More than 12,500 individuals have had their lives impacted through programming offered here. In the last year, a number of residents have passed away, including two who shaped the organization’s early years, Alvis Grant and Richard Strain.
Grant was one of the first nine boys to come to Boys Ranch. Strain, with his twin brother, Robert, were the 19th and 20th residents, respectively.
Both Grant and Strain were young when they came here, each impacted by The Great Depression. At Boys Ranch, they found peers and trusted adults who became like family as they transitioned into manhood.
Alvis and Richard went on to lead valiant, satisfying lives and, in doing so, were exceptional ambassadors for Boys Ranch.
“Both Alvis and Richard made the most of their time at Boys Ranch,” said Boys Ranch President and CEO Dan Adams. “We’ve been honored to have them among our alumni family and blessed by their longtime support for this organization. The impact of losing them is lessened only by the character they displayed in a life well-lived.”
Grant was born in 1924 in Gary, Texas. He died June 23 at age 95.
During the depression, Alvis’ father heard there was work in Amarillo, Texas. Relatives in Amarillo took the family in. His dad found work helping build a dam in New Mexico and began commuting back and forth to work.
One day, Alvis’ dad left and never came back.
The house Alvis lived in was near a vacant lot, where boys from a local club ran every day for exercise. Alvis decided he wanted to play at the club, too. He got acquainted with some of the boys and started spending a lot of time with them.
Alvis was at Boys Ranch for less than a year, leaving before his 16th birthday to work and support his mother. He went to work for a sign shop in Amarillo. When he turned 18 in 1942, he enlisted in the Marine Corp.
During World War II, Alvis was an ambulance driver in the Pacific Theater. His actions in that conflict earned him the Bronze Star and the Presidential Unit Citation.
After the Marines, Alvis located to the Dallas area and started painting signs again. When he retired at age 72, he devoted his life to painting portraits. His paintings are in 210 museums across the nation, including the Smithsonian. Some 36 of his paintings hang at Boys Ranch today.
In the true spirit of Boy’s Ranch’s purpose, as Alvis Grant was leaving Old Tascosa, a young Richard Strain was just arriving to fill his spot.
Born in Amarillo, Texas, in 1930, Strain and his fraternal twin lived with their mother, grandmother, step-sister and step-brother. In 1939, their mother died, soon followed by their grandmother. The step-brother struck out on his own, leaving their step-sister to care for them.
The three kids took up shelter in a shack on the north side of town. One day, the boys were picked up by a police officer, who, learning they had no home, took them to local authorities.
At age nine, Richard and Robert joined three other wayward boys in the back of a pickup to start the long drive out to Old Tascosa on a January day.
With the advent of the Korean War, Strain was drafted by the Navy. He spent five years aboard ship. Before his 1954 discharge, he traveled through Japan by train to visit his brother, who’d enlisted in the Marines and was recovering from injuries incurred in combat.
Strain enrolled at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and spent two years studying economics, but decided he wanted to continue a military career. He joined the U. S. Air Force in 1957. During an assignment in England, he met and married his wife.
In typical military style, Strain’s family stayed on the move for the next 20 years while he was stationed at numerous bases in the U.S., England, South Korea, Vietnam and, finally, Germany.
Strain retired from the Air Force in 1981. Never one to shirk work, he retired a second time in 1995 from U.S. civil service, where he managed telecommunications operations.
The Strains lived in Germany, traveling frequently, enjoying good books and he often indulged in his favorite vintage country Western music. Strain even returned with his family for the 75th annual Boys Ranch Rodeo last year.
Strain died Feb. 19 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center after a long illness. His family brought him home to Boys Ranch, where his funeral and burial took place. He was 89.
Alvis Grant and Richard Strain, focused by their youths at Boys Ranch, lived for ‘the brand’ their entire lives. They grew up to live lives of service to their nation and demonstrate commitment to families. What a powerful legacy!