Utopia on the King Ranch
Tim Madigan, author of the best-seller ‘I’m Proud of You,’ spends a meaningful day at Presbyterian Pan American School
On a hot winter morning in South Texas a few weeks ago, in a chapel nestled into a corner of the legendary King Ranch, Dr. W. Joseph “Joey” King was inaugurated as the 12th president of Presbyterian Pan American School. During the ceremony, I was invited to share the story of my friendship with Fred Rogers, the late icon of children’s television.
It turns out that Fred’s life and legacy is wholly complementary to that of the Presbyterian Pan American School. Fred Rogers was the embodiment of the highest human virtues — love, compassion, wisdom and non-judgement. In its own way, the relatively obscure institution set on ranchland is the same.
It has been that way since PPAS was founded in 1911, thanks largely to the gift of several hundred acres by Henrietta King, the wife of King Ranch founder and legend Richard King. Henrietta was a devout Presbyterian who took seriously the teachings of Jesus in the beatitudes and Christ’s admonition that “whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me.” At the time, Mexican and Mexican-American children could not attend school in South Texas. So Henrietta and other idealistic Presbyterians, most notably the first school president, the Rev. J.W. Skinner, created a school for them. At the time, Mexican people could not be treated in white hospitals. So an infirmary was built for them on the Pan Am campus.
The Presbyterian Pan American School evolved over the next century, eventually becoming a coed college preparatory boarding school, but not just for Mexican and Mexican-American students. Young people from around the world now find their way to the classrooms and dormitories on the King Ranch, from Africa, China, Taiwan and other countries of South America. Most of them arrive speaking limited English, but by the end of four years, they are fluent in the language, with test scores and academic proficiency sufficient for acceptance at the finest colleges and universities in the United States. All of this has been achieved at a school that adheres closely to the founding values of Henrietta King and her Presbyterian brethren.
“Since its beginning, Pan Am has been a visionary project, and in its modern form, it continues to be,” Joey King said in his inaugural address. “Our commitment to an excellent college preparatory program, steeped in the liberal arts, with deep spiritual, service, and leadership components remains strong.”
“There is a broad spectrum of utopianism,” he said. “And as I thought about Pan Am, the idea that J.W. Skinner comes out here in 1912 and literally just starts hacking a school out of the wilderness for kids that just aren't allowed to go to school, that's a very utopian vision.”
At a reception the night before Joey’s inauguration, I had a long conversation with Sam Trinidad, a successful businessman in a town near Mexico City, and a 1992 graduate of PPAS. His experience at the school and the perspective he gained from it was essential to his later success in life, he said, but Sam struggled to explain exactly why. “It’s magic.”
Sam and his wife, Jenny, have three children, and Sam wanted each of them to have the same opportunity. But the very idea of it terrified his oldest child, Enya, who could not imagine leaving her family, friends and school for an isolated ranch in South Texas. She was 14 years old when she arrived at PPAS, and there were many lonely and tearful calls home.
But there were also new friends from other regions of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Korea and Rwanda. They came from different cultures and spoke different languages, but it turned out that friendship, caring and support has a language all its own.
“It just pops the bubble you're living in,” Enya, who graduated from PPAS in 2021, told me a few days ago. She will graduate this spring from the University of the Ozarks in Arkansas. “You are just so used to being with the same people in the same environment, doing the same things, and then you meet people that think differently, have been through different things, have lived in different environments with different cultures. At Pan Am they had the international banquet once a year. It was great to see all the different types of music, the different languages. So yeah, you just think that maybe this world is not all about me. It humbles you. It’s very unique.”
I found my day on the campus to be a deeply hopeful one, a celebration of the best of humanity. It was especially powerful in the context of our times, when the humanizing benefits of diversity are under attack, when cruelty, greed and power have become so pervasive. It is not fashionable to celebrate human goodness these days, but under Joey’s leadership, PPAS will continue to sail directly into the cultural headwinds, as it has for more than a century now.
Leaders of the national and Texas Presbyterian church also spoke at my friend’s inauguration, and they sounded defiant while expressing their continued support for the utopia on the King Ranch. I spoke with them afterwards. We agreed that the world needs the example of Presbyterian Pan American School, now more than ever.
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Congregations are invited to join the PC(USA) in celebrating Mr. Rogers Day on Thursday, March 20, which would have been Fred Rogers’ 97th birthday. Click here to access all the Mr. Rogers Day resource pages.
About Tim Madigan
Tim Madigan is a New York Times bestselling author, playwright, journalist and lecturer whose work has often focused on humanitarian concerns and race history and reconciliation.
A 1995 newspaper assignment led to Madigan's interview with Fred Rogers. A close friendship between the two men lasted until Rogers' death in 2003. Madigan's memoir, “I'm Proud of You: My Friendship With Fred Rogers,” is an intimate account of Rogers' human greatness, and a testament to the healing power of friendship. First published in 2006, “I'm Proud of You” continues to inspire readers around the globe. The stage adaption of “I'm Proud of You,” written by Madigan and Harry Parker, made its world premiere at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas, in October 2023.
The transformative relationship between Madigan and Fred Rogers, and Madigan’s own experiences as a seeking and healing human being, remain at the heart of his work. He continues to speak of Mister Rogers and matters of the heart to varied audiences around the nation. Subscribe to Madigan’s newsletter here.
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