Eva Camunez Tucker's Contributions

We continue our reflection on the life of Eva Camunez Tucker, a local philanthropist whose love for the community has become legendary.

Wherever you look across the city your sure to find this name, Eva Camunez Tucker.

“I’ve always laughed and said you could not go into a hospital have to have rehab or go into ASU or into the school district and not know who Eva Tucker is. Her name is on everything,” Sammye Ruppeck from the Concho Valley Home for Girls says.

That is because this philanthropist gave most of everything she had to mostly everyone during her 96 years of life. Just one of the numerous gifts of Tucker included the Tucker home to the Concho Valley Home for Girls in which the girls would call came from their “angel”.

“One of the girls wrote a tribute about an “angel” named Eva and she gave us a place where we are warm and safe. And we thank her for that and will always miss her so yes; there are a lot of places. But the girls and I were fortunate to get to know her as a person.” Executive director, Sammye Ruppeck says.
 
“She lived the life she preached, she gave back. It wasn’t just about her gain at all it was always about giving back,” Debbie Meads from the San Angelo Schools Foundation says.

The San Angelo Schools Foundation, was just one of the never ending organizations that Tucker also contributed to. “She was one of our best sponsors she helped us in our fundraising, wherever anybody wanted to speak and we wanted someone in the community to speak about us and The San Angelo Schools Foundation, Mrs. Tucker was defiantly one of our top choices."
 
One other place that was close to her heart was ASU where she funded many projects across the campus and also helped fund monies for the Up and Coming Scholars, in which Dr. Joe Munoz says, was one of her many ways to show her importance for education.
 
Munoz says, “She made again two gifts. One for the program to enrich the summer program that we have that is requested for participation. And again I think that the one that she focused on was trying to create scholarships and opportunities for those students who didn’t have the funds to attend ASU.”

So wherever you might see Tucker’s name, remember the legacy that she leaves behind. Ruppeck says, “Her ability, when you think of all she’s overcome and she could talk about it with a laugh. No bitterness, no hatred, no anything, just embraced life.”