Our History of Service

In 1951, Reverend Clyde J. Verheyden, founded what is now known as Good Samaritan Foundation. Since its inception, Good Samaritan Foundation has been focused on one ongoing mission: to increase the number of highly-trained and dedicated nurses “at the bedside” of Texas patients. Building a stronger nurse workforce in Texas consists of attracting men and women to the nursing profession and providing financial resources to become the best educated and most skilled caregivers in the world.

Through the generosity of its donors, Good Samaritan Foundation has become the largest private grantor of scholarships to Texas nursing students. Good Samaritan programs, which promote excellence in nursing from education to practice, include:

• scholarships to nursing students
• grants to nursing schools for faculty development and special programs (e.g., outreach, recruiting, continuing nurse education)
• support of preceptor and mentor programs designed to better prepare new nurses for the challenges of patient care
• recognition and reward of those nurses who exemplify the finest qualities of the nursing profession

Good Samaritan Foundation is unique in its ability to address issues affecting nursing. In its years of service, the Foundation has provided scholarship assistance to students in almost every professional nursing program in Texas, and annually distributes grants to students in more than 50 different colleges of nursing. Part of the Foundation’s long record of involvement in nurse education is its active tracking of the factors affecting the supply of licensed nurses: nursing school admission and graduation rates, school faculty and budget issues, NCLEX exam success, nurse retention and migration, etc. It also collaborates frequently on these issues with nurse advocacy organizations and hospital systems.

Good Samaritan  Foundation has developed particularly long-standing and close relationships with Houston-area institutions. In 1961 Good Samaritan was the driving force behind the establishment of the area’s first school of nursing, the Houston campus of Texas Woman’s University College of Nursing.

In recent years the Foundation has significantly increased its support of nurses pursuing masters and doctorate degrees. Nurses with advanced degrees and certifications are highly prized as practitioners, teachers, and administrators.

Good Samaritan operations are managed by its Executive Director, Emma Cullom. Its governance has included many of the state’s most influential leaders of business, healthcare, and philanthropy. Among those are Founder Clyde J. Verheyden, and notable Houstonians like R.E. “Bob” Smith, Ella F. Fondren, Guy Graves, Walter L. and J.C. Goldston, Lou Lewis, P.E. Turner, Charles J. “Tex” Thornton, C.B. Delhomme, James W. Sharman, Earl Rives, W.B. Trammell, and Melbern G. Glasscock. Several current trustees represent their families’ third generation of service to Good Samaritan, attesting to the Foundation’s outstanding reputation and to the importance of its mission.

Our current board members are: