Joseph A. Reyes, a San Antonio native who resides in Washington D.C., has served as a member of the UIW Board of Trustees since 2004.

“Some friends of mine recommended I serve on the board and they told Dr. Agnese about me,” said Reyes. “So we reached out to each other and I was more than happy to help out with the university.”

Reyes believes it is important to provide youth with a faith-based education that encourages growth. He feels UIW, as a Catholic university, fulfills this mission with a strong Christian viewpoint.

The opportunity to serve along with UIW’s other board members is something Reyes enjoys most about his involvement with UIW.

“I enjoy being on a board with very sharp and educated members who are active in the business world and who are involved with many good things for our country and the university,” said Reyes. “The staff and leadership are outstanding,” he said. “And Lou is a leader who listens and gets things done. The Sisters are tremendous.”

Reyes is chair emeritus for Reyes Holdings, Inc. and founder and president of Orion Enterprises, a business management consulting company. He has over 40 years of experience in the creation and development of new businesses.

He served as an electronic technician in the U.S. Navy and a naval aviator on active duty. Reyes comes from a long line of family members who have served the country, including a great, great grandfather who fought in the Battle of Gonzales, often considered the first battle of the Texas Revolution.

“They have all stood their watch,” said Reyes.

As R&D Program Manager for General Precision, Inc. during the 1960s, Reyes directed engineering activities for the space field including the implementation of task objectives for NASA Headquarters and the Field Centers. He also served as a senior engineer for the Westinghouse Corporation.

Reyes previously held membership with the National Association of Hispanic Naval Officers, Washington Board of Trade, and Hemisphere National Bank. He was honored by the Presidential Advisory Committee for Small Business from 1972-75 and named Hispanic Businessman of the Year in 1985 and 1990.

Reyes and his wife, Frances M. Collins Reyes, have a daughter, eight sons, and 22 grandchildren.

“I am very proud of my family,” he professed.  “They are true Americans and I teach them that it is important to serve on boards to help better the country.”

J. Scott Beckendorf

A member of the Board of Trustees since January of 2010, Scott Beckendorf previously served on UIW’s development board for 14 years. As a development board member, he served on various committees to include the Nominations committee, Communications committee, Swing-In Auction Party committee, the Swing-In Golf Tournament committee, and later served as the chairman of the development board.

“During my time as a volunteer at UIW,” said Beckendorf. “I got to know most of the past and present Board of Trustee members and was honored when I was asked to join the Board of Trustees.”

Proudly nominated by UIW, Beckendorf was chosen as the 2010 Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser honoree by the San Antonio Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. The honorary category recognizes individuals who have demonstrated leadership in fundraising campaigns. He volunteers not only for UIW but for a number of other non-profit organizations including the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Antonio and the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.

As a board member, Beckendorf seeks to help perpetuate the Mission and legacy of UIW. He believes the board’s long term goals have always been to offer the best faith-based education to meet the needs of San Antonio and communities of South Texas.

“I have always been impressed with the history of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and all the great things the organization has done for the city of San Antonio, such as Santa Rosa Hospital, Incarnate Word High School, UIW, the Chapel of the Incarnate Word and Retirement Village, and I feel it is important to help continue their well-established vision,” said Beckendorf.

Beckendorf grew up in Fredericksburg, Texas where his parents Charles and Dawn Beckendorf raised five children. His late father was a renowned artist whose gallery in Fredericksburg is celebrating its 42nd year in business.

He is CEO and president of his family owned Liquor, Beer and Wine Retail business, which operates in eight states and has been in business for 44 years. He has free standing stores in Texas named Western Beverages as well as three San Antonio Liquors at Costco stores around the city. All of his out-of-state stores are adjacent to Costco Wholesale locations.

Beckendorf and his wife, Karin, of 26 years, have two children, Charles, 22, and Sophie Rose, 19.

Beckendorf said what he enjoys most about UIW is experiencing the growth of the university. Each year, Beckendorf said he looks forward to the lighting of the campus for the holidays, football and basketball season, and the Swing-In Auction Party and Golf Tournament.

