We, the PISD Heritage Room Board, appreciate your memorabilia donations.  We also appreciate your monetary donations as The Heritage Room is not funded by PISD.  A donation box is located in The Heritage Room, and your donation can also be given to a board member.  We hope that you will take the opportunity to visit and see the rich heritage of Pampa ISD.

Board Members:

Dick Dunham, Class of 1956

Sherry Seabourn, Class of 1969

LeeAnn Ammons, Class of 1974

Dana Terry, Class of 1975

Dan Morrison, Class of 1975

Hugh Piatt, Superintendent

Misti LeBlanc, Pampa ISD Board of Trustee Member

Dr. Chris Skaggs is professor, Associate Dean for Student Development for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M and Associate Vice Chancellor for Stakeholder Relations with Texas A&M AgriLife. He also holds the San Antonio Livestock Exposition Chair in Animal Science. Skaggs received his doctorate in animal science from Iowa State University, his master's in animal science from Kansas State University, and two bachelor's degrees in animal science and agricultural education from Texas Tech University.  He has coached national champion livestock judging teams at Kansas State, Iowa State and Texas A&M universities.

Skaggs coordinates the introductory animal science laboratories, teaches ANSC 101 (Introductory Seminar for Animal Science), AGLS 101 (Freshman Orientation) for the College and co-teaches the livestock and meats evaluation courses. Skaggs also assists in recruitment efforts for the college, coordinates the college scholarship program and student professional development activities, manages student internships with the San Antonio Livestock Exposition and is liaison with major livestock shows of Texas including State Fair of Texas, San Antonio, Houston and Rodeo Austin. He is a co­editor, with H. 0. Kunkel, dean emeritus of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, of "Revolutionizing Higher Education in Agriculture: Framework, Principles and Agenda for Action," a study of the colleges of agriculture, natural resources and life sciences in the United States. 

He devotes a considerable amount of time to live animal evaluation as he has judged cattle shows in 38 states including the largest national shows such as the National Western in Denver, American Royal in Kansas City, North American International in Louisville, San Antonio Livestock Exposition and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. He serves as superintendent of the intercollegiate livestock judging contest and the steer show at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, assistant superintendent of the 4-H/FFA livestock judging contest and superintendent of the steer show and beef cattle skillathon at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, superintendent of the steer show and beef cattle skillathon for the State Fair of Texas and superintendent of beef cattle skillathon at Rodeo Austin.

As Vice Chancellor for Stakeholder Relations, he interacts and collaborates with agricultural industry leaders across the state on issues and priorities critical to the future success of Texas agriculture.  Skaggs works with stakeholders to strengthen the partnership between industry and Texas A&M Agriculture on educational, research and extension initiatives. 

He has received the Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Awards for Teaching and Student Engagement, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas Tech University, National Academic Advising Association Faculty Excellence in Student Advising Award, Texas FFA Distinguished Service and Honorary Lone Star Awards and the National FFA Honorary American FFA degree.   

Chris and his wife, Misty, reside in Bryan, Texas, and have two daughters.  During his free time, he enjoys attending Aggie sporting events.

Mary Lois Holman Thrasher (Pampa HS class of 1975) was born on April 18, 1957, in Pampa, Texas to the parents of Billie Ann (Pampa HS class of 1953) and Frank Lee Holman.  Mary is the second child in a family of five children and all attended Lamar Elementary, Pampa Jr. High, and graduated from Pampa High School.   

Mary attended Angelo State University where she worked at Gabriel’s Department Store, the Physics Department, and the Hemphill Wells Department Store.  Her extracurricular activities included involvement in the First Baptist Church College department, Youth Choir, and the Baptist Student Union where she served as Missions Chairman, Fine Arts Music Team member, and President my senior year.  She graduated Magna Cum Laude from ASU in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in Distributive Education and a minor in Business.  Later she received her Master's Degree in Education Technology Leadership from Lamar University.    

