Scholarship Splurge

Before the war, Texas Rancher Gilbert ("Gib") Bryan Sandefer was assistant to the president of Hardin-Simmons University at Abilene, Tex. (His teetotaling father, Jefferson Davis Sandefer, was its late president. His brother is its board chairman.) Then Gib became an American Red Cross field representative, and went to India.

A fast talker from way back, Sandefer began his Indian operations in fine style. He made a spur-of-the-moment promise to a group of New Delhi charitarians : to give them a party at Viceroy Viscount Wavell's palace. The Viceroy proved willing. The Texan also called on Mahatma Gandhi, and offered him ten four-year Hardin-Simmons scholarships for Indians. Gandhi promptly took him up on it.

British officials, unaware that Sandefer once taught the subtleties of the lariat to the Kaiser, wondered what kind of Western rope trick this was. Just what was he cooking up with Gandhi, and did he have any "political aspirations?" To the first question, Gib Sandefer drawled that he was just a "monkey-tailed Baptist that had gone down for a little fellowship" with India's wily saint. To the political question, he answered Yes--he wanted some day to be chief of the Maryneal, Tex., fire department. British officialdom decided that he was loco but harmless.

Earlier, in Burma, Hardin-Simmons' Sandefer, the war's widest-ranging educational wildcatter, had accomplished even more. To General Joseph ("Vinegar Joe") Stilwell he offered 25 four-year scholarships for Chinese soldiers in his command.

The General agreed, said he would send them to Texas as soon as there was transportation.

When he got back to Texas a few weeks ago, Scholarshipper Sandefer began telling his story around. His oilman brother offered to help finance the forthcoming Asiatics. Soon other Texans were chipping in. Hardin-Simmons last week was still making up its mind.

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