{"id":977,"date":"2025-08-12T20:19:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T20:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mfiarstg.wpengine.com\/?page_id=977"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:26:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:26:41","slug":"our-founders","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/?page_id=977","title":{"rendered":"Our Founders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-columns-c8ca2551\" class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-columns alignfull has-1-columns has-desktop-equal-layout has-tablet-equal-layout has-mobile-equal-layout has-vertical-center\"><div class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-columns-overlay\"><\/div><div class=\"innerblocks-wrap\">\n<div id=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-column-3437aeae\" class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-column\">\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#3d5967;font-size:70px\">Our Founders<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-columns-8fbb683b\" class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-columns alignfull has-2-columns has-desktop-equal-layout has-tablet-equal-layout has-mobile-collapsedRows-layout has-vertical-unset\"><div class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-columns-overlay\"><\/div><div class=\"innerblocks-wrap\">\n<div id=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-column-620e3016\" class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-column\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div style=\"height:27px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Algur Hurtle Meadows was born in Vidalia, Georgia, in 1899. Virginia Garrison Stuart was born in Ryan, Oklahoma, in 1902. After moving around the south, Al also settled in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he met Virginia. They married in 1922. Al worked for Standard Oil by day and studied law at night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:27px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Al left Standard Oil to start his own finance firm and later founded an oil and gas production company. He and Virginia moved to Dallas in 1936 where he built General American Oil Company of Texas into one of the largest independent producers in the nation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:27px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">While they gave to causes in Louisiana, Georgia, and other national and international areas, Al and Virginia chose to give the majority of their wealth to benefit Texas as an everlasting gift to the state and its people who had been so generous to them. At the heart of their philanthropy was a commitment to be a perpetual resource for good in Texas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-column-df784873\" class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large has-custom-border is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"774\" src=\"https:\/\/mfiarstg.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1948-Al-and-Virginia-Meadows-1024x774.jpg\" alt=\"Al &amp; Virginia Meadows, Founders\" class=\"wp-image-284\" style=\"border-style:none;border-width:0px;border-radius:0px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1948-Al-and-Virginia-Meadows-1024x774.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1948-Al-and-Virginia-Meadows-300x227.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1948-Al-and-Virginia-Meadows-768x580.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1948-Al-and-Virginia-Meadows-1536x1160.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1948-Al-and-Virginia-Meadows.jpg 1865w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-columns-95c28c19\" class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-columns alignfull has-1-columns has-desktop-equal-layout has-tablet-equal-layout has-mobile-equal-layout has-vertical-unset\"><div class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-columns-overlay\"><\/div><div class=\"innerblocks-wrap\">\n<div id=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-column-5d4a582c\" class=\"wp-block-themeisle-blocks-advanced-column\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"color:#3d5967;font-size:24px\">\u201cSince all of us are part of the great human society, it pleases us to give back to that society in proportion to what we ourselves have so generously received.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#3d5967\"><em>Al Meadows<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our Founders Algur Hurtle Meadows was born in Vidalia, Georgia, in 1899. Virginia Garrison Stuart was born in Ryan, Oklahoma, in 1902. After moving around the south, Al also settled in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he met Virginia. They married in 1922. Al worked for Standard Oil by day and studied law at night. Al left ...","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-977","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ar.mfi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}