Family gives $5M for Alamo project

The Mays Family Foundation has donated $5 million toward the planned Alamo Visitor Center and Museum, a centerpiece of the $550 million publicprivate makeover of the historic mission and battle site.

In recognition of the gift, a gallery in the museum will be named for the Mays family, whose patriarch, the late Lowry Mays, founded Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia).

The Mays Family Legacy Gallery will showcase the “intricate melding of history and pop culture associated with the Alamo,” the Alamo Trust said Friday in announcing the gift.

“Inside the gallery, guests will discover the Alamo’s representations in film, literature, art, and other diverse mediums” and “gain insights into the Alamo’s evolving story within popular culture,” the trust said. The nonprofit operates the Alamo historic site for the Texas General Land Office.

The family’s gift was made to the Remember the Alamo Foundation, which funds preservation, educational outreach and public programs at the Alamo.

It’s the latest big donation for the visitor center and museum, which is scheduled to open in 2027 on the west side of Alamo Plaza. Valero Energy Corp. previously gave $5 million. The complex will incorporate and preserve the 1882 Crockett Building and the 1921 Woolworth Building.

Mays, who died last year at 87, was born in Houston, grew up in the Dallas suburbs, graduated from Texas A&M University and worked as a petroleum engineer. Then he joined the Air Force and served at Brooks AFB in San Antonio, where he was the installation’s petroleum officer. He later earned a master’s from Harvard Business School and returned to San Antonio to launch a career as an investment banker.

In 1972, he co-signed a loan to buy a struggling FM radio station. When the original purchasers backed out, Mays and his business partner, B.J. “Red” McCombs, became the owners. Mays never looked back; and when Congress loosened regulation of the industry in 1996, he went on a buying spree. By 2001, the company owned 1,200 radio stations, 10% of the total nationwide.

Clear Channel later branched out into television, event promotion, live

music, sports management and billboards. Mays sold the company to two private equity firms in 2006 for nearly $18 billion. The company rebranded itself as iHeartMedia in 2014.

Mays and his wife, Peggy, established the Mays Family Foundation in 1994.

Courtesy of Alamo Trust A rendering shows the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum, which is scheduled to open in 2027 as the centerpiece of a $550 million public-private makeover of the mission and battle site.

Leland A. Outz A gallery in the Alamo museum will be named for the family of Lowry and Peggy Mays.