Essays from West of 98: Rise to the Occasion
Photo: Texas A&M
In 1955, the Texas General Land Office was embroiled in scandal. A scheme of fraudulent land dealings would see twenty people indicted and longtime Land Commissioner James Bascom Giles would serve two years in state prison for his role in the affair. In stepped a new Land Commissioner by the name of James Earl Rudder. Rudder promptly reformed the lending program at the heart of the scandal. He reformed the agency’s finances. He expedited processes for land purchases and oil and gas leasing. He boosted badly marred employee morale. He undertook the preservation of the agency’s historic land records (which was a shocking oversight for many years). It was an impressive bout of public service for anyone, it is but the third greatest act in the public service career of James Earl Rudder.
Rudder’s greatest national fame comes from his actions in the D-Day invasion that took place 77 years ago, on June 6, 1944. A native of Brady, Rudder was a student at John Tarleton Agricultural College and Texas A&M and a teacher and coach at Brady and at Tarleton before he was called to service with the U.S. Army. Leading the Second Ranger Battalion on D-Day, the group known as “Rudder’s Rangers” was given quite a task. They merely needed to land at Pointe du Doc, France, scale some 100-foot vertical cliffs while facing withering German machine gun fire, and destroy the gun emplacements so that Allied forces could secure a beachhead. If they failed, then one of the most important invasions in world history might fail. No big deal, right? The Rangers suffered 50 percent casualties and Rudder himself was wounded twice, but the battalion succeeded and fought off counterattacks for two days until reinforcements arrived.
After the war, Rudder was called to serve again, for six years as mayor of his hometown of Brady. After taking office as Land Commissioner in 1955, he would win re-election in 1956 and serve until 1958, when he left for a position at his alma mater, Texas A&M. He was then named president of the university in 1959. Texas A&M was at a critical juncture in its history. Aggies had a celebrated record in World War II. Nine former students won the Congressional Medal of Honor and the school sent more officers to war than any school outside West Point and Annapolis. The world was changing, though. Texas A&M was a small, all-male, all-white military institution and it was being dwarfed on the educational landscape by larger universities.
Rudder opened Texas A&M to women. He integrated the student body. He made Corps of Cadets participation voluntary. These changes were unthinkable to many and unforgivable to some. After the school’s military training became voluntary, some angry former students mailed Rudder their diploma and even their celebrated Aggie Ring. Over a half-century later, Rudder’s foresight is obvious. Texas A&M could have stayed the course and remained a prestigious military institute. It would have trained exemplary military officers, engineers, and agricultural scientists and remained well-respected, like schools such as the Citadel and VMI. Rudder made a series of bold steps and today, Texas A&M trains exemplary military officers, engineers, and agricultural scientists, while also becoming one of the world’s foremost public research universities with the second-largest student body in America.
James Earl Rudder is one of the finest leaders that Texas A&M ever produced. That is not *because* of his actions in war and public service. His actions are the result of his qualities as a leader. I never got to talk to General Rudder, but I do not imagine that he set out to be a hero. He simply responded to the call of duty whenever it came. When he called to lead his men up the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, he did. When the people of Brady needed him to serve as mayor, he did. When Texas desperately needed a man of integrity to clean up the General Land Office, he did. When Texas A&M needed a leader willing to make the most difficult decisions in the university’s history, with perhaps the university’s entire future hinging on those decisions, he did it.
Whenever and however we are called to action—whether in our rural communities or otherwise—may we follow in the footsteps of James Earl Rudder and simply rise to the occasion.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to West of 98 wherever podcasts are found.