After Nelda C Stark’s death in 1999, her attorney and Stark Foundation board member John Cash Smith has given many speeches on the life story of H J Lutcher Stark. However, he doesn’t say much about his first wife Nita (28 years) and their two boys, or his second wife Ruby (1 year) or even the last 22 years of his life married to Nelda (Ruby’s sister). After Nelda, it’s like he disappeared. A new book, “IF THE DEVIL HAD A WIFE” will fill in some of this void.
Stark's legacy continues on
By Robert Hankins
August 8, 2005
It wasn't uncommon for old "Lutch" to put down his pipe, pick up the phone and call the governor.
And the voice on the other end was always glad, because it probably meant money.
But as rich as he was, H.J. Lutcher Stark spent his money on big investments as well as lesser-known interests of "everyday people."
Orange attorney John Cash Smith presented seldom-heard aspects of Stark's life to the Riparian Business and Professional Women's group last week.
As a Stark Foundation boardmember, Smith has amassed a large collection of newspaper articles and anecdotes on the Orange philanthropist.
For instance, Stark originally wanted a painting by 17th-century Dutch artist Gerrit Dou, which sold a few months ago at Christie's for $6 million, to be housed at the University of Texas-Austin, his alma mater.
Discovered recently in the Orange bedroom of Stark's late widow, it was quickly sought by high-range collectors.
"When they built the Stark Library at UT, he was going to send that to them," Smith said. "But only if they had a proper place to house it. They never built one, so he never sent it."
Stark, whose $20 million worth in the 1930s has escalated to its present $350 million, was born to a life of privilege, or as Smith said, "on third base."
The Lutchers and their offshoot relatives, the Starks and Browns, made it big in the lumber trade.
Stark's father had a keen business sense, Smith said, and it didn't hurt to marry the boss' daughter, Miriam Lutcher.
The Lutcher mills were the "Chemical Row of Orange of its day," Smith said, with tons of profits entering what was once a small bend in the Sabine River.
"Lutch" graduated UT in 1910, continuing his love for the school and its football team.
He made no bones about being seen at school in his "Hupmobile," now on display at the Stark House in Orange.
"He was the only person on [campus] that had a car," Smith said.
With his money and connections, Stark was appointed to the UT board of regents, and later became an international vice president of the Rotary Club.
An Austin American-Statesman piece from 1926, "How Texas' Richest Young Man Spends His Money," featured an aerial view of the Sunset Grove golf course, financed when Stark commissioned award-winning designer Donald Ross, architect of most of the major courses in Florida, Scotland and hundreds of other places.
Stark also founded a club for boys, which the Statesman attributed to dropping juvenile delinquency rates to two cases from 70 the previous year.
"Mr. Stark was very active," Smith said.
"He was an elder [in Orange] at First Presbyterian Church and taught Sunday school class.
And he got involved with boys, poor kids, because he could see that they didn't have what they needed to have."
That group evolved into the Lutcher Stark Boys' Band, later known as Bengal Lancers, and later, the all-girl group the Bengal Guards.
Known for precise and disciplined field drill routines, they became nationally famous and once played a Sugar Bowl game.
At the Chicagoland Music Festival, Stark was told the group would have 12 minutes, but balked.
"There's no way we can do it," he told organizers. "We need 15. But here's what I'll do. For every minute over 15, I'll give you $1,000." The team completed its show in exactly 15 minutes.
Smith went to high school in the 1950s, and remembers Guard practices.
"If you grew up here in Orange," he said, "and you lived anywhere in what is now the downtown area, in the fall, every afternoon, you'd hear those drums, rolling, all over Orange."
Over the years, Stark privately gave out "no-interest" loans to promising students.
"If he saw somebody he thought was capable, he would offer an interest-free loan ... and they very quietly paid him back after they graduated," Smith said.
Credited with originating the UT Longhorn name, Stark liked to sit on the sidelines, none too shy about giving coaches and players his opinion and sometimes unwanted advice.
He was instrumental in hiring the University of Nebraska's winning Coach Dana X. Bible to head up the struggling team.
When Bible started winning games, he told Stark his best place was in the stands.
But "Lutch" didn't mind. In five seasons, Bible took the Longhorns from last place to first in the Southwest Conference.
Before he retired from coaching in 1946, his UT record stood at 63 wins, 31 losses and three ties.
Another famous story has Stark, upon discovering UT's band couldn't afford a trip to a game in Arkansas, calling Gov. James Allred and promising a check for $1,000.
"This is Texas' Centennial year! They've got to be at that game," he said.
The next morning, Stark's check was on someone's desk, decades before "overnight delivery."
The man, now larger-than-life in our minds, was ill and frail before he died in 1965.
But the future is bright for Orange, Smith said, because of organizations like the Stark Foundation.
Referring to the pending opening of Shangri-La Botanical Gardens (with Stark property once used for a famous landscaping / nursery project) Smith said, "What's going to happen here, is going to be simply amazing."
As Smith concluded, "[Stark] was born on third base, but he hit a homerun, and will always be with us for a homerun."
The Riparian group spotlights the interests of women in business and other fields, and meets at noon second and fourth Wednesdays at Sunset Grove.