Texas A&M Former Students Continue ‘Little’ Tradition Of Supporting Aggies With Veterinary Scholarships

Story by Rachel Knight, VMBS Communications

September 27, 2024

Pam ‘75 and Larry ‘73 Little caught the Aggie spirit at an early age.

Larry, a first-generation college student, grew up in north Bryan, where his father owned a grocery store called Little’s Drive-In Grocery. Pam, on the other hand, moved to Bryan at the age of 2 when her father — class of 1950 and a World War II veteran — took a job in the area.

Together, the Littles are drawing from the Texas A&M spirit and values they fell in love with as children to shape the future of Aggieland.

Most recently, they generously donated $4 million in scholarships to Texas A&M University to benefit both future Aggie veterinarians at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences and future Aggie entrepreneurs studying at Mays Business School. The Littles’ donation has created some of the largest scholarships in the history of both the VMBS and Mays Business School.

Becoming Aggies

The Littles are life-long scholars, public servants, animal lovers, and successful entrepreneurs.

The couple began dating in the summer of ’69, when Larry graduated from high school and decided to coach a softball team while waiting for classes to begin at Texas A&M.

“Guess who was on that softball team?” Pam said while pointing to herself. “We’ve been together for 55 years. We dated for four years and then married during spring break the year Larry graduated from Texas A&M.”

Larry is a first-generation Aggie but didn’t feel that way coming into college because he’d grown up surrounded by the Aggie spirit. He sold cokes in Kyle Field as a kid, was friends and neighbors with Aggies, and learned the Aggie traditions by proximity to campus.

Pam inherited her deep respect for the university from her father, but, as a young girl in the 1950s and early 1960s, she knew that women were not allowed to study at the all-male, military school.

“I can still remember when they announced Texas A&M would start admitting women,” Pam recalled. “My dad was so excited that his only child could become an Aggie. He came running in and said, ‘Pam can go to A&M now!’”

But Pam had other plans, enrolling at a different university after graduating from high school.

“I kept coming home every weekend to see Larry, and my dad said, ‘Well, if you’re going to come home every weekend, there’s a much better university right here,’” Pam recalled. “So, I enrolled the following semester at Texas A&M and never regretted that decision.”

The couple enjoyed their time on campus together — attending Texas A&M football games in the fall, taking walks to the creamery in the summer, and laying the academic foundation for successful careers. 

Putting Aggie Values To Work

After leaving Bryan-College Station, the Littles quickly realized the value of their Texas A&M educations as they practiced what they learned in class in the workforce and, eventually, when they established their own company.

Larry initially went into sales at Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Houston but took a job with the publishing company John Wiley & Sons out of New York City after just three months.

“I loved it,” Larry said. “I supplied textbooks to Texas A&M, Rice, Sam Houston State, Lamar, Texas A&M Kingsville, and just about every junior college in the state. The workload followed the same cycle as the school year. I started in September as classes began and ended in May as the school year ended.”

With more free time in the summer, Larry began working part-time with a friend and former colleague from Firestone who had started building privacy fencing in Houston. After working one summer for his friend, Larry, Pam, and a neighbor started their own fencing business out of a garage. The Littles saved their earnings from the fencing company and eventually bought out their neighbor to officially establish Ace Fence.

While Larry was selling college textbooks and building fences part-time, Pam was working at Sun Life of Canada, an insurance company. After marrying and moving to Houston, Pam was unable to attend classes in College Station, so she took advantage of Sun Life’s tuition program and began taking courses in the evening and on her lunch hour at the University of Houston.

“I ended up graduating from the University of Houston but said I’d eventually go back to Texas A&M so that I could get my Aggie ring and graduate from Texas A&M,” Pam said. “However, at the time, one of my friends was head of the vocational business department at what is now Lone Star College System. She knew we’d started the fencing company, and she said, ‘You know, Pam, our welders, our plumbers, our HVAC students, and all of our other trade students are going to become small business owners, but they don’t really know anything about business.’”

Pam’s friend offered her the chance to develop a community college course for small business owners, which Pam would go on to teach for six years.

Meanwhile, the fencing company was growing quickly. The Littles moved the business out of their home garage and into a brick-and-mortar store outside of Houston.

“In 1983, there was a recession in Houston, and the fencing company wouldn’t really support us anymore, so we made the decision to move to Dallas and start Ace Fence up there,” Larry said. “One of the key things in life is making the right decisions, and even though we didn’t necessarily want to go to Dallas at the time, it was a great decision.”

Dallas proved to be a booming market and Ace Fence in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex quickly became a lucrative business. In addition, the move to Dallas offered new career opportunities for Pam.

