Editorial: Our future meets our glorious past

April 18 was a day for celebrating Fort Worth’s future – a seemingly limitless future that is all the more promising because of our city’s reverence for its glorious past.

There are vestiges of the past that we value but inevitably slip from our grasp; we mourn those things, some more than others. We miss the days when phone calls to a few business leaders could rally the forces of a cavalry to make a victorious charge on a local problem.We lament the lack of support faced by arts groups as they strive to maintain the “culture” in the “cowboy and culture” tag we wear so proudly.

What we witnessed April 18 was the old Fort Worth spirit of giving back, by individuals and by an iconic Fort Worth corporation stepping up in the way that has always made us unique.

First, pharmaceutical pathfinder and philanthropic mainstay Paul Dorman revealed that he will pay one-year’s full tuition for each of the students entering the inaugural class of the new medical school being developed by TCU and the University of North Texas Health Science Center.

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Next, minutes after ground was broken for Fort Worth’s new multipurpose arena, legendary workwear manufacturer Dickies took on naming rights for a facility that is the spectacular culminaton of a decades-long effort by city leaders, notably Edward P. Bass. We cherish our historic Will Rogers Coliseum but the need for a modern and more versatile venue has long been apparent.

At day’s end, the Fort Worth Business Press’ own testament to the future, our annual 40 Under 40 awards, recognized young leaders committed to all the right things: family, community, church, charity and, of course, their business careers. Among that group was 14-year Will Lourcey, being just a kid at heart but using that heart to build a mission to feed the homeless and hungry.

Our future is in good hands.