Changing the World - Nov/Dec 2016

CHANGING THE WORLD What your investment in UT makes possible with Mitchel, and Shawn practices at Eyes of Texas Laser Center. Michael is the managing principal and general counsel at AIM Real Estate Group, and Patrick, MAr ’92, owns an architectural photography studio. Four daughters-in-law and nine grandchildren round out the family.

“This is one small way of expanding our imprint on the world.”

THE VISIONARIES Austin’s Wong family helps launch an eye institute at Dell Medical School to train the next generation of ophthalmologists.

By Avrel Seale

O

n a summer day in

1939,

the first

C hinese -A merican

was

born in Austin, Texas: Mitchel Wong. Little did anyone suspect that the Wongs, who had been grocers for generations, would raise a son who would build one of Austin’s most successful

medical practices and, with his own family, make one of the largest gifts in the history of the university in whose shadow their grocery store sat.

Above: Mitchel and Rose

Wong gather with their family at Dell Medical School to mark the launch of the Wong Eye Institute.

CREDITS: Thomas Meredith

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UT announced in October that Mitchel and his family had pledged more than $20 million to fund the Mitchel and Shannon Wong Eye Institute at UT’s Dell Medical School, named for the father and son ophthalmologists.

“All the right things came together in our lives so that we could contribute. It’s really a family gift,” says Mitchel.

Even before this historic gift, the Wongs had made a deep impact on Central Texas health care. In 1969, Mitchel founded Austin Eye, now a five-doctor, 35-employee ophthalmology practice with two locations.

Mitchel and Rose Wong have four sons, all in Austin, two of whom followed their father into ophthalmology. Shannon co-owns Austin Eye

Mitchel is the first to point out that ophthalmology is not typically among the early departments of medical schools, so this stands as further evidence that Dell Med does not intend to be traditional. And vision is increasingly important in an aging population. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of blind and visually impaired people in America could double by 2030.

“The Wongs’ story is Austin’s story. We’re honored that they’ll build part of their legacy on Dell Med’s campus,” says Dean Clay Johnston.

“The Eye Institute will contribute much to our school and the way we train physicians. But it’s also a fabulous metaphor for the health care transformation we’re trying to help accelerate in Austin—it’s helping us all to see more clearly what the world looks like and how we can help make it better.”

Shannon Wong says, “This is a once-in-alifetime opportunity to leave a legacy for future generations. It helps everybody. It helps the community. It helps our immediate family because it sets an example. God knows what my kids are going to do with their lives, but it will impact them, and it helps us pay it forward. We can help shape the next generation of doctors, of ophthalmologists.”

“I think that will be a lot of fun,” he adds. “You can’t take it with you. In the long run, this is a great way to go out with a bang.”

This family’s multigenerational journey from China to Austin shows the blend of work ethic and risk-taking that has made them successful. Mitchel’s grandparents left famine-plagued southern China to help build the transcontinental railroad in Mexico. When Gen. John J. Pershing led the U.S. Army into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa, Mitchel’s grandfather found work as a baker for the American soldiers and in 1917 followed them all the way up to San Antonio, where he resettled.

Perhaps revealing a congenital restlessness that eventually passed to Mitchel, Mitchel’s father, Fred, became the only child to leave San Antonio, settling in Austin.

Mitchel started working at the family grocery at age 6. “All of my basic lessons are from things that happened in that store. I was helping my dad around the store, and I asked him to tell me what to do, and he sternly said, ‘Don’t ask me what to do! Look for something that needs doing and do it!’ That is a small lesson, but you don’t

have to tell me what to do. I’ll look for something.

It gave me initiative to think for myself.”

And he certainly did. Given the choice to join his father in the grocery business or “try school,” Mitchel, who had spent his high school summers working 70 hours a week, chuckles, “I thought for about five seconds and said, ‘I think I’ll try school.’”

He enrolled at UT in zoology and earned his BA in three years, graduating in 1960, then headed to Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine to become a physician. His choice of ophthalmology came after a professor met him in the hallway and asked if he wanted to assist him with an eye operation.

“I kind of liked what I saw,” he remembers.

“It’s very precise, very small, very clean, and you can usually get results quickly.” Vision’s huge impact on quality of life also appealed to him.

The University of Texas enabled him to start his career, but it was also during his Longhorn days that he made his most important discovery, his future wife. Rose was born in China and left her family at 16, crossing the Pacific on a freighter with a Catholic scholarship to study nursing. She was studying in Belton and visiting Austin when they met.

Shannon and Mitchel Wong

For Shannon, seeing his father happy in his career made following in his footsteps a natural choice. With an undergraduate degree from Rice, Shannon also graduated from Baylor College of Medicine.

“The University of Texas is a Tier 1 university,” Mitchel says. “Dell Medical School is going to be one of the best medical schools in the nation because of its location in Austin and its association with The University of Texas.”

Shannon adds, “The result of this gift will be viral. We’ll be able to touch the lives of doctors in training and ophthalmologists who will go on to touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. This is one small way of expanding our imprint on the world.”

Get the latest news about Dell Medical School at dellmedschool.utexas.edu. s e p t e m b e r | o c t o b e r 2011

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CHANGING THE WORLD What your investment in UT makes possible the college, which offers more than 50 majors in 22 academic departments and in more than 30 centers, institutes, and programs. “This is truly a transformative gift for the college,” he says.

“Since I’ve been able, I’ve always wanted to do something meaningful for the University of Texas. I like to call this an investment rather than a gift,” says Patton, whose late mother, Nola Payne, BA ’64, was also in Plan II Honors. He says three or four of his professors also taught his mother, including Thomas Whitbread, a professor emeritus in English who died in October. The donation, among other things, is a memorial to Payne and her enthusiasm for Plan II.

