The Julian W. Garrett Research Travel Fund at the Briscoe Center for American History was established in Julian’s memory by his family. The endowment provides funds to support student travel to the Briscoe Center to conduct research in the archives.
Julian W. Garrett, father of Judith Garrett Segura and Julian Thomas Garrett, was born in Asher, Oklahoma, on January 4, 1918, and moved to the Texas Rio Grande Valley in 1931. He attended The University of Texas at Austin, where he played football under legendary coach Dana X. Bible. During his football career at UT, Garrett became one of the “immortal thirteen” in 1940 and was on the cover of Life magazine with his teammates in 1941. He had received offers to play professional football, but his life took a different turn on December 7, 1941, the day after the last game of his senior year, when Pearl Harbor was bombed.
Garrett’s war service was civilian, as a supervisor at Consolidated Steel Corporation’s Shipbuilding Division in Orange, Texas, one of the nation’s busiest wartime shipbuilding operations. While working in Orange, Garrett married Margaret Toal in 1942. Their children, Judith and Julian, arrived a few years later. After the war, Julian worked in the petrochemical industry in Orange. He died on January 7, 2012, at age 94.
