Ron Fogle
Trustee, Hendrick Health, Abilene, Texas
Texas Healthcare Trustees presents the Founders’ Award to a distinguished health care trustee with an exemplary record of leadership, dedication and excellence in health care governance. The Founders’ Award is the highest honor bestowed to a trustee.
Ron Fogle, a banker, home builder and non-profit board member, has made an impressive and lasting impact in Abilene and surrounding communities. Born on Dec. 29, 1956, at Abilene’s Hendrick Memorial Hospital, Fogle’s connection to the hospital has spanned six decades, continuing a family legacy of philanthropy, especially in the area of health care.
Fogle attended schools in Abilene and graduated from Cooper High School in 1975, where he particularly enjoyed courses in drafting and mechanical drawing. During school, he worked at First State Bank as a bank teller in the afternoons and full-time during summers. He continued his education at Texas Tech University, graduating with a degree in finance.
Starting his career as a credit analyst at Fort Worth National Bank, Fogle was quickly promoted to assistant vice president in the correspondent banking department. This role required extensive travel across West Texas and southern New Mexico, which he found challenging. Subsequently, he joined Western National Bank in Odessa, Texas, just before the oil business declined sharply in 1981, affecting the economy and related businesses, including banks.
Returning to Abilene, Fogle took a job with First National Bank of Abilene, where he excelled, eventually becoming executive vice president and manager of commercial loans. After 23 years, he left the bank in 2006 to pursue a long-held interest in home building, founding Ron Fogle Construction, LP. Over the past 17 years, his company has designed, built and remodeled homes in Abilene and surrounding areas.
Throughout his professional career, Fogle has consistently dedicated time to community service. His leadership is noted on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations, including the Abilene Chamber of Commerce, Junior Achievement, Abilene Better Business Bureau, and Leadership Abilene. His most significant contribution, however, has been his service on the Hendrick Health Board of Trustees. Following in his father A.E. Fogle’s footsteps—who served as a trustee for 16 years and chaired the board for two terms— Fogle was elected to the Hendrick Medical Center Board in 1994 and served for 27 years, recently attaining Emeritus status.
During his tenure, Fogle held several leadership positions, including two terms as board chair, and chairing various committees such as the board’s executive, personnel, Finance, mission and ministry, joint quality, and audit committees. He was also a member of the CEO search committee and the Hendrick Medical Center Foundation Board. In 2018, he earned his Certified Healthcare Trustee designation.
Fogle inherited his family’s philosophy: “We, as a society, are not successful without a volunteer effort. We have a debt to give back a part of our good fortune or talents without being paid.” This belief has guided his extensive volunteer work and leadership, benefiting Hendrick Health staff, patients, board members, and the broader Abilene community.
Please join us in congratulating Ron Fogle as the winner of the 2024 THT Founders’ Award.