Larry K. Durham

President and CEO, Retired
National Express Group

A native of Sweetwater, Texas, Durham came to Texas Western College on a football scholarship in 1961. He soon made history at the college by scoring the first touchdown in the Sun Bowl in 1963.

Durham graduated from TWC in 1966, and later worked at Boeing and Lockheed Electronics. In 1971, he changed careers. He worked for a small bus company, which he bought in 1976. Durham Transportation became a highly successful, multimillion-dollar company.

Durham sold the company to British firm National Express Group in 1999, but was soon hired back as president and CEO of its U.S. subsidiary, National Express Group.

In 2001, Durham donated $5 million to the university to support the Larry K. Durham Sports Center, which opened in 2002.

Philip Martinez
U.S. District Judge
Western District of Texas
 

An El Paso native, Martinez graduated in the top 2 percent from Burges High School and later summa cum laude from UTEP in 1979.

Martinez graduated from Harvard Law School in 1982. He returned to El Paso and worked at Kemp, Smith, Duncan and Hammond law firm, distinguishing himself among the best attorneys in the county’s courtrooms.

In 1991, Martinez was elected judge of the El Paso County Court at Law No. 1 in 1991. In only nine months, he was appointed to a state district court. He was appointed to the federal judgeship in December 2001 after being nominated by President Bush.

Martinez has established the Philip R. Martinez Endowed Scholarship to provide funds to UTEP students in the Center for Law and Border Studies and the Law School Preparation Institute.