By Kelsi Peace, Managing Editor
Dr. Gary McCaleb, vice president of the university, remembers Louie Welch as one of the best-known alumni to graduate from
ACU, and a great advocate for the university.
Welch, 89, died Sunday after battling lung cancer. During his lifetime, Welch served five terms as mayor of Houston, sat on the ACU Board of Trustees for more than 50 years and earned the Outstanding Alumnus of the Year award in 1965.
“He would probably be in a short list of the best-known alumni of ACU,” McCaleb said. “He was always very free about telling people about ACU. When you think about the situation he was in, in one of the major cities in the U.S., he was probably just one of the best ACU alumni.”
McCaleb said he knew Welch through several venues, including through the various mayoral meetings Welch continued to attend after his time as mayor, while McCaleb served as mayor of Abilene.
Welch served five consecutive terms as Houston mayor, beginning in 1964 and ending in 1974. Welch campaigned to return to the mayor’s office in 1985, but lost the office after political error.
Welch also served as vice president of the National League of Cities from 1970-73, the president and CEO of the Houston Chamber of Commerce and the Houston City Council.
He was born Dec. 9, 1918 in Lockney and graduated from high school in Slaton in 1936. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from ACU in 1940 with honors. While at ACU, Welch acted as president of Pica Ems Club, a student-press organization. Welch met his first wife, Iola (Cure) Welch while at ACU; she died in 1991, and Welch married Helen Morales in 1992.
After ACU, Welch served eight years on the Houston City Council before running for mayor.
“I think people would think of him as being innovative and positive in his approach,” McCaleb said. “He wasn’t the type of person to sit around and complain about the way things were. He was more inclined to say, ‘Let’s talk about how we can make it better.'”
In 1967, according to the Texas Associated Press, police and students sparred at the predominately black Texas Southern University, resulting in the arrest of 500 students and the death of a police officer. The event fostered a bitter relationship between the city’s black community and the administration,
and Welch would later say, “It still hurts to be accused of racism. It’s just a bum rap,” according to the AP.
Welch’s political career ended abruptly in 1985, after he made an off-color remark on an open television microphone during his campaign to return to the mayor’s office, according to the AP.
Unaware the microphone was turned on, Welch commented that an option for the country to stop the AIDS epidemic was to “shoot the queers.”
Some community members reacted to his remarks with T-shirts that read, “Don’t shoot, Louie!”
After he left the university, Welch left behind him an endowment that funds the Louie Welch Chair of Business and Management, a chair he initially filled.
“He was always active in anything that we might be doing in Houston that was ACU-related,” McCaleb said. “As a person, he was always very positive and upbeat. He was always positive about ACU and looking for ways that he could help or say a good word for ACU.”
Welch is preceded in death by his first wife, Iola Faye Cure. He is survived by his wife, Helen, his five children and their families.
-SERVING CITIZEN-
Louie Welch spent his life in civil service and leadership, always acting as an advocate for ACU.
* Houston City Council, 1950-1952 and 1956-1962.
* Mayor of Houston, 1964-1974
* Garden Oaks Church of Christ, 35 years.
* ACU’s Outstanding Alumnus of the Year, 1965.
* National League of Cities, 1970-1973
* ACU Board of Trustees, beginning 1953, 50-plus years.
