Ralph Rayburn Texas Sea Grant Scholarship

Thanks to the generous support of Ralph Rayburn’s friends and family, Texas Sea Grant was able to create an endowment to fund the Ralph Rayburn ’69 Texas Sea Grant Scholarship.

Aubrianna Pfaltzgraff is the scholarship’s 2026–2027 recipient

Previous Recipients

2025–2026: Rogelio Quintanilla
2024–2025: Yerim Kim
2023–2024: Xin Yang
2022–2023: Maria Ysabel Wang
2021–2022: Makeda Mills

The scholarship, which honors the late Associate Director and Extension Program Leader at Texas Sea Grant, is administered by the Department of Oceanography in Texas A&M University’s College of Arts and Sciences. The scholarship is awarded to outstanding graduate students in the oceanography program. For more information about the scholarship, please contact Dr. Shari Yvon-Lewis, head of the Oceanography Department, at syvon-lewis@tamu.edu.

Rayburn, who first joined Texas Sea Grant in 1978 as a marine agent for Aransas and San Patricio Counties, later spent several years as Executive Director of the Texas Shrimp Association and with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in a number of capacities, including as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. He returned to Texas Sea Grant in 1999. Through his association with these three organizations, he worked tirelessly on protection of Texas’ marine resources, but he is also remembered for his integrity, professionalism and outgoing personality.

Continued donations to the scholarship fund are encouraged; as the endowment grows, more funds are available to be awarded to deserving students. To donate, please see the Giving to Texas Sea Grant page.