ALAMO-SAN
JUAN-PHARR PAN AMERICAN ROUND TABLE
Classified as Active Members: Mmes. Claude T. Baker Alvah Boggs, Berta Cantu, M. L. Gonzales, J. Randall Hensley, C. J. Howerton Marvin Jones, J. Arthur Kautsch, A. H.Koehler, (Miss) Emma Martinez., W. H. McCreary, John McKeever, Glen Mellenbruch., (Miss) Saustina Moreno, John Morony, Deane Munal, Earl Reed, Paul Rodriguez, J. SRoe, Fred Sandoval, F. W. Skinner, H. T. Toothaker, J. R. Westbrook, and J. William Yates.
Classified as Associate Members: Mmes. Harold Cramer, (Miss)Vida Clover, Harry M. Davis, Louis Doffing, Leo Dobson Mabel George, Robert Hardebeck, (Miss) Ruth E. Johnson, C. L. Kormeier (Miss) Mary Leverman, Mary Mahaffay, (Miss) Ernestina Martinez, Evangeline Martinez, John McGraw, Erling Morelius, H. D. Munal., Forrest Palmer., Tom Webb, L. M. Welsh, and Walter Schultze.
Classified as Auxiliary Members: Mmes. F.T. Boecker, Maria Cavazos, G. L. Cowley, M B. Cramer, Matt Doffing, Jr., Marvin Kautsh, Charles F. Kraas and Sofia Perez.
History
What followings is an excerpt from The Pan American Round Table, Lois Terry Marchbanks, Avon Behren Press, 1983, (pp. 122-124).
In 1949, the Pan American Round Table of McAllen sponsored the organization of the Alamo-San Juan Table. (In later years, Pharr was officially added to the Tables name.)
The organizing committee consisted of Mrs. John Morony and Mrs. Marvin Jones of Alamo, and Mrs. Glen Mellenbruch of San Juan. Mrs. H.L. Gunn, then director of the McAllen Table, and Mrs. F.L. Rawls, also of the McAllen Table, and Mrs. F.L. Vivier, then director of the Brownsville Table, worked with the committee.
An organizational meeting was held July 8, 1949, with Mrs. Morony acting as chairman. A constitution was adopted and officers were elected, Mrs. J.S. Roe of Alamo being elected as the first director.
The first meeting of the new Table was held September 27,1949, at the San Juan Methodist Church. Mrs. W.W. Ely, state director, presented Mrs. Roe with the charter for the new Table. Mrs. H.L. Gunn, director of the McAllen Table, gave the new Table a set of flags of the Pan American countries, as a gift from the McAllen Table.
Directors of the Pan American Round Table of Alamo-San Juan-Pharr have been Mesdames J.S. Roe, A. H. Koehler, Myrtle Benedict, Harrison W. Riddle, J.W. Yates, Fred Sandoval, Leonard Johnson, W.D. Whalen, John Morony, Floyd Swallow, Donald. Sherer, Walter Schultze, C.W. McClintock, A.B. Grant, Guy Wiseman, J. Connally Kelly, Eugene Kuhn, J.E. Parks, and our present director, Mrs. C.N. Small. The gavel used by the presiding officer was a gift of the Reynosa Table.
The Table meets once a month from September through May with the exception of April at the Texan Hotel in Pharr for a luncheon and program on a Pan American country.
Some of the projects of the Table have been supplying partial scholarships for graduating seniors of PSJA High School to be used at Pan American University in Edinburg. Other projects are sponsoring Spanish language classes for members of the Table, sending magazines to South American Tables and assisting, under Mrs. Johnson's directorship, in an English teaching educational project in Reynosa through Mr. Al Ramirez. Perhaps the Table's most important project came under the directorship of Mrs. Riddle, when this Table sponsored the formation of a sister Table in Edinburg, with Mrs. Riddle assisting the organizers of the new Table.
Under all directors the constant aim of our Table has been the fostering of friendship among our Valley Tables and our sister Tables in Mexico, particularly those of Monterrey, Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Cd. Miguel Aleman, and Matamoros, by personal, official and social acquaintance among the respective memberships. These meetings began happily under our first director, Mrs. Roe, when a number of members from our Table accepted an invitation from the Monterrey Table to visit them and were royally entertained by them. Since then, members of our Table have exchanged many hospitalities with members of our sister Tables in Mexico, and personal friendships have grown up among the members.
With regard to the Valley Tables, exchanges of hospitality and cooperation on Round Table projects have fostered a spirit of unity and friendship among the Tables. An example of cooperation on the part of the Upper Valley Tables was the joint hosting of the state convention of the Pan American Round Tables of Texas in McAllen, April 14 through April 17 of 1969.
Since 1979, the Pan American Round Tables of Alamo-San Juan-Pharr, Edinburg, McAllen, and Roma-Rio Grande City have hosted a Pan American Day Luncheon each year to which Valley Tables on both sides of the Rio Grande have been invited. Honored guests at the 1982 luncheon were Ruth G.B. de del Puerto, Director General of the Alliance, Mrs. Eleanor Armstrong, Associate Director of the Alliance, Mrs. Helen Thompson, Director of Zone I of the Alliance, Mrs. Elva Kalb Dumas, Texas State Director, and Mrs. J. Connally Kelly, Fourth Associate Director of Texas, a member of our Table. Mrs. Ernestina Hernandez, consul from Mexico in McAllen, was also a guest. In 1982, the Round Table of Mission was presented its state charter. Next year, their Table will assist with planning the Pan American Day celebration.
At a statewide and international level, attendance at State Conventions and Alliance Conventions has made our members acquainted with members of many other Texas Tables and with members of South and Central American Tables as well as of the Tables of Mexico.
As long as a desire for unity and friendship with all the Tables of the Alliance animates the members of our Table, we will continue to work to implement the slogan of the Pan American Round Tables: "One for all-All for one."