Museum is ‘monument of inspiration’

By Misty Jones and
Victoria Marshall
The TC News reporters

“How do you even begin to say thank you?” said Suzanne Irwin, Director of Institutional Advancement.
In February 2012, Texarkana College was facing the worst financial crisis in the history of the institution. Ross Perot’s donation inspired the community to come together and save Texarkana College. As a thank you, TC constructed The Perot Leadership Museum in his honor.
After two years of planning and construction, the Museum was officially unveiled February 12, in an event celebrating the fifth installment of Ross Perot’s $5 million donation. The Museum came together in two phases. The first phase was the Cotton Sales Office and murals. The second phase was the rotating exhibit.
Initially, a budget was set for this project. However, the project was done mostly in house with materials and aspects of the museum being subcontracted by local vendors. Rick Boyette, Director of Facilities; Connie Brian, Administrative Assistant for the library; Traci Pitman, Design Coordinator for Institutional Advancement; and Suzanne Irwin, Director for Constitutional Advancement, were key people in the design and construction of the Museum. “Traci Pitman was really the mastermind behind all this,” said Irwin.
The project began with research.
“We did a lot of research. We went to Perot’s office and toured his archives and took pictures of things and got information. We researched using resources that our students use,” said Traci Pitman, Design Coordinator for Institutional Advancement.

Ross Perot’s office is located in Plano, Texas, and contains more than 8,000 archives. Many of the photos included in the Museum were taken by Pitman in his archives.
“He has a replica of the bicycle he rode to deliver the Texarkana Gazette when he was a young boy,” said Irwin. A photo of that replica is featured in the H. Ross Perot TEXARKANIAN mural.
“We didn’t want this to be just a life story of Ross Perot. We wanted to highlight his principles of leadership and what led him to success,” said Pitman. Along with photos illustrating the life of H. Ross Perot, there are numerous impactful quotes throughout the Museum. “We got most of them from things that he’s written, his books, from speeches he’s made,” said Pitman.
The first phase of the Perot Leadership Museum was the Cotton Sales Office and the Murals. The concept of the Office came from a visit with Perot’s close childhood friends, Josh and Martha Morris. “So, in visiting with them first, we ask what would be a nice way to say thank you. They reminded us of the importance of his family, his father, “said Irwin. “And so that’s how we came up with this first idea of building this Cotton Sales Office.”
“With the temporary exhibit, I actually just saw a picture on Pinterest of an exhibit that incorporated the poles. Rick Boyette built it,” said Irwin.
The rotating exhibit was built to be flexible, so that other inspiring people can be featured in that space. “The idea is that, not in a specific time frame, but periodically we are going to change it out with information on different people; different leaders in the community or just different leaders who had an impact on our community in general,” said Pitman.
The Perot Leadership Museum was built as a “thank you” to H. Ross Perot for his generosity and leadership. However, this Museum will be a constant monument of inspiration for TC students and the Texarkana community.
“Yes, we did it as a thank you to him, but we also wanted others to know about him and the leadership and different facets of his life, “said Irwin.