Frank Yturria

Francisco Daniel "Frank" Yturria (June 29, 1923 – November 26, 2018) was an American politician, businessman, rancher, and conservationist who served as the chair of the Inter-American Foundation during three U.S. presidencies.

Early life and family Yturria was born on June 29, 1923, in Austin, Texas, the first of three children of Fausto Yturria Sr. and Marion Alexander. He was raised in the Los Ebanos neighborhood of Brownsville. Yturria attended Central Grammar School and Brownsville High School. During this period, he also worked as a vaquero. As a teenager, Yturria performed in a three-month traveling Wild West show throughout Texas, with other performers including Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. 1947, he was married to Mary Elizabeth Altman. They had two daughters.

Yturria attended Texas A&M University, where he earned a degree in veterinary medicine. In 1947, he was appointed as Texas A&M's Cadet Captain of Cavalry and earned a pilot's license. Yturria and his family owned and operated a 80,000 acre cattle ranch in Texas. His family also owned mineral interest in 156,300 acres of ranch lands in five south Texas counties. In the 1990s, his family was ranked as the 58th largest landowners in the United States by Worth magazine. He was reappointed to the post by President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush. Yturria also was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to serve on the Texas Historical Commission from 2001 to 2007.

Conservation efforts Yturria was involved in various conservation and preservation efforts, including leading the restoration of the Cameron County Courthouse, and successfully lobbying for the restoration of the Bahia Grande into its native estuarine habitat. Yturria set aside 10,000 acres of his ranch into a wildlife habitat to protect the highly endangered Texas ocelot,

Works

The Patriarch, 2006 Colonel Manual Maria Yturria, 1999

Death and legacy Yturria died in 2018 at the age of 95.

Yturria is the namesake of the Frank Yturria Fund for Ocelot Conservation at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute.

KVEO-TV referred to Yturria as "the greatest conservationist of his generation in south Texas."