TEXAS RETIRED TEACHERS RESIDENCE CORPORATION
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Mission Statement
The Stilwell Residence provides an affordable, quality retirement residence, primarily for Texas educators and their spouses. Stilwell offers a supportive, secure, and attractive living environment which enables residents to engage in an independent, active lifestyle with people of similar professional backgrounds. Stilwell promotes a strong sense of community, history, and purpose through a diversity of activities for its residents.
About This Cause
Nine visionary women from various communities throughout the state chartered the Texas Retired Teachers Residence Corporation in 1958 as a private non-profit charitable corporation. The purpose of the corporation was to construct, provide, and maintain in the state a residence for retired teachers of Texas and their spouses, as well as to provide the type of residence that would be a memorial to all retired teachers of Texas. The Residence was designed to meet the physical, social, and psychological needs of the aged and to promote their health, security, happiness, and usefulness in longer living. Members of the Texas Retired Teachers Association and the Texas State Teachers Association were integrally involved in contributing to the $100,000 down payment to finance construction of the facility. After extensive planning and overcoming numerous obstacles, the Trustees held a groundbreaking ceremony on November 29, 1962, indoors at the Lake Air Mall in Waco across from the building site that was too muddy for the event. The corporation opened the residence in 1964 and named it for Henry W. Stilwell, a founding trustee and tireless advocate for Texas’ teachers, who had passed away before the realization of his dream of “a quality home for retired teachers, a place where they could go and live with dignity in an enjoyable environment free from the many cares they had when teaching, in a city of culture and refinement.” “Mr. Henry” began teaching English in 1914 until becoming the Superintendent of Public Schools in Texarkana in 1920. Throughout his year career in education, Mr. Stilwell lobbied successfully with the Texas Legislature to secure increases in salary and benefits for public school teachers. Today, Stilwell remains the state’s only non-profit, charitable, independent retirement center dedicated to former educators and has been honored to serve over 1,000 retired teachers since 1964. Some Stilwell individuals are a youthful seventy years of age, while others are energetic though well into their nineties. With current residents representing thirty-seven cities and towns across Texas, the Residence has remained true to its mission to: Provide an affordable, quality retirement residence in a supportive, secure and attractive living environment which enables residents to engage in an independent active lifestyle with people of similar backgrounds. In keeping with that mission, Stilwell’s prudent fiscal practices and sound management have maintained living expenses at the Residence well within the reach of retired teachers’ income. The men and women who have retired to Stilwell began their lifelong dedication to education in humble school houses in growing communities throughout Texas. Countless Texans owe their success to such teachers, who have often lived on modest incomes, facing later years with little but state-funded pensions, insufficient—in many instances—to meet the rising cost of commercial retirement centers. It is a heritage of service which the remarkable men and women living at Stilwell so fully represent. At the age of 81, Althea Waite moved into Stilwell seeking safety and security, as well as the fellowship of others shortly after the death of her husband. Mrs. Waite began teaching in 1931 during which time she “was secretly married for four years” after eloping in the rumble seat of an old Ford because teachers could not be married in those days. After rearing their children, Mrs. Waite earned her masters degree in education and returned to teach for nineteen years in the Houston public schools. Alma Hale (99 when she passed away) claimed the rule prohibiting teachers from being married was repealed on her behalf so she could continue teaching in Matagorda County. Mrs. Hale went on to share her love of learning with young people for fifty-three years, the last eighteen focused on Special Education in Monahans. The Hales retired to Stilwell in 1984, enjoying their active involvement in the Stilwell community until her husband passed away ten years later through circumstances that deepened Mrs. Hale’s appreciation for the nurturing support of Stilwell. Many of Stilwell’s residents continue their legacy of service, pursuing opportunities for personal growth and active participation in the community. Several residents volunteer as tutors through a Partners in Education association with a local elementary school. Although their average age is 87, they are faithful members in Waco’s churches, community service programs, and civic organizations, and they perform numerous daily roles (such as the library committee and gardening crew) in sustaining the Stilwell community . Secure, affordable, well-situated, and respected for its caring and trustworthy environment—Stilwell is an exceptional retirement center carrying on Texas’ tradition of excellence and friendly service.