SPJST is happy to announce the establishment of the Tommie and Gladys Lostak Scholarship. Lorenda Baldwin of Lodge 139, Danbury generously donated the required funding necessary to establish the endowed scholarship. The scholarship will be awarded in alternating years and for the first time in 2023 to a full-time, degree-seeking undergraduate who is a member of SPJST Lodge 139, Danbury or SPJST District Five.
Tommie Lostak graduated from Crosby High School in 1936 where he was captain of all four sports teams in his senior year. “Tommie’s father, Rudolph, worked very hard to see to it that his children had a good education,” says Lorenda. Tommie went to the University of Texas where he ran track and cross country. While captain of the 1940 Longhorn Cross Country team, Tommie participated in the Southwest Conference Track and Field Championships, competing on two championship teams.
Following his graduation from the University of Texas in 1941, Tommie was employed by Humble Oil and Refining Company. On August 9, 1941, Tommie married Gladys Mollie Kosina. During Tommie’s 10-year stint with Humble Oil, Tommie and Gladys were blessed with three children – Lorenda, Lonnie, and Mollie. In 1956, Tommie and Gladys welcomed a second son, Harold.
When Tommie wasn’t working, he could be found playing with his children, playing on his softball team, or hunting.
“Times were hard,” Lorenda recalls. “For entertainment, the kids remember going to the drive-in picture show and one or two having to get down on the floorboard in the back seat, going to dad’s ballgames, and those good old Czech dances.”
Tommie was a Danbury rice farmer and rancher since 1951, retiring from farming in 1983 and ranching in 1997.
A devoted fraternalist, Tommie served as secretary of SPJST Lodge 139, Danbury for 36 years and on the Publication Committee for 12 years. He hosted many annual SPJST district meetings at the Lone Pine in Danbury. He also served on the school board and as president of the Brazoria County Farm Bureau. Tommie was an honorary 4-H member and life member of Future Farmers of America and life member of the Texas Ex-Students’ Association of the University of Texas. He was a past member of the Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, past executive board member with Brazoria County Fair Association, Brazoria County Cattlemen’s Association, Danbury Athletic Booster Club, and charter member of the Angleton-Danbury hospital. He was a big fan and booster of Danbury athletics and Danbury Little League.
Tommie’s wife, Gladys, was a hard worker as well. She balanced many roles as Tommie’s supporter — always by his side, a mom and owner of a kolache shop in Danbury for several years. Both Gladys and Tommie shared a passion for traveling. Gladys passed away in November 1988. The last 16 years of Tommie’s happy life, he lived with daughter Lorenda and her husband, David Baldwin, until Tommie’s passing in February 2008.