Artist’s rendering of TMI chapel

Nearly 350 students are enrolled in the pricey and prestigious 114-year-old prep school, and for the first time in decades, students have been placed on a waiting list for admission, according to TMI Headmaster Dr. James A. Freeman.

“We are on target to reach our number of 400 students very quickly, and these new classrooms and chapel will help us to meet the needs of the growing population.”

Approximately $12.8 million will be raised to build a new building across from Ayres Hall, which will house a 500-seat chapel and three classrooms. Additional residence halls, technology, and faculty enrichment are also included in the fundraising effort.

The co-chairman of the fund drive is Frost Bank Senior Chairman Tom C. Frost, who graduated from TMI in 1945 when it was called the Texas Military Institute.

“The campaign is called ‘We’re on a Mission...Forward to 400’,” Frost said, adding that $9.1 million has already been pledged by TMI benefactors, alumni, parents, and friends.

“We have $3.1 million to go,” Frost said.

TMI is affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, and The Rt. Rev. Gary Lillibridge, bishop of the diocese, presided at the March 8 groundbreaking ceremony.

TMI, where tuition is about $17,000 a year, is a traditional co-ed prep school, with both day and residential students, a voluntary military program, and an ambitious college preparatory program. General Douglas MacArthur was a member of the first graduating class at Texas Military Institute in 1897, and since then TMI has produced such prominent alumni as legendary World War Two airman Tex Hill, astronaut David Scott, Congressman Lamar Smith, Metropolitan Opera Star Rafelo Diaz, and “Bonanza” TV star Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright).

Plans are to have the new 500-seat chapel and classroom building open by the fall of 2008.