Voices of the
BIG BEND
Jim Glendinning recreates some of his popular radio interviews from “Voices of the Big Bend,” an original production of KRTS,
Marfa Public Radio, which is broadcast throughout the region at 93.5 FM.
by Jim Glendinning
CHIP LOVE
W. E. “Chip” Love IV, President,
Marfa National Bank, says the business
card, but the imposing title in no way
reflects the affable, candid man talking
to me in his sunlit office. He starts by
describing how the Loves have ranched
southwest of Marfa since 1885 and that
he was only 2 years old when his father
Wert died in 1960 in a small plane crash.
The death left Wert’s wife Polly, his son
and his daughter, Worthy, to fend for
themselves.
A year later Polly married Conoly
Brooks, a banker from Pecos, himself
widowed with two children, and the
family lived in Fort Stockton where Chip
went to school from first grade through
high school. He has fond memories of a
large family (six children in all), and he
enjoyed most everything at school, as
well as the social life of a town with a
strong sense of community.
After the comfortable small town life
in Fort Stockton, attendance at South -
western University in Georgetown in
1976 took some time getting used to.
“College wasn’t easy,” he recalls, laugh-
ing, but he got up to speed and graduat-
ed with a B.A. in business administra-
tion. He had already had summer bank-
ing experience in Fort Stockton, and,
after graduating in 1979, he started his
first job at the First Savings & Loan
Association there, which lasted until
1984.
He continued in banking through the
80s at the First National Bank in Fort
Stockton. Business and banking life was
not easy in those years due to the oil
bust. Distressing as it was, he now con-
siders it a good learning experience.
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Photo by Jim Glendinning
CHIP LOVE
Marfa
Banking tells you a lot about people,
and, in a small community, he reflects,
bankers feel their customers’ pain.
In 1988 he married Kelly Card and
from 1991 to 2004 he managed the fam-
ily ranch, relishing the freedom of the
outdoor life and establishing a strong
connection with the land. The physical
separation, (their home was in Fort
Stockton) took its toll on the marriage
however, and they divorced in 2002.
Their daughter Lesli, now 17, is in high
school in Austin.
In 2004 he returned actively to bank-
ing life as president of the Marfa
National Bank, whose board he had sat
on since 1994. Later, he resumed con-
tact with Barbara Fountain who had
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2010
Photo by Jim Glendinning
KATHY BENCOMO
Fort Davis
been a roommate of his sister at
Sweetbriar College. He made his first
visit to Boston, her home town, in 2005,
and they married in 2006. Barbara
retains her radio job at WGBH Boston,
commuting to their Marfa home at
weekends.
In what he sees as “a front row seat to
the community,” Chip Love is well posi-
tioned to judge new Marfa. Generally
he thinks Marfa has evolved successfully,
and he challenges those who try to draw
friction lines in the community.
Growth is good, says this banker who
continues to manage his ranch with two
ranch hands, keeping links with the old,
while tending to the banking needs of
new Marfa, about which he is bullish.
Photo by Jim Glendinning
MIKE DAVIDSON
Alpine
KATHY BENCOMO
Kathy Bencomo was born in San
Antonio on June 14, 1960, the first child
of Charles and Barbara Mueller. Her
brother John was born two years later.
Charles (“Chick”) was a successful geol-
ogist, even earning from his company,
Viking Drilling, a gold Cadillac, and the
family lived comfortably.
After grade and high school in San
Antonio, Kathy’s dad offered her one
year at a college of her choice. She chose
Sweetbriar College in Virginia, studied
there from 1979 to 1980 and developed
her tennis game. In 1980, she moved to
Texas A&M, a military, macho place she
remembers, only slowly beginning to