By Salwa Choucair

John Peveto

If it’s true that enthusiasm is contagious, then John Peveto’s passion for the University of the Incarnate Word may cause an epidemic.

“It’s a very inspirational and exciting place to be, and I love being there,” says the 73-year-old entrepreneur who has served on the Board of Trustees since 2005.

Considering it an honor to serve with Dr. Louis Agnese Jr. as president, Peveto quickly and proudly points to a growing list of changes that have occurred at UIW while he has served on the board, including the addition of both a pharmacy and an optometry school, a new stadium, the expansion of the nursing school, and expanding continuing education opportunities and worldwide campuses.

“Upon meeting Dr. Agnese, I was impressed, particularly because he was such a forward-thinking person,” he recalls. “I just gleaned from him that he never stops having a dream or vision. He leads dynamically.”

Peveto is no stranger to forward-thinking leadership. Regarded as one of San Antonio’s foremost business leaders, he serves as chairman of the board of Brake Check, the company he founded in 1968 and recently sold to his children.

With four decades of business and community leadership in San Antonio, Peveto’s legacy extends far beyond his family. While serving through the years on the boards of numerous civic organizations, including the San Antonio Airport, the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, University Hospital and the Cancer and Therapy Research Center, he has witnessed and been a part of the Alamo City’s growth and ever-changing landscape.

“I feel like you have to give back to the community,” Peveto explains, “and it is my privilege and honor to do so. It has taught me an awful lot about business and people. I’ve been accepted openly and gained greatly in my knowledge.”

UIW’s students, in fact, have inspired Peveto and his wife, Bonnie, so much that they have committed to build an interfaith chapel on the university campus. After witnessing how the faith-based university accepts students of all religions, the Pevetos wanted to provide a place where anyone can worship 24 hours a day.

While he continues to serve on the UIW board along with a few other community commitments, Peveto is retired and enjoys traveling with family and friends. Of course, his enthusiasm for UIW goes with him, often serving as a guide. He has traveled to sister schools in China, Dubai and Turkey, and always takes time to speak with students if given the opportunity.

With all of his success and community involvement, there is one special organization Peveto would still like to join: the UIW Alumni by Choice Club, but it doesn’t exist. Of course, that’s never stopped him before.

“To be as lucky in my life as I have been and not give back is unconscionable,” said Alan Dreeben, who has a long résumé of community service endeavors particularly in higher education.

In addition to his dedication to UIW, he previously served as a trustee for Texas State University and as an adviser for the development board at UTSA. He is also a current adviser to the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

“The best way to give back is through education. The world would be safer and more productive if everybody were educated,” said Dreeben, who along with his wife, Barbara, contributed to the Dreeben School of Education at UIW.

Dr. Louis Agnese asked Dreeben to become a trustee a full year before Dreeben agreed. As a practicing and deeply spiritual Jew, Dreeben visited with the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, faculty members and students to affirm that his values would be a fit. Indeed they were. The first-class education, positive values and community service at the University of the Incarnate Word all worked to hook this trustee.

“You can’t be successful without values,” said Dreeben, whose company motto “Do the right thing” is posted throughout the headquarters of Republic National Distributing Company in Schertz. The company is the second largest wine and spirit distributor in the United States with 8,000 employees in 21 states and the District of Columbia.

“Ours is the largest value-based company I know,” said Dreeben, who is one of eight partners at the company.

“We all need God in our life,” he said. “When you are young you think you are bulletproof, but you soon will learn you can’t live without faith.”

But it wasn’t the success of his privately held business, nor his prodigious record of community service that was foremost in his mind. Though the 67-year-old San Antonio resident holds an MBA from Harvard, an honorary doctorate from UIW, and chairs the UIW Academic Affairs committee, his priority is family: his wife, three daughters, their husbands and his nine grandchildren.

“Parental guidance is critical in teaching children to want to learn, to have a curiosity along with a drive to look things up and learn for themselves,” Dreeben said. “Love of learning begins within the family.”