About

Producing a sequel to Deborah Balliew’s College Station, Texas account of the city’s first 50 years, from 1938 to 1988, is a challenge in that people consume information today much differently than in the past. Modern technology has taken the concept of “channel surfing” to virtually every aspect of our lives, from how we shop, to how we date, to how we assimilate our news.

Gone are the days when we relied solely on reporters to define the events of the day. With Twitter, people now tell their own story in their own words and often do so in very entertaining ways.

The College Station of today is a very modern place and although it is steeped in the rich history and lore of Texas A&M University, the city deserves a contemporary telling of its own most recent and noteworthy events, milestones and change agents. That is the intent of the City Stories Texas project which resides on this website: an embodiment of the spirit of the community’s last 30 years.

The task for helping tell the city’s continuing story has been placed in the hands of a newcomer to our community, but one with experience in chronicling the past.

Tim Gregg and his wife, Nancy, moved to College Station in the summer of 2017. Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg teaches in the Industrial and Systems Engineering department at Texas A&M University. As a consultant to Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp, Tim recently assembled the history of the old Bryan Army Air Field, today known as the RELLIS Campus. The upcoming book based on that project, RELLIS Recollections, is set to be published by the Texas A&M University Press.

Tim has written three other books, including the life story of former Texas A&M and Major League Baseball standout Wally Moon.

Stories about people–their trials, hopes, motivations and accomplishments–have always resonated with readers. While it’s important to understand issues, chronology and the role government plays in shaping a “present” which eventually becomes the “past,” that is not the intent of this project. Rather, “30 Stories” seeks to offer the city’s defining recent achievements from the perspective of those whose past vision of the future shaped local lives today.

Just over 30 years ago, the College Station city council established the Historic Preservation Commission to “provide for education of citizens on the history” of the city. It is with that intent that the stories here look back at the milestones of the past three decades.

We hope these stories inform, enlighten and instill within readers a desire to make a difference in this special place which locals call home. Everyone has the opportunity to help shape the 20 years hence until College Station’s centennial anniversary is celebrated in 2038.

To contribute ideas or stories to this project click here.

To explore the ever-expanding selection of stories about College Station’s most recent 30 years of history, click here.