Honoring a True Hero

By all accounts, Roger Stone of Clear Lake was a true hero. 

A safety officer aboard a 38-foot sailboat that capsized after water rushed inside its hull, Stone pushed two Texas A & M students to safety in June - and in the process, lost his own life.

This heroic act was emblematic of the way Stone lived his life - always going above and beyond the call of duty. And so last week, METRO and its recently named STAR Vanpool program honored Stone with a newly created award: The Roger Stone Outstanding STAR Vanpool Leadership Award.

Stone was the go-to guy at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), the one who volunteered to post vanpool schedules on UTMB's intranet, coordinate meetings with vanpoolers and always advocate for vanpooling. At other companies, assigned staff took on these duties. Stone did it because he believed in commuting - and he wanted to help. For the past 12 years, Stone was a primary van driver at UTMB.

"As a result, the UTMB vanpools ran at or near capacity with rare instances of vanpools terminating," said Jerome Gray, a news anchor at KPRC-TV and master of ceremonies at last week's Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) awards luncheon.

Typically at this annual luncheon, H-GAC honors companies involved in vanpooling. This year - and in future ones - METRO wanted to recognize an outstanding individual.

"This is the first time that METRO or STAR has been involved in any kind of award. Roger inspired us to do this," said John Nunez, METRO's regional vanpool project manager. "He was very instrumental in our doing a lot of things over at UTMB."

Added David McMaster, METRO's director of customer service, "We felt like Roger exemplified the best of what vanpoolers often are. So we wanted to give him an award posthumously and create an award in his honor. Really the success of vanpools falls on the backs of individuals."

If you'd like to get involved in a vanpool, click here.