86R15026 JGH-D
By: Flores, et al. S.C.R. No. 55
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Honorable Ken Mercer is retiring from USAA on
February 28, 2019, drawing to a close an outstanding career in the
insurance and financial services industry that has spanned nearly
three and a half decades; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Mercer earned a bachelor's degree in biology
from The University of Texas at Austin, a bachelor's degree in
business administration from UT San Antonio, and a master's degree
in business administration from St. Mary's University; he joined
USAA in November 1984, and over the course of his 34-year career in
information technology, he has played a leading role in
implementing the first information engineering workstations,
processes, and procedures, and he has served as lead internal
consultant for the company's first use of rapid application
development (RAD) technologies; and
WHEREAS, Later in his career, Mr. Mercer led projects to
develop financial systems, telecommunications accounting, disaster
recovery, and enterprise software and hardware asset management,
and he helped implement new acquisition processes to select
company-wide software suites and hardware; he is retiring as a
project manager for critical enterprise-wide migrations of several
important software systems; and
WHEREAS, From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Mercer represented District
117 in the Texas House of Representatives, and he served on the
Higher Education, House Administration, and Transportation
committees; during his tenure, he worked to ensure that children of
military families serving overseas could pay in-state tuition, and
he played an instrumental role in legislation that created the San
Antonio campus of Texas A&M University and brought Toyota to San
Antonio; he also helped create the city's Memorial Highway in honor
of the U.S. Army's 2nd Indian Head Division, and he became only the
second civilian to be made a "Lifetime Member" of the division; and
WHEREAS, Currently, Mr. Mercer is serving his fourth term as
a member of the State Board of Education, where he represents 13
counties and 1.6 million Texans; as chair of the board's Charter
School Committee, he helped establish the first dual-language
Hebrew-English immersion program in Texas and the first trilingual
Spanish-English-Mandarin program; he has also worked to ensure that
history and government curriculum includes the contributions of our
men and women in uniform; and
WHEREAS, In all his endeavors, Mr. Mercer enjoys the love and
support of his wife, Rosalia, his daughters, Rebekah Mercer and
Sarah Fisher, and his son-in-law, Ryan Fisher; and
WHEREAS, Ken Mercer's dedication, professionalism, and
commitment to excellence have earned him the respect and admiration
of his professional peers, and he may indeed reflect with pride on
his outstanding record of achievement; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby congratulate the Honorable Ken Mercer on his retirement from
USAA and extend to him sincere best wishes for the future; and, be
it further
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
prepared for Mr. Mercer as an expression of high regard by the Texas
House of Representatives and Senate.