“I started working part-time for Scott Foresman, a publishing company,” Pam said. “I was in that position for about five years before I took a full-time job with Prentice Hall. We worked a lot with the State Board of Education when they would review the state’s educational standards to make sure our textbooks were in alignment with the latest standards for grade school students.”

Pam became a specialist for social studies materials and moved to a position at Houghton Mifflin McDougal Littell. She retired as a regional vice president in 2008.

Creating A Little Aggie Tradition

“Something happened to me at Texas A&M 50 years ago that helped me get to where I am now. I want to help some of these kids get to where they need to be 50 years from now, too.”

Larry Little

The Littles’ tradition of supporting students began with a birthday celebration.

“I was looking for something meaningful to give Larry for his birthday, so I started a scholarship fund in his name for the McFerrin Entrepreneurship program,” Pam said. 

“After that, naturally, we needed to start one in Pam’s name,” Larry added.

True to her word, Pam returned to Texas A&M to receive her Aggie ring in 2004 and again in 2020 to wrap up her Aggie degree. When she walked the graduation stage in 2022, Larry gifted Pam an Endowed Opportunity Award scholarship, which benefits incoming freshmen who have exhibited a high degree of character, extracurricular involvement, leadership ability, and evidence of financial need.

“The Littles truly believe in Aggies and give from the heart in supporting their education at Texas A&M,” said Chastity Carrigan ‘16, vice president for development at the Texas A&M Foundation (TAMF). “When they meet a student, they are called to the duty of supporting them. We’re all taught at Texas A&M that Aggies help Aggies, and they truly embody that spirit.”

Pam and Larry agree that supporting their fellow Texas A&M scholars is simply the right thing to do.

As a result, their support extends beyond academic scholarships to also include helping the VMBS carry on its more than 100-year tradition of Aggie veterinary excellence; their contribution to the VMBS’ new small animal Clinical Veterinary Teaching & Research Complex will support spaces that empower Aggies to become leaders in their future careers by expanding learning opportunities within the state’s largest learning laboratory.

“Something happened to me at Texas A&M 50 years ago that helped me get to where I am now,” Larry said. “I want to help some of these kids get to where they need to be 50 years from now, too.”

In addition to donating funds in each other’s names, the Littles have also given to carry on the legacy of other Aggies. In 2020, they learned that one of their scholarship recipients, Victoria Walker, died in a tragic plane crash along with her parents, Tamara and David Walker. As it turned out, David was also a former employee of the Littles.

“We didn’t realize Victoria was his daughter when she got our scholarship,” Pam said.

“We lost touch with the family after David left our company about 20 years ago, but when we heard the news, it just clicked,” Larry said. “It hit home how fragile life is; people whom you know are here today are gone tomorrow, so you better live life as well as you can every day.”

The Littles endowed a scholarship in Victoria’s honor, much to the appreciation of her sister, Madeline, the only surviving member of the family.

“Madeline said that it was super impactful to see her sister’s legacy live on through the Littles’ generosity,” shared Cassie Mahoney ‘15, a senior director of development at the TAMF. “Their gift will keep her name and her Aggie spirit alive in Aggieland for many generations.”

Answering The Call To Serve

The Littles recently sold 80% of Ace Fence, allowing them to further support Aggies, Texas A&M, and charities that support causes they believe in, such as animal rescues and those that help women reestablish themselves in the workforce.

In addition to giving their resources, the Littles also give their time. Both are active in local and state government, with Pam being elected to the Fairview Town Council in 2016 and to the State Board of Education in 2018 and Larry being elected to the Fairview Town Council in 2020.

“I try to lead by example, not from the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ model,” Pam said. “That’s part of the fabric that makes up an Aggie. If you come to Texas A&M and absorb the spirit and learn the value of giving back and then go out and share that with others, you’ve done it right.”

The Littles also answer the call to service by sharing their expertise with future generations. They speak to Mays Business School classes, mentor student entrepreneurs, and provide personalized advice to their scholarship recipients. 

Aggies Supporting Aggies

Through their continued support and generosity, the Littles personify the first two lines of The Spirit of Aggieland — “We are the Aggies, the Aggies are we. True to each other as Aggies can be.”

Their most recent donation to the VMBS and Mays Business School includes $2 million in scholarships for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students and reflects the soft spot in their hearts for both animals and deserving students. The gift provides 10 annual scholarships of $20,000 for DVM students who are studying large animal medicine, equine medicine, and small animal medicine.

“Veterinary school is expensive and requires a level of studying that makes it challenging for students to work,” Larry said. “These kids need as much help as they can get, so they can focus on their studies and start supporting the animals who need them when they graduate.

“Texas A&M is a leading veterinary hospital in the nation,” he said. “As more people adopt pets, the need for highly skilled veterinarians continues to grow, so we need to keep pace and support our future veterinarians. It’s just the right thing to do.”

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