Jim ’68 and Jon Chancellor ’71 have always had each other’s back. Together, the brothers have navigated life’s challenges, from their father’s tragic death, to their coursework at Texas A&M University, to working in healthcare.
Recently, the brothers and their respective wives endowed two scholarships — the Drs. James W. ’68 and Patricia Chancellor Endowed Arts & Sciences Leadership Scholarship and the Dr. Jon ’71 and Dana Chancellor Endowed Arts & Sciences Leadership Scholarship — that will support first-generation college students from low-income families who are part of the Arts and Sciences Leadership Scholars Program (ASLS) in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Additionally, thanks to a unique opportunity made available by the college in partnership with the Texas A&M Foundation, the Chancellors’ gifts are being recognized through the naming of the Drs. James W. ’68 and Patricia Chancellor Study/Collaboration Space and the Dr. Jon ’71 and Dana Chancellor Study/Collaboration Area in the state-of-the-art Instructional Laboratory and Innovative Learning Building (ILSQ). The nation’s premier laboratory building, which opened on West Campus in 2023, offers an immersive experience that promotes active, group and interdisciplinary learning for more than 15,000 freshmen and sophomores each year.
A Foundation For Success
Initially created by the legacy College of Science, ASLS creates a community of support for outstanding first-generation Aggies within Texas A&M Arts and Sciences. “ASLS programming supports these are academically gifted students who are starting a major life transition in seeking a college degree,” said Dr. Christian Brannstrom, senior associate dean for undergraduate affairs in Arts and Sciences as well as a professor in the Department of Geography and David Bullock Harris Professor of Geosciences. “The programming is designed to provide a firm foundation for these students to be successful in their college careers.”
In addition to scholarship support, freshman scholars receive dedicated programmatic and staff support starting their first semester on campus. These students meet regularly with ASLS Program Manager Brandy Ann Snyder to discuss their academic progress and are assigned a peer mentor who is a junior or senior ASLS student.
The peer mentoring program also provides a leadership track for ASLS students who are further along in their college experience. These students have an opportunity to practice their communications, organizational and coaching skills while also learning to embody the Aggie Core Values more fully through giving back to others.
Jim and I want to reward the university that started it all for us and give back to students who are doing the same thing, Our story is not unique. That’s what a lot of these young men and women at A&M are doing today.
All ASLS students take part in monthly meetings as well as regular events and workshops that touch on a wide range of topics, including career services and preparing for graduate school. These Aggies also are encouraged to participate in volunteer and community service throughout their college experience.
Because the program started in legacy Science, the majority of current endowed scholarships are designated to support students who are majoring in the traditional sciences. However, Snyder noted that program administrators would like to find funding to expand their offerings to support students in other majors within the college.
A Mother’s Commitment
The Chancellor brothers understand what it’s like to struggle financially. Their lives changed in an instant when their father, 1st Lt. James Chancellor, died in an airplane accident while stationed at San Antonio’s Randolph Field in 1949.
After the accident, their mother Mary worked as a medical assistant in a San Antonio medical practice. She also remained single until 1967, when she married Dr. Louis E. Lombari of Reno, Nevada, so that both sons were eligible for their deceased father’s GI Bill benefits, which helped cover college and professional school expenses.
The brothers also credit their mother for their interest in healthcare careers. Her employer, Dr. James Carter, a well-regarded San Antonio obstetrician and gynecologist and the boys’ godfather, and Lombardi were mentors to her sons.
Crossing Paths In Aggieland
Their father’s life continued to have a ripple effect on the boys’ lives through James’ friendship with Col. Robert Stevens, a fellow World War II pilot. Stevens stayed in touch with Mary after the accident and encouraged her to send her sons to Texas A&M.
Jim was the first to enter Texas A&M, enrolling in 1964 to study zoology. The brothers reunited three years later during the summer of 1967 when Jon moved to the Bryan-College Station area and began taking college courses. “That was a good time for us to bond a little bit and pass the torch,” Jim said.
Jon also has fond memories of this time with his brother. “Jim taught me how to stay away from the library when I needed to study and instead walk all the way to the vet school after dinner at Sbisa Dining Hall,” he explained. “We introduced ourselves to the janitor so we could get a classroom to study in, and then we’d promise to clean it up and erase everything on the blackboards. I ended up doing that for three years — and it really worked in knowing the material every day.”
Different Paths
The brothers’ lives soon went in different directions, although they remained close.
After completing his coursework at Texas A&M and then University of Texas Dental Branch Houston in 1971, Jim was commissioned as a captain in the dental corps and stationed at Norton Air Force Base in California from 1971-73. Following his military commitment, he completed an anesthesiology residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston in 1975 and then established a dentistry practice in San Antonio.
His wife Pat was working in the dental office and showing an interest for dentistry about the time the couple’s children were in middle school. With Jim’s encouragement, she earned her DDS from University of Texas School of Dentistry San Antonio so she could practice with her husband. The couple eventually closed their general practice in 2009 to focus on providing ambulatory anesthesia services for special needs clients/residents in five of Texas’ 13 existing state-supported living centers until their retirement in 2014.
After completing his coursework at Texas A&M, Jon earned his medical degree from UTMB Galveston in 1974. After a year-long internship, he specialized in anesthesiology, completing his residency at Scott & White in Temple, Texas, in 1977. After finishing his residency, Jon moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he eventually joined Associated Anesthesiologists Inc., which was affiliated with St. Francis Hospital, and married his wife, Dana, who was a certified oncology nurse. “It was a place where you could do everything, and it was the ultimate job for me,” Jon recalled, adding that he served as president of the Society of Oklahoma Anesthesiology. “I wanted to be in the place where you got to do the toughest cases Oklahoma had. This was a huge hospital, and we did everything — transplants, open-heart surgery, neuro-anesthesia, epidurals for pregnant women — and I just loved it. For the last five years of my practice, I started doing some pain medicine, which was 50% of my practice when I retired.”
A Commitment To Aggieland
Despite their busy schedules, both brothers have maintained their ties to Texas A&M, in part because Jon’s daughter and Jim’s two daughters all followed their fathers to Aggieland. Additionally, Jim served six years on legacy Science’s External Advisory and Development Council, while Jon now serves on the Arts and Sciences Dean’s External Advisory and Development Council.
Sadly, it was the 2002 death of Jon’s youngest daughter, Jessica, that sparked the brothers’ initial financial support of Texas A&M in the form of an endowed scholarship in the teenager’s honor. Jim and Patricia later created their initial endowed scholarship for first-generation students through the SLS program in legacy Science in 2018.
The brothers’ involvement and financial support is rooted in both the past and the future. “Jim and I want to reward the university that started it all for us and give back to students who are doing the same thing,” Jon said. “Our story is not unique. That’s what a lot of these young men and women at A&M are doing today.”