Tarleton Alumna Attributes University Connections to Her Success

Photo of Nancy Golden Turley

Nancy Golden Turley received was named a Tarleton State University Distinguished Alumna in February.

Nancy Golden Turley calls them purple threads.

In her remarks upon being named a Tarleton State University Distinguished Alumna in February, she spoke of the connections she forged as a student. Connections that have strengthened over time.

“I attribute so much of who I am to Tarleton,” she said. “There were so many purple threads sewn into my life by Tarleton and the people I met there.”

She mentioned several high-profile faculty members and administrators as among her greatest allies as a student.

“Lamar Johanson, O.A. Grant, Mike Leese, J. Lewis Evans; I could go on and on. They are all icons of the University. These people influenced and impacted my life more than I could say. Not just from an educational standpoint, but through the personal investment that faculty, staff, community and alums all made.”

Purple threads also led to her introduction to Dallas entrepreneur Mike Myers, who hired her sight unseen almost four decades ago on the advice of Dean of Students Cecil Ballow.

Turley’s achievements make quite the list.

She was the first woman elected Tarleton student body president. She graduated in 1979 summa cum laude with an accounting degree, having served four years in student government, first as a member of the student senate, then as student body vice president and president.

She served on the Tarleton Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1984 to 1993, and again from 2008 to 2012. Twice she was named an officer—president 1990-1992, treasurer 2009-2012.

Now she’s helping stitch purple threads through the Golden Family Endowed Scholarship, created by her brother, Tarleton Distinguished Alumnus Jerry Golden, and his son, former student body president Josh Golden.

“When we are blessed to benefit from the efforts of other people, I think we have an obligation to pay that forward,” she says. “That’s how we continue the example that others have provided and continue the legacy of those who came before us. It’s a way of contributing to the Tarleton family.”

And sewing purple threads.

To learn more about ways you can strengthen your connection to Tarleton State University, and sew some purple threads of your own, please contact Janice Horak at jhorak@tarleton.edu or 254-968-9857.

 

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