Stephenville residents honored at Tarleton State University’s annual gala.

Photo/TSU Media Relations

TSU Media Relations

Special to Beneath the Surface News

Tarleton State University celebrated nine Legacy and Distinguished Alumni Saturday night at its 2025 Gala, An Evening in Purple, inside Wisdom Gym.

Legacy Awards recognize individuals and supporters who exhibit the university’s core values of excellence, integrity and respect. Honorees are selected by Tarleton State President Dr. James Hurley.

Distinguished Alumni recipients bring distinction to Tarleton State through their career, community service or leadership.

Honorees are nominated by their peers and selected by the Tarleton Alumni Association Board of Directors.

This year’s Legacy Award recipients include Chancellor John Sharp, Maj. Gen. Chad Parker, Neil Noakes and Susan Reyna Poynor.

Dr. Carl Gabbard and Scott Summy were named Distinguished Alumnus and the Heartbeat Award went to Wanda Dugger.

Stephenville resident Michael Beach named Distinguished Friend.

As the owner and operator of Peacock’s Restaurant, Michael Beach is continuing a legacy of history, tradition and partnership that evokes many fond memories for anyone who has called Tarleton State home.

His journey to becoming a Tarleton State Texan started when his renowned father, Dr. Don Beach, began serving as the Dean of the College of Education and Fine Arts in 1981.

Michael recalls growing up on campus, attending Tarleton State events with his family and learning to swim at the campus pool.

 Though he decided to wander from his roots for a bit, starting his higher education journey at Texas Tech University, fate eventually brought him back to Tarleton State, where he finished his degree in manufacturing engineering in 2002.

Michael and his wife, Stephanie, purchased Peacock’s from her parents in 2022.

Since then, they have worked to try and expand their partnership with the university and, like Dr. Beach used to say, “Do the most good.”

Stephenville resident Jamie Hayden named Distinguished Young Alumna.

Raised on rodeo and real estate, Jamie Hayden learned resilience and self-reliance early on.

Growing up in a real estate family who modeled those traits, she knew she wanted to follow her parents’ footsteps, and she began working in real estate while still in high school. She also loved riding, and she couldn’t get rodeo off her mind.

After a year of working and going to college in Wyoming, Hayden hitched up her trailer and headed to Tarleton State, drawn by Stephenville’s national reputation as a rodeo capital.

“I really wanted to go somewhere different, out of the cold weather, and go knock heads with the best and see what I could do. That was an amazing time and such a good experience — really one of the best times of my life,” she said of her tenure rodeoing for Tarleton State under legendary coach Bob Doty.

“I fell in love with Stephenville and Texas.”

Her time at Tarleton State provided her with friendships, professional relationships and life lessons that have remained with her throughout her real estate career.

Hayden graduated from Tarleton State in 2008 with a business degree and began selling real estate. She married husband Eric and the two opened Hayden Real Estate, a brokerage and property management company, in 2010.