Aggies Helping Aggies
Ted E. Saba '41
Born and raised in Port Arthur, Texas, Ted E. Saba '41 remembers growing up with no curfew and little discipline. That all changed when he came to Texas A&M University in 1937, having earned enough money working at The Texas Company, now Texaco, during the summer to pay his way."Back then, people didn't have a lot of money," Saba remembers. "But I earned $400 one summer, and that was enough to pay for my room, board and laundry at A&M. Then each summer after that I went back to work to make enough money to return."
Saba also worked in the Agricultural Economics department during the school year to get by financially. He credits his experience at A&M for making him who he is today.
"When I was a freshman, I didn't know how to study, but they taught me," Saba says. "I didn't have any discipline, but those other Aggies got me in line and showed me what the world was about. Those experiences prepared me to do other things in life and taught me discipline."
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics in 1941, Saba served in World War II with many of his fellow Aggies as a commissioned officer. During the war, he helped bake bread for troops in North Africa, Italy and France, and after being discharged, returned to Houston and the baking business. Saba moved to Tyler in 1956 and opened his own bakery, but grew weary of the schedule that demanded 14-hour days, seven days a week. It was then he tried his hand at real estate, a business he would flourish in for decades.
Today, Saba is retired in Tyler with his wife Dee and remains a loyal Aggie, having planned several gifts to Texas A&M. In the fall of 2005, Saba established the Ted '41 and Dee Saba Endowed Scholarship Fund for medical students at the College of Medicine at the Texas A&M Health Science Center. He believes it is important to give back to students at A&M because of the life lessons he learned during his undergraduate experience almost 70 years ago.
"My wife and I have no children, so whatever we have will go to A&M," Saba says. "Everything I have in life is because of some Aggie or another, and Aggies have always been there for me. Giving this scholarship is all about the students ¨C there's nothing I wouldn't do to help students at A&M."
(January 2006)
