Sometime in 2001 after several new chapters formed Texas Lone Star Chapter member Howard Nathan fathered the idea of forming a Department in the state. He had been in touch with several people from other Departments who all agreed it sounded like a good idea. Not knowing how to go about it, Nathan contacted Jerry Lake, chairman of the new chapter formation office who gave him several ideas, including a step by step procedure to be used in forming a Department. He also contacted Jim Ferris, President of the Department of New York who was kind enough to give him some pointers.
In April 2002 Nathan sent a form to the president of each of the Texas Chapters asking if they would be interested in forming a Department. After much discussion, all replied in the affirmative
The next step was to submit a petition to the National Secretary Howard Camp asking for a charter for the Department. The Charter arrived in due time and left only the filing of Corporate papers to the State of Texas.
Nathan’s first filings were unsuccessful because of the rule that no corporation in Texas could use the word "war" in it's name. Therefore it was filed under the name of "KWVA department for Texas Chapters." We were, therefore, incorporated and eligible to do business in Texas.
Then, a windfall occurred. Nathan was contacted by member Ted Maloy who advised that he and two other of our members, Lee Sicklee and Jerry Weber, had successfully drawn up a Department Charter and filed it with the State of Texas in 1991 for a corporation under the name of "Department of Texas, Korean War Veterans Association" , but the corporation was in abeyance because proper tax forms had not been filed in 1997. We then reinstated the corporate name and dissolved the corporation in the name of "KWVA department for Texas Chapters."
Well.......we were now a licensed corporation in Texas as of February 5, 2003, and were chartered through the National KWVA for that purpose. Now changes had to be made to the original filings...names of officers and names of directors as well as a change of registered agent.
Those forms were ultimately submitted and approved and the selected officers and directors were: Ted L. Maloy, Carlos Ballard and Sal Gambino. The registered agent was (and is) Howard Nathan.
Nathan then met with the current officers of the Texas Lone Star Chapter and with their permission, appointed them to serve in their current positions in the Department for an interim period until an election could be held and new officers sworn in.
The interim officers were:
Marvin Dunn, President
Jack Cooper, 1st Vice President
Mike Doyle, 2nd Vice President
Bill McSwain, Secretary
Tilford Jones, Treasurer
(Open), Judge Advocate
By October 2003 we were in business.
A set of Bylaws were written by Carlos Ballard, using other State Bylaws as a guide. These were read and approved by all of the interim State officers.
The first meeting of the new State Department was planned and arranged by interim President Ballard. It was held in Austin, Texas on September 11-12, 2003, with all of the Texas Chapters at that time in attendance. Samsung Semi Conductor of Austin was our host and our meeting was held at their facility. The highlight of the meeting was a 50th Anniversary celebration of the signing of the truce in Korea, which was held at the Texas Korean War Memorial on the State Capitol grounds.
The interim Department officers and the Presidents of all the Chapters met to review and discuss the proposed Department Bylaws. With the special help of Marvin Dunn of Chapter 217, J. D. Randolph of Chapter 270 and Bill McSwain, KWVA National Director, changes and corrections were made and the new Bylaws were unanimously approved, to then be presented to all Texas members of the KWVA National for approval. The majority of those members did approve the Bylaws for our use.
Again, in Nathan's capacity as organizer he decided to have the election of officers by the end of 2003 so that they could be installed and begin their tenure early in 2004. After much discussion with the interim officers, they concurred. An election was then held in November and December 2003 by mail to each of the Chapter Presidents.
The first elected officers were notified and took office in January 2004.
On February 7, 2004, Nathan notified Howard Camp, National Secretary of the new officers and requested that their names be published in the Graybeard.
“Congratulations to these gentlemen, for a job well done.”
2005 Department of Texas Officers
