Distance Brought Them Closer
Growing up in West Austin, Kay Head always took the University of Texas at Austin for granted.
She got free tickets to every football game. She took classes with UT student teachers. She knew she would go to college at UT Austin, just as her parents had before her.
"When you're from Austin, UT's just a part of your life already," she says.
All of that changed when Mrs. Head and her husband Steve — also a UT Austin alumnus — moved to New York after they graduated. It wasn't as easy to take a university, university system and state for granted when they were thousands of miles away.
"In New York, we met people at a gathering of Texas Exes," Mrs. Head says. "We both started getting really involved after that."
Back in Texas
That involvement only expanded after the Heads moved back to Texas, where he is now managing director of UBS' Dallas office. Over the years, Kay and Steve Head have contributed their money and their time to the Texas Exes — which Steve served as president — and to the UT System's Chancellor's Council. Kay has been an active member of the Chancellor's Council for more than a decade and in 2001, was nominated to the Executive Committee. In 2006 she became one of the founding members of the 1881 Society through her consistent support of the work of the Chancellor.
"The more you get involved, the more you stay involved," Kay Head says. "I'm proud of the UT System and I love knowing what's going on there. When we come to Chancellor's Council meetings, it's exciting to learn about the different schools in the System and how they all work together. Amazing things are happening there."
After years of commitment to the campus she, her parents, and her two children attended, and to the UT System, Kay Head mentions one equation she has learned to take for granted.
"It's a funny thing about giving," she says. "No matter how much we give to the UT System, we keep getting back so much more."