AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation announced today that its Center for Natural Resources would be renamed the Anne & Tobin Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment. The announcement was made at a Houston tribute to the Armstrong family keynoted by former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove and attended by U.S. Senator John Cornyn, Comptroller Susan Combs, and other dignitaries.
“The Armstrong legacy is punctuated with remarkable events, from serving presidents to serving our state, making it one of the great pioneer families of our day,” said Foundation president Brooke Rollins. “We are honored that the Armstrong children regard our research on energy and environmental issues to be a worthy tribute to their parents.”
The central premise of the Anne & Tobin Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment is that the greatest environmental improvements occur hand-in-hand with economic growth. In areas such as energy, climate change, air quality, and water policy, the Center’s research will use sound science to develop practical policy solutions that foster a market-driven energy supply and improve our environment through market mechanisms, performance-based standards, property rights, and more rigorous scientific and risk-benefit analyses.
“Mommy and daddy would be thrilled to know that their legacy will live on in the form of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Anne & Tobin Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment,” said their daughter and tribute chair, Katherine Armstrong.
The Center will continue to be headed by Kathleen Hartnett White, currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow-in-Residence at the Foundation. White is the former Chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
“I have known the Armstrong family for decades, and Tobin was a mentor to me,” White said. “He understood that Texas’ commitment to genuine free market principles had allowed the innovation and efficiency for Texas to improve its environment while promoting economic growth. I look forward to continuing to share that message through the research performed by the Anne & Tobin Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment.”
A United States diplomat and politician, Anne Legendre Armstrong blazed the trail for women in politics, as the first female Counselor to the President, the first woman United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and the first woman to speak to a party’s national convention, where she did so in 1972 during a time when she was Co-Chairman of the Republican National Committee-the first woman to do so for either party.
The recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987 from Ronald Reagan to honor her career of patriotic service, Anne was considered as a potential vice presidential nominee for incumbent Gerald Ford.
In addition to political service, Anne actively sat on the boards of major U.S. corporations and non-profit groups, such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and was a regent to The Texas A&M University System.
Tobin Armstrong was a rancher and cattleman for nearly 60 years on the 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch. The force behind two federal court decisions of great importance to the cattle industry, Tobin traveled extensively in the 1960s to promote foreign market development in Latin America, Africa, and Europe.
Tobin served as special advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture for Eastern and Western Europe from 1976-1977, and was active on the Texas and Southwestern Cattleraisers Association Board of Directors.
Upon Tobin’s death in 2005, Anne succeeded him as Commissioner of Kenedy County. Anne died of cancer in Houston in July 2008 at 80 years old. Together, the couple is credited with helping to establish Texas as a two-party state. They have five surviving children, Barclay, Sarita, Tobin Jr., James, and Katharine.
Brooke Leslie Rollins is President of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Kathleen Hartnett White is a Distinguished Senior Fellow-in-Residence and the Director of the Anne & Tobin Armstrong Center for Energy & The Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. White is the former Chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan, free-market research institute based in Austin. More information can be found on the Foundation’s primary website, www.TexasPolicy.com.
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