Albert and Ethel Herzstein

Albert Herzstein's giving reached back to the New Mexico town of his boyhood. In the 1980s two reporters for the Union County Leader were building a history museum in Clayton's old Methodist Episcopal Church with the Union County Historical Society. Herzstein read a newspaper story about their struggles while passing through toward Denver and stopped on the return trip. He paid for a roof and repairs and gave the contents of the Herzstein room, asking that the museum keep the family name and stay free. The couple's foundation renovated the building in 1987, honoring his father, Morris.

What the plaque says

Albert and Ethel Herzstein Albert H. Herzstein was born March 5, 1907, into a Jewish immigrant family in Trinidad, Colorado. The family lived in Clayton, New Mexico, and moved to Denver, Colorado, before Albert moved to Houston in 1925 and began working for a small welding company. Ethel Ann Davis was born April 13, 1896, in Fulshear, to a pioneer family. Albert and Ethel met in Houston and the pair married on September 17, 1927. Albert's business career began when he purchased a one-third share in a welding company that eventually grew to become Big Three Industries. Albert worked his way up to executive vice president and director before establishing Herzstein Investments, Inc., a subsidiary of the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation established in 1965. Ethels family was instrumental in starting the First United Methodist Church in Fulshear and after the couple attained financial success, Ethel suggested in 1979 that they gift a new sanctuary for the church in memory of their parents. After this initial gift, Alberts appreciation of the hardships of small communities further inspired the couple to create grants through their foundation for deserving causes including education, religion, support services for the underprivileged and the Arts. The couple was married until Ethel's death on May 6th, 1983. In recognition of his contributions, Albert, who never finished high school, received an honorary high school diploma from St. Pius High School and a doctorate from the University of St. Thomas. In 1993, Albert was named Philanthropist of the Year by the Columbus Foundation of Ohio. He ran the foundation and real estate business until he died at age 90 on March 16, 1997. (2016)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site — 13 mi
  Stephen F. Austin's colonial capital on a Brazos bluff, the town of the Consultation and the first Texas newspapers, burned by its own garrison in the Runaway Scrape of 1836.
• Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge — 22 mi
  Ten thousand acres of native coastal prairie northeast of Eagle Lake, kept for a critically endangered grouse, many of whose birds are hatched in captivity and released here.
• Brazos Bend State Park — 29 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.

More markers nearby

• Fulshear Cemetery — steps away
• Town of Fulshear — 0.9 mi
• Pittsville — 1.9 mi
• Randon & Pennington Grant of 1824 — 4.3 mi