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The T.L.L. Temple Foundation of Lufkin was honored as Stephen F. Austin State University’s leading organizational donor during the 25th annual SFA Gala on Saturday.

“We are very fortunate at SFA to have been the beneficiary of financial support from countless individuals and organizations throughout our 90-year history, but one could argue that there has been no better friend to our university than the T.L.L. Temple Foundation,” said Dr. Baker Pattillo, SFA president. “It is fitting to honor the foundation at the Gala during this special 90th-anniversary year.”

The T.L.L. Temple Foundation was established in 1962 by Georgie Temple Munz in honor of her father, Thomas Lewis Latané Temple, an East Texas lumberman and founder of Southern Pine Lumber Company, which later became Temple Industries. It is a nonprofit organization operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes, primarily in areas of the deep East Texas pine timber belt.

The foundation has made grants in support of the arts, community and social services, environmental and conservation initiatives, and all levels of education. Funds to establish, improve and maintain public school and college libraries also have been primary beneficiaries, as well as hospitals and health care facilities. These gifts have significantly enhanced the quality of life for the people of East Texas.

For decades, SFA has been among the foundation’s many beneficiaries. The foundation has provided funding for equipment, research, teaching, training and program support, as well as many scholarships and professorships that will benefit SFA students and faculty members in perpetuity. The university’s forestry college is named the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture in recognition of the longtime support of the late Arthur Temple, the Temple family and the foundation.

“The T.L.L. Temple Foundation has had an extraordinary impact on excellence in teaching, research and outreach programs in the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture,” according to Dr. Steven Bullard, dean of the college. “We can justifiably claim national prominence in key programs due to the support we have received, which was targeted specifically to achieve that prominence.

“Because of the endowed nature of the support from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation and from members of the Temple family, its impact will continue into the future,” he said. “Their contribution has had such a significant impact that it has become part of the very DNA of the Arthur Temple College. We would not be nationally prominent without this support for faculty, students and programmatic excellence.”

Recently, the foundation established an SFA scholarship in honor of Wayne Corley, who retired after serving 14 years as executive director of the foundation. The A. Wayne Corley Scholarship provides full scholarships to two students each year in the Gerald W. Schlief School of Accountancy.

“Support from the T.L.L. Temple Foundation has helped catapult our forestry program to national distinction,” said Jill Still, vice president for university advancement.

Stephen F. Austin State University recently hosted four international students participating in U.S. Department of State Global Undergraduate Exchange Programs.

Jitesh Kumar and Uzma Sahar Rauf are attending SFA through Global UGRAD-Pakistan, and Olga Romanenko of Russia is participating in an exchange through Global UGRAD-Eurasia and Central Asia.

The university also welcomed Thomas Jefferson Scholar Alaeddine Ben Ahmed through Global UGRAD-Tunisia this fall. The Tunisia exchange is in its first year, and Ben Ahmed is one of only 66 scholars from this program studying in the U.S.

The Global UGRAD program aims to advance youth leadership and promote mutual understanding by providing up to one year of non-degree U.S. study to undergraduates from many countries around the world. In addition to their academic studies, Global UGRAD fellows perform community service, explore American traditions through the Cultural Passport to America program and gain professional experience.

“We are very excited that we will be hosting five more students from the Pakistan program for the spring 2014 semester,” said Heather Catton, director of SFA’s Office of International Programs. “Hosting these students contributes to the international presence and diversity on the SFA campus, which is a benefit to the entire student body.”

Housed in the state department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the program fosters mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and other countries and promotes friendly, sympathetic and peaceful relations, as mandated by the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchanges Act of 1961.

The program is administered by the International Research and Exchanges Board, an international nonprofit organization providing leadership and innovative programs to improve the quality of education, strengthen independent media and foster pluralistic civil society development.