico. He is the writer and director for the video Our Home, Our Rights: Texas and Texans in the Civil War, a winner of the Mitchell Wilder Award for Excellence in Publications and Media Design from the Texas Association of Museums. Frazier is an elected member of the prestigious Philosophical Society of Texas, the oldest learned organization in the state, is a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Association and is a Director-Scholar on the board of the Texas Historical Foundation.

In 1995, Frazier helped found the McWhiney Group, a Texas-based 501 (c)3 non-profit that operates an educational adventure enterprise, Bear Leader Tours; State House Press, a publishing imprint in consortium with Texas A&M University Press; and online education efforts through YouTube and educational websites. The McWhiney group also sponsors the Anne Bailey Dissertation Prize through the Society of Civil War Historians. A man of many talents, Frazier’s first full-length play, Come and Take It will premier this summer in Abilene.

“I cannot think of anyone more qualified than Dr. Don Frazier to direct The Texas Center at Schreiner University,” said Dr. Travis Frampton, Schreiner University Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. “He brings a wealth of experience and expertise with him, especially in the area of academics, development, and in a love and appreciation for all things Texas. I am excited that he will be joining our learning community and helping us carry out our mission as a “uniquely Texan” University.”

Dr. Ty Cashion, Texas Historian at Sam Houston State University, remarked, “Don is the Shelby Foote of Texas. He has the common touch and can talk with you about pretty down-home subjects one minute, then shift gears and discuss pretty intellectual topics in the same breath. It is amazing to watch.”

Texas has always been a multi-cultural borderland, inhabited by people who resist the urge to be homogenized and contained, while appreciating and promoting the ways in which our neighbors are different and unique, but also pulling in the same direction. The role of The Texas Center at Schreiner University is essential at this point. With population projections estimating tremendous growth in the state over the next three decades, and with the number of Texas citizens almost doubling in size, this project becomes even more important.

“I’ve been working toward this most of my career,” Frazier said. “A place of learning where newcomers can understand what they are inheriting, what they are building upon, as they too contribute to rich heritage and ongoing history of the Lone Star State. It needs to also be a place where the next generation of Texans can prepare for a life of leadership in the state.”

The Texas Center at Schreiner University will facilitate this process. The three main objectives of The Texas Center are: (1) offer opportunities for university students and the general public to learn about the history, culture, and people of the state of Texas through Educational Content, (2) to communicate to the general public the importance of initiatives taken by the center through Educational Outreach, and (3) to provide venues for community engagement for all things Texas through Educational Space.

Schreiner University, through The Texas Center, will continue the University’s tradition of being the small college in Texas that believes in the classic Texan virtues of spirit, fortitude, hope and achievement. This commitment will be Schreiner University’s contribution to the citizens of our state, to the nation and to the world.

“Texas is perhaps the best expression of the American experiment,” added Frazier. “The time has arrived for this great work from this great University to commence.”

The new director pointed out that Texas has long been tough for outsiders to fully comprehend. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Steinbeck attempted to describe the essence of the state in his 1962 book, Travels with Charley:

“I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans.”

For more information on The Texas Center at Schreiner University, contact Dr. Donald S. Frazier at DSFrazier@schreiner.edu or Dr. Travis Frampton at TFrampton@schreiner.edu.