McGee and McMahan families establish scholarship to honor loved ones

Joan and Michael McGee, together with Maxine and Michael McMahan, have established the Wanda and Jack E. McMahan ’43 Scholarship to provide one or more scholarships to full-time students in good standing pursuing a degree in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University.
 
Michael McGee graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in bioengineering in 1978. Before his recent retirement, McGee served as vice president of the Texas Heart Institute. He currently serves as a member of the biomedical engineering department’s external advisory board.

“I had been seeking ways to support the relatively young department,” McGee said. “I was also looking to establish some momentum to increase support for the department in any way possible.”

 In addition to his desire to help bolster the department’s scholarship offerings to students, McGee shared that family played a large role in the decision to establish a scholarship.
 
“My father-in-law, Jack McMahan, graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in engineering and immediately went into the military where he had a long and distinguished career, eventually retiring as a full colonel,” McGee said. “Jack was a lifelong enthusiastic supporter of the university, especially football.”
 
McGee sought to honor his father-in-law and mother-in-law while helping future students in the biomedical engineering department through a scholarship endowment. 

“Wanda McMahan was a nurse in the Army during World War II and she met Jack McMahan while they both were serving overseas,” McGee said. “A unique aspect of their story is that Jack served in the unit that liberated the first concentration camp discovered by U.S. troops.”
 
Their dedication to our country spurred the idea of naming the scholarship after them.
 
“Their service to our country is also something worth honoring, which is another intention of this scholarship,” McGee said. “When I mentioned the plan to Jack’s eldest son, Michael, he wanted to share equally in endowing the scholarship.”
 
McGee also credited the department head, faculty, staff and students with the inspiration to establish a scholarship.
 
“I’ve been fortunate to work with multiple department heads over the years and the current department head, Dr. (Mike) McShane, has excited me about where the department is going,” McGee said. “Interacting with brilliant and highly motivated students over the past few years and having confidence that they will make significant advances in the medical field is another reason we chose to support the department.”