E. Jay Matsler Estate Presents Significant Gifts for Historic Preservation and the Arts

Significant gifts to the Lubbock Area Foundation, the Museum at Texas Tech University and the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum will be announced at a Tribute Event to honor the legacy of E. Jay Matsler on Saturday, June 14th, 2014, at the Charles Adams Special Projects Gallery in Lubbock. A number of pieces from his extensive private collection will be on display.

Mr. Matsler’s gift to Lubbock Area Foundation reflects his roots as the child of a Hale County pioneer family and avid supporter of historic preservation. The E. Jay Matsler Trust will be established with a bequest of $348,000 for the purpose of supporting historic preservation projects in Lubbock and Hale counties. The first grant from the E. Jay Matsler Trust will help the Lubbock Heritage Society to move the Arch Underwood Pullman Car to the Bayer Agricultural Museum. Moving this legendary train car is the first step in restoring the historic structure to its earlier glory and placing it on display as an interactive installation and educational experience for the benefit of the general public. Because of Mr. Matsler’s generosity, funding will be available from the E. Jay Matsler Trust every year for generations to come for a variety of important local historic preservation projects.

The Museum at Texas Tech University will receive a bronze bust by Charles Umlauf and the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum at Canyon, Texas will receive a collection of Merritt Mauzey lithographs, Bess Hubbard lithographs and other art works.

EDWARD JAY MATSLER

Jay was born at home on Aug. 7, 1939, in the Liberty Community to the late Grover C. and Lura Nell Matsler, a Hale County Pioneer family. He died on Dec. 31, 2013, in Lubbock at the age of 74. A Lubbock resident since 1954, he graduated Lubbock High School and Texas Tech University and began his forty year banking career, retiring from Wells Fargo Bank as Vice-President and Trust Officer. He was active in the Lubbock community and a volunteer on several boards and organizations.

LUBBOCK AREA FOUNDATION

In 1981, a small group of civic and community leaders set about creating a means for addressing the needs most relevant to this community, providing lasting benefits to the people of the South Plains, and providing donors a charitable home through which their gifts could help this area now and for generations to come. The result of their efforts was the establishment of the Lubbock Area Foundation – the Community Foundation for the Texas South Plains.

Since that time, many hundreds of donors have created endowments at the Lubbock Area Foundation that provide a source of ongoing support for the causes they care about most. Any charitable interest can be addressed through the Foundation – arts, education, children and youth, hunger, homelessness, health, human services, civic and community programs, animal welfare, the list goes on and on. During the 30+ years since its creation, the Lubbock Area Foundation has awarded over $13 million in grants to hundreds of nonprofit organizations and scholarships to over 900 students. In 2014 alone, grants and scholarships are expected exceed $1 million.