As the threat of Communism grew, refugees fled across the border, overwhelming the small farming community of just 5,000 residents.
The Bavarian town of Bad Königshofen fell just three miles west of the Soviet Sector. įollowing the aftermath of World War II, Allied forces divided Germany into sectors. Tom Vandergriff served as the hospital board chairman for more than 35 years, and in 2007, the Tom Vandergriff Surgical Tower was named in his honor.
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In honor of their contributions, the hospital dedicated the Vandergriff Professional Building on campus. In 1958, the Vandergriff family spearheaded the original fund-raising effort and donated the land to construct Arlington's first hospital, Arlington Memorial Hospital. Johnson's White House Commission on Urban Problems. Vandergriff served as founding president of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, as the first chair of the Texas Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, and as a member of Lyndon B. Mayor of Arlington ĭuring his 26 years as Mayor of Arlington from 1951 to 1977, Tom Vandergriff brought a General Motors assembly plant into Arlington, brought the Washington Senators to Arlington as the Texas Rangers, saw Arlington State College elevated to University status and become The University of Texas at Arlington, helped create the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and saw Arlington grow from about 8,000 people to over 120,000. Two years later, in 1949, he married his high school sweetheart, Anna Waynette Smith, and later that year became president of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. įeeling a sense of rejection, Vandergriff moved back to Arlington to work for his father's Chevrolet dealership. Huntley would go on to co-anchor the NBC evening news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report. After graduating, he auditioned for a position at KNX radio in Los Angeles, only to lose the job to Chet Huntley. In 1947, Vandergriff graduated from the University of Southern California earning a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. Vandergriff had sent an audition tape to the station, who hired him before learning of his age. īy the time Vandergriff was 16 years old, he applied to work as a radio broadcaster for KFJZ in Fort Worth, which was operated by Elliot Roosevelt, the son of President Franklin D. With the help of a speech therapist, he overcame the disability and developed an interest in oratory and a deep, baritone voice. Growing up, Vandergriff suffered from a speech impediment.
At the time, Arlington was just 1 square mile (640 acres) with 3,500 residents. In 1937, Hooker and his wife, Charles Pleasant Mayes, moved the family to nearby Arlington to open a new downtown Chevrolet dealership. His father, William Thomas "Hooker" Vandergriff was a prominent businessman who operated a local car dealership with his father, John Thomas Vandergriff. Tom Vandergriff was born in Carrollton, Texas on January 29, 1926. Īs Mayor, he was instrumental in several projects, including a new General Motors assembly plant, moving a Major League Baseball franchise to Arlington, and the opening of Six Flags over Texas.
For the greater part of his life, Vandergriff was a Democrat, but he became a Republican around 1990. Representative from Texas's 26th congressional district from 1983 to 1985, and as County Judge of Tarrant County from 1991 to 2007. He served as Mayor of Arlington from 1951 to 1977, as a U.S. Tommy Joe Vandergriff (January 29, 1926 – December 30, 2010) was a politician from Texas.
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