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Oscar M. Laurel

24th president - elected at the 1955 convention. Served one term.

Laurel was born in Laredo, Texas, on June 8, 1920. He attended Ursiline Academy and graduated from Martin High School. Then he enrolled in Loyola of the South before volunteering for the Army Air Corps in 1941. After service as an airplane mechanic on B-17 and B-29 bombers, he was discharged as a staff sergeant in 1945. Then he enrolled in pre-law at the University of Texas and graduated from the South Texas College of Law in Houston in 1950, passing the bar exam the same year.

Other positions that Pinedo has held include

  • Special investigator for the District Attorney's Office in Laredo (1952-56)
  • State Representative for the 80th District of Texas (1961-62)
  • Member of the National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty (1967)
  • Member of the National Transportation Safety Board (1967-72)
  • Executive Director of the Good Neighbor Commission of Texas (1973-75)
  • Chairperson of the Chapter of the National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis (1964-65) and (1977-78)
  • President of the Optimist Club of Laredo (1977-78)
  • President of the International Good Neighbor Council from (1977-78)

Laurel married Elsa Gonzales in 1951 and had two children - Elsa L. Nicholson and Oscar M. Laurel Jr.