TAMIU’s Thompson Receives Kate Broocks Bates Award

Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) Regents Professor Dr. Jerry D. Thompson is the recipient of the Texas State Historical Association’s 2018 Kate Broocks Bates Award for Historical Research for his Pulitzer Prize-nominated publication, “Tejano Tiger:  José de los Santos Benavides and the Texas-México Borderlands, 1823-1891.”

The Award was presented earlier this month in Corpus Christi during the Fellows Luncheon and Presentation of Awards and includes a certificate and $4,000.

The TSHA, organized in 1897, is the oldest learned society in the state and works to foster an appreciation for the rich and unique history of Texas. With a mission that continually focuses on promoting research, preservation and the publication of historical material, TSHA also serves more than 50,000 elementary through college students annually and reaches an additional 86,000 through teacher training opportunities.

Recently, Thompson was named to the 2018 Texas Institute of Letters (TIL) Prize winners for “Tejano Tiger” and received the Ramírez Family Award for Most Significant Scholarly Book. He also received the Webb County Heritage Foundation’s Elizabeth Gill and Sam Johnson, III Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of an individual who has made significant contributions to the preservation of Webb County Heritage.

In 2017, the TSHA named Thompson its recipient of the Mary Jon and J.P. Bryan Leadership in Education Award at its annual association meeting. The TIL is a nonprofit honor society founded in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and recognize distinctive literary achievements. 

Thompson has been a TAMIU faculty member since 1987 and serves as one of the country’s leading experts on the Civil War in the Southwest.  He has taught in Laredo for the past 50 years and is author or editor of 26 books on the US-México borderlands.

He has received the prestigious Pate Award and TIL Best Non-Fiction Award twice, and is the only three-time recipient of the Tejano Book Award. 

Thompson holds his doctorate in history from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. His M.A. in history was received from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, while his B.A. in history was earned at Western New Mexico State University in Silver City, NM.

For more, contact the TAMIU Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at 956.26.2180, email prmis@tamiu.edu or click on tamiu.edu

More of the University’s story is available on its dedicated social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.