• These Baylor donors even featured their scholarship recipients on their Christmas card

    Merv and Bev Yeagle with scholarship recipient Ryan Snitzer

    The phrase “Baylor Family” means different things to different people. For some, it’s the many names on their Facebook friends list. For others, it’s their tailgate buddies or old college roommates.

    For Merv (BBA ’71) and Bev Yeagle of Hagerstown, Md., it’s the scholarship recipients who show up on their Christmas card.

    While most people’s Christmas cards feature family members, kids’ Santa pictures, or their beloved pets, the Yeagles this year chose to feature the Baylor students (both current and former) in whom they have a vested interest: their scholarship recipients.

    Bev and Merv, whose generosity created a scholarship several years ago for Hankamer School of Business students, decided this year to feature on their Christmas cards both their current Baylor scholarship recipient and several past recipients with whom they have kept in contact.

    Sounding like a proud father, Merv easily rattles off the names and current occupations of many of the students he and his wife have gotten to know over the years through the “thank you” letters Baylor students write after receiving endowed scholarships. (The Mervin H. Yeagle, Sr. and Mildred L. Yeagle Endowed Scholarship in Marketing is named after Merv’s parents.) Last spring, Bev and Merv even traveled from Maryland back to Texas, where they connected with their current student, William, as well as several former recipients (now Baylor alumni).

    “It’s very gratifying,” Merv said about seeing how well their former students are doing after graduation. “I guess one of the most gratifying things is that the (scholarship) in the school of business has my parents’ name on it. … Even though my scholarship is not a huge one, $3,000 is $3,000, and that makes a difference when they pool all the different scholarships together, to make sure a student’s going to go to school because otherwise they may not be able to come to Baylor.”

    For Baylor grad Ryan Snitzer, BBA ’18 — one of the alumni featured on this year’s card — his relationship with the Yeagles has been an unexpected but special experience since he received their scholarship.

    “I figured that there were definitely some very generous people that had gone to Baylor and who understood how special of an experience it is, but at the same time I was very surprised and blessed to have people that cared for me beyond just giving to the university or just giving to students in general — that they wanted to have a relationship with me,” says Ryan, now an operational transactional services associate at Ernst & Young who has also founded his own business, Campus Crates.

    The Yeagles’ generosity is extending a legacy that began with Merv’s parents. When the subject of college came up, Merv said his mother gave him one option: Baylor. Over the years, other siblings joined the family tradition. As the Yeagles do not have children, they see this legacy continuing with their scholarship recipients. For this reason, Merv said he is very proud to be funding a second scholarship in the School of Music in memory of his sister, Elizabeth Kay Yeagle, who had just finished her freshman year at Baylor studying music when she died in a car accident. Merv said he is proud to think that students who share Kay’s talents will be helped by the scholarship.

    Sic ’em, Yeagles!

    [To find out more about how you can support Baylor students through a named scholarship, contact Will Simmons, director of endowment stewardship programs, at 254-710-8983.]