University of Texas Distinguished Alumni: Ima Hogg
Legendary philanthropist Ima Hogg was born in Mineola, Texas in 1882. She was eight years old when her father was elected governor, so she spent much of her early life in Austin. In 1899, she entered the University of Texas to study music. She joined a woman’s social club called the Valentine Club, and helped to launch the first UT sorority, Pi Beta Phi. After two years at UT, she moved to New York City to study piano and music theory at the National Conservatory of Music. She later moved to Houston, where she gave piano lessons and help found the Houston Symphony Orchestra. She served as the first vice president of the Houston Symphony Society and became president in 1917.
In 1918, oil was discovered on the Hogg property near West Columbia, Texas, enabling Ima Hogg to become a philanthropist. Her contributions include the Houston Child Guidance Center, an agency providing therapy and counseling for disturbed children and their families, and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the University of Texas. After winning an election to the Houston school board in 1943, Ima Hogg worked to establish symphony concerts and a painting-to-music program in the public schools, and get equal and non-discriminatory pay for teachers. In 1966, she donated her extensive art collection, the Bayou Bend Collection, to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.
In the 1960s, she restored the Winedale Inn, a nineteenth-century stagecoach stop at Round Top, Texas, which she donated to the University of Texas. The Winedale Historical Center is now a center for the study of Texas history and the site of an annual fine arts festival. In 1953 Governor Allan Shivers appointed her to the Texas State Historical Survey Committee (later the Texas Historical Commission), and in 1967 that body gave her an award for "meritorious service in historic preservation."
One of Ima Hogg’s greatest contributions was the advancement of mental health care. Hogg founded the Houston Child Guidance Center because she believed that treating a child’s mental problems would prevent problems in adulthood. Ima Hogg became interested in mental health when she accompanied her father to visits to mental institutions when he was governor. She furthered her knowledge of mental health while she was a student at the University of Texas. Although her ideas on mental health are considered common sense today, in 1929 they were quite revolutionary.