On a bright day this spring, Karen Cramer stood before a sign marking the future home of Texas Wesleyan University’s new stadium.
Cramer wore a yellow Texas Wesleyan sweatshirt, held a football helmet and raised her right hand in the “Rams Up” sign. Around her stood student-athletes who might one day compete there. Behind them, a blue sign read: “Completing the vision. Karen Cramer Stadium.”
The image stayed with Michele Boillotat, the university’s vice president for advancement.
“She was so excited to have that opportunity to mix and mingle with the students,” Boillotat said. “She didn’t necessarily have her best health that day, but she did not let that bring her down.”
Cramer would not live to see the vision completed.
She died June 3, at 76, at her home in Granbury. The public record of her life can be listed neatly: Fort Worth philanthropist. Texas Wesleyan trustee. Lead donor behind the university’s first on-campus athletic stadium expected to open in spring 2027.
But that record leaves out what people at Texas Wesleyan keep returning to now. Cramer loved talking with students. She showed up despite not feeling well. She picked up the phone when the university needed help.
And she hurried a stadium toward completion that she would not see finished.
“She wanted it done tomorrow,” Boillotat said.
Cramer’s urgency wasn’t about seeing her name on a building, Boillotat said. She imagined a place where students could gather, compete, celebrate milestones and build traditions that would outlast her.
“You’re not going to affect one generation. You’re going to affect 510 generations, hopefully,” Cramer said at the 2022 groundbreaking.
Cramer’s giving grew from a life rooted in Fort Worth. Born in 1949 at Harris Methodist Hospital, she graduated from R.L. Paschal High School, earned a business degree from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, and later studied accounting and computer applications at Dallas College. She built a career in sales, bookkeeping and commercial real estate.
Although Cramer was not a Texas Wesleyan alumna, the university ran through her family history. Her grandmother graduated in 1917 from what was then Texas Woman’s College. Her parents attended and met at the university, and her father later served on the university’s board. Cramer joined the board of trustees in 2016.
She also supported healthcare across North Texas, including the Cramer Tower at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest, the Karen Cramer Chapel at Texas Health Fort Worth and the Karen Cramer Nursing Scholarship Fund.
Mayor Mattie Parker, an alumna of Texas Wesleyan School of Law, said Cramer believed her family legacy came with a responsibility to keep investing in Fort Worth institutions.
The stadium was the clearest example, she said. Cramer’s $5 million gift made possible a project that some people might have questioned.
“I’m sure a lot of people would have said, ‘You really want to do this with your money?’” Parker said. “But she saw the opportunity that Wesleyan needed this facility for, not just for sports, but for camaraderie and for university spirit.”
Donor Karen Cramer, left, and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker sit onstage at the Texas Wesleyan University athletic field groundbreaking on May 3, 2022. Cramer donated $5 million to the construction of the stadium — the athletic stadium will be named after her. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)
Glenn Lewis, the immediate past chair of Texas Wesleyan’s board, first knew Cramer as another trustee, not a major donor.
She did not announce herself in a room, he said. She was quiet, small in stature and unassuming. But when Texas Wesleyan needed help — whether with a capital campaign, scholarships or a major project — she stepped forward.
“When I first got to know her, she was just Karen,” Lewis said.
The board named the stadium for Cramer because she was the lead donor, Lewis said. Cramer was pleased by the honor, he said, and perhaps surprised.
Still, Boillotat said, Cramer cared more about what the stadium could do for students.
“She really believed in investing in people and setting people up for success,” Boillotat said.
That faith was evident when Cramer visited campus. At the fieldhouse opening last fall, Boillotat said Cramer did not spend the celebration only talking with the “quote unquote adults.” She found herself among the women’s flag football players and talked with them.
“She was just happy to be with them, to talk with them, and get to know them,” Boillotat said.
Trustee Karen Cramer speaks to a student during the Moritz Athletic Fieldhouse ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 24, 2025. (Courtesy | Texas Wesleyan University)
One of Boillotat’s first memories of Cramer came at a Texas Wesleyan commencement. Cramer arrived as a trustee in academic regalia and sequined sneakers — “the sparkliest shoes you’ve ever seen,” Boillotat said.
Cramer later explained that she could no longer wear heels, so she decided to have fun with it.
Those shoes became part of how Boillotat remembers Cramer. So did Cramer’s red hair, directness and warmth.
“Her red hair made her fiery,” Boillotat said. “Her sparkly shoes made people smile, and yet her heart made you fall in love with her.”
Cramer served as chair of the board’s advancement committee and helped lead Texas Wesleyan’s $40 million comprehensive campaign, which ended last October.
But Cramer did not just give. She also asked others to give.
Near the end of the year, Lewis used to joke with trustees who hadn’t made their gifts, warning them about his “designated leg breaker.”
“Don’t make me have to tell Karen and have her call you,” he recalled saying.
The joke worked because of the contrast. Cramer was quiet and unassuming, Lewis said, but she got things done.
“There is a way to be effective without being intense,” Lewis said. “You can be very effective and have a positive effect on others as well, and you lead by doing.”
When people pass the stadium, Lewis hopes they understand the person behind the name.
“She was someone who loved this university very much,” he said.
Trustee Karen Cramer poses with students in front of the sign for the Karen Cramer Stadium in spring 2026. (Courtesy | Texas Wesleyan University)
Cramer lived to see the stadium’s first two phases take shape. She watched the project move from a vision to an actual place.
But the final phase came too late.
That phase, expected to be completed later this year, will put Cramer’s name on the stadium in large letters — the part Lewis and Texas Wesleyan President Emily Messer had hoped for her to see.
Students will compete there. Families will fill the stands. Friends will gather. Traditions will form in the place Cramer believed Texas Wesleyan needed.
It will bring people together.
She will not be there to join.
Dang Le is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at dang.le@fortworthreport.org.
The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Fort Worth.
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