Three Aggie engineers have been selected as recipients of the Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest honor bestowed upon a former student of Texas A&M University. Fewer than one-tenth of one percent of the university’s 527,000 former students will be recognized with this prestigious award.
The 2020 recipients from the College of Engineering are:
- • Mike Hernandez III ’83, industrial distribution
- • Weldon Jaynes ’54, industrial technology
- • Tim Leach ’82, petroleum engineering
Since the inception of the award in 1962, only 303 former students have been recognized with the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Awarded jointly by Texas A&M and The Association of Former Students, this honor recognizes those Aggies who have achieved excellence in their chosen professions and made meaningful contributions to Texas A&M and their local communities.
“We are proud of these wonderful former students and all of their accomplishments and contributions,” said President Michael K. Young. “They are all deserving of the highest honor bestowed upon our alumni. We look forward to joining The Association in recognizing their achievements.”
Hernandez is the owner and CEO of D&M Leasing, one of 2019’s Top 100 Places to Work rated by The Dallas Morning News, among the Fort Worth Business Press’ Top 5 privately held companies and Dealer Rater’s Top Leasing Company in America. He founded the Brownsville Scholars Program at Texas A&M, and is president and founder of the Hernandez Foundation, which has provided significant support to schools and scholarships, and has supported ventures that boost opportunities in Cameron County. In 2019, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him as a member of The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. He was recognized as one of Fort Worth’s top CEOs in 2014; in 2016, he was named Brownsville’s “Person of the Year” and in 2017, he was Rio Grande Valley’s Citizen of the Year, honorable mention. He is a member of the advisory committee for Texas A&M’s McAllen campus and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s advisory committee on workforce training.
Jaynes was chairman, CEO and majority shareholder of Priester Supply Co., which he spent more than 40 years building into a prominent southwest U.S. regional distributor for electric and gas utilities. He also created Repcom International, a national telecommunication company. He is a past president (now called chair) and trustee of the 12th Man Foundation, who helped start its Major Gifts Department, a recipient of its E. King Gill award and member of its Diamond Champions Council. He has created the Mr. and Mrs. L. Weldon Jaynes ’54 Sul Ross Scholarship, the Weldon Jaynes ’54 Presidential Endowed Scholarship and a Texas A&M Corps of Cadets scholarship. Jaynes is a Texas A&M Lettermen’s Association Hall of Honor inductee and a past director of the Fort Worth A&M Club. He and wife Judy give time and support to Trinity United Methodist and First Baptist Church in Arlington, Mission Arlington and the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Leach is the founder, chairman and CEO of Concho, one of the energy industry’s leading companies, and vice chairman of the Texas A&M System Board of Regents. Leach has supported Texas A&M projects including the Zachry Engineering Education Complex, E.B. Cushing Stadium, Leach Teaching Gardens and Memorial Student Center renovation; he has supported The Association, the 12th Man Foundation and the George and Barbara Bush Foundation, and created a scholarship, professorship and chair in petroleum engineering. He is a Petroleum Museum Hall of Fame honoree and a member of the All-American Wildcatters Association. His service to Texas A&M and his community includes serving as president of the board of the Scharbauer Foundation, on the Midland College Foundation board of directors and Midland Memorial Foundation board of governors, as a former member of The Association of Former Students’ board and as an emeritus member of Texas A&M’s College of Engineering Advisory Council.
The Association of Former Students honored the 2020 recipients in the July-August 2020 issue of its Texas Aggiemagazine.
Nominations for the 2021 Distinguished Alumnus Award will be accepted through Oct. 2.