Mary met her husband, Mike Thrasher, at Angelo State University.  Mary and Mike have been blessed with 44 years of marriage and have lived in Monahans and San Marcos, Texas.  They have one daughter, Staci Thrasher Thetford from Dallas, with her husband, Robert N. Thetford, and their two daughters: 8-year-old Laura Marie Thetford and 4-year-old Julia Thrasher Thetford.  One of Mary’s favorite things that make her happy in retirement is being a JaJa, a grandmother.  She and Mike love spending time with their granddaughters for several weeks throughout the year.  We love to vacation with our daughter and her family several times a year, and as a three-generation family of Aggies, we love to attend Aggie football games together in the fall.    

Mary’s career before consulting included serving as the full-time Youth Director at First Baptist Church, from 1980 - 1983, working in the Accounts Receivable Department of Thrasher Trucking Company until they moved to San Marcos, Texas.   In San Marcos, Mike and Mary opened The Spring Christian Shoppe and began their next journey in life.  They loved being involved in their daughter’s school activities while still being active in San Marcos First Baptist Church and Wimberley’s Cypress Creek Church in Wimberley, Texas.  Mary began teaching ESL Reading her first year in San Marcos CISD and after a year, she settled into seventh-grade Reading and Language Arts where she taught at Goodnight and Miller Junior High for nine years. In the 1995-96 school year, she was honored to be named the Teacher of the Year for Miller Jr. High.     

While teaching Seventh grade, Mary became the Project Read Curriculum specialist and trained the school district’s teachers from kindergarten to eighth grade in phonics, linguistics, reading comprehension, and writing using multisensory instruction through learning styles and total student participation techniques.  In 2000, Project Read authors noticed her expertise and asked her to join their consulting team serving as a consultant. After working for seven years with Language Circle, she started Thrasher Educational Consulting Company.  For the next twelve years Mary worked with school districts throughout the United States aligning their curriculum to the national and state standards while at the same time training their teachers in phonics, reading comprehension, and writing.    

In 2007, Mary was asked by Pastor Morris Ogengha in Uganda to bring her reading and writing expertise to Uganda and train the teachers at Lulwanda Primary School in phonics.  From that summer to the current summer, of 2024, she travels each year to Uganda to work with Lulwanda Primary School in phonics, linguistics, and reading comprehension.  Students at Lulwanda Primary School are ranked as one of the top schools in the district each year.  Teachers at Lulwanda contribute the students’ reading success to their phonics and reading skills taught in the classroom from nursery school to primary four.    

After several years of traveling and partnering with the Lulwanda Primary School and Children’s Home in Uganda, Mike and Mary built a library in 2009.  Soon after the Lulwanda library, they started the nonprofit organization, Books are the Beginning.  Through the nonprofit, they have expanded their access to used books from libraries, schools, and organizations across the state, collecting over 250,000 books. The relationship with school libraries in San Marcos and other school districts has allowed them to build two more libraries in Uganda, one in Kenya, and our newest library in Tanzania in 2022.    

Every year, Mary and Mike take teams of retired teachers, current educators, college students, and some high school graduates to volunteer at Lulwanda Primary School.  During those weeks, they complete projects that include training teachers, coaching teachers in their instructional practices, and modeling lessons for teachers on the best practices in education while using the Uganda National Curriculum.  Their goal is to empower the teachers in Uganda to become better teachers with multisensory instruction, not to change their curriculum to a Western culture curriculum.  They also meet every year with the Government District Education Officer and collaborate on the district’s training needs for their teachers.  

In 2014, they started a reading program, “Fall Into Reading” through their nonprofit organization, Books are the Beginning. In the last ten years, this program has given away over 100,000 books to four schools in Dallas ISD, two in Lubbock, six in San Marcos, and Lamar Elementary School in Pampa the last two years.   

Mary and her husband have always been involved in community outreach by leading small intergenerational community groups in their home through their church.  Mary has discipled and mentored college girls and young mothers for the last forty-four years. She has taught Bible Studies, led youth choir and mission classes, and worked with children and women in their church.  Each Tuesday morning you will find her with about 50 women from a new 55+ living community called Kissing Tree, where they have invited her to facilitate a Bible Study, which she loves leading these women in our community.  Together, they have trained and led teams to Lulwanda Primary School, Uganda every year to work with the teachers.