“The liberal arts taught me how to learn, and keep on learning.”

FULL CIRCLE A businessman makes a far-reaching investment in the College of Liberal Arts in recognition of the start it gave him.

B

obby

P atton , J r ., BBA ’85, L ife M ember ,

enjoyed matching

wits with some of the university’s top professors when he was a Plan II Honors student in the early 1980s. But after two years in the program, he switched his major to business administration,

feeling he needed a more career-oriented education.

Above and right: The gift boosts efforts to build excellence throughout the College of Liberal Arts.

Far right: Michel Dorigny’s

17th-century Diana of the Hunt is among several never-exhibited works that will soon be on view.

CREDITS: Casey Dunn (2);

Blanton Museum of Art

56 |The

What Patton didn’t realize at the time was that Plan II—the College of Liberal Arts’ interdisciplinary arts and science honors major— was preparing him for a career, and a very successful one.

Today he operates oil and gas properties in Texas and Kansas and has additional investments in other sectors, including ranching and insurance. A partner of Guggenheim Baseball Management, he became part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012.

“When I first came to UT, I thought being accepted into Plan II was the accomplishment.

The liberal arts were not necessarily my focus,” says the longtime Fort Worth resident. “But

after I left UT I realized just how important they were to my life. They taught me how to learn, and how to keep on learning.”

That is why Patton and his wife, Sherri, who earned a law degree from SMU and served as an assistant district attorney in Dallas, are giving $20 million to the College of Liberal Arts. Their gift will support faculty and graduate student endowments, as well as excellence funds for priority programs and experiential learning opportunities for undergraduates in research, leadership, study abroad, and internships.

Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, says the Pattons’ gift will significantly boost efforts to build excellence throughout

“I was a college baby. Mom was in college, Dad was in law school, so I guess I kind of attended Plan II twice,” he says. “UT was the only school I applied to, and I applied only to Plan II at her urging.”

Patton says there is too much focus today on learning a vocation, and he wishes all college classes would be more like Plan II. He still has vivid memories of his classes and professors and the lessons he learned from them. If a student today were to ask his advice on a major, Patton says he would recommend history.

“History gives us the benefit of hindsight; we learn lessons from the past that can be applied today. We can learn from our mistakes,” he says. “It is something you can apply throughout your life.”

He says studying English is also important, not only in developing reading and writing skills but in learning how to weigh opposing ideas and consider consequences rather than simply jumping to conclusions.

“You can’t just state something and say that it’s true. That’s why you read history and literature—to support your arguments. Otherwise it’s just conjecture.”

He adds that the study of liberal arts is important because it “teaches us to be more than followers, to be more than a bunch of lemmings. It teaches us how to think.”

In addition to his business degree from UT, Patton holds law degrees from St. Mary’s University and SMU. But his grounding in the liberal arts, he says, informs how he conducts business.

“I focus on buying good companies, but I’m not so much interested in what they do as how they do it. Sometimes older companies just keep adding layers instead of solving the underlying problems. You need responsibility and accountability— you need to have a standard—and that’s something I demand because of my liberal arts education. You could say I run a liberal arts business.”

REIMAGINING THE BLANTON

C

ome February, when you walk into the Blanton Museum of Art’s second-floor galleries, you’ll feel like you’re entering a new museum. After a decade in its present campus home, the Blanton is organizing a complete rehanging of its wide-ranging holdings to inspire and engage audiences in new ways.

Collectively titled You Belong Here: Reimagining the Blanton, the renovated and reinstalled permanent collection galleries will feature nearly twice as many works and indepth explorations of new genres that have not previously had dedicated spaces. Several of the works have rarely, if ever, been displayed.

The result of three years of research and planning, the reinstallation is the first major change to the upstairs galleries since the Mari and James A. Michener Gallery Building opened in 2006. The second floor has been closed since July to allow for the significant updates, while several special exhibitions have continued in the first-floor galleries.

On February 11, the 2017 Blanton Gala will mark the celebratory unveiling of the reinstalled galleries, giving guests the rare opportunity to dine in the downstairs galleries and to be the first to experience the fresh look. Blanton National A fresh look Leadership Board members at the museum’s Jeanne and Michael Klein are the evening’s honorees. Jeanne, BS collection ’67, and Michael, BS ’58, LLB ’63, Life Members, have had an enormous impact on the Blanton and its audiences through their passion, energy, and generosity.

Sabrina Brown, MPA ’98, Jocelyn Hornblower, and Fredericka Middleton are the Austin co-chairs of the gala, and more than a dozen regional chairs have stepped up to represent other parts of Texas and beyond. In addition, a public festival celebrating the reinstallation is being planned for March 25. The Blanton Block Party will include programs and entertainment for visitors of all ages.

“We are in the final stretch of this massive undertaking to share our remarkable collection in more striking and impactful ways,” says Blanton director Simone Wicha, BS ’96. “The reinstallation encompasses everything from recent acquisitions and hidden gems to new interpretive materials that will help visitors form richer connections with the art. We welcome everyone to join us for this milestone celebration, whether at the gala or the block party, and hope they will be inspired to come back often.”

Learn more about the Blanton and its February 11 gala at blantonmuseum.org.

Changing the World is produced by the University Development Office. Please send your feedback and suggestions to editor Jamey Smith at jjsmith@austin.utexas.edu.

For more news and information about giving to UT, visit giving.utexas.edu.

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