Telephone Pioneers to honor Rawley Jackson
Telephone Pioneers to honor Rawley Jackson
By Marvin Tessneer
Las Cruces Bulletin
Cowboys for Cancer Research has gained national recognition with the announcement that the Telephone Pioneers will name Rawley Jackson for a Centennial Lifetime Achievement Award on Nov. 5 at its centennial celebration in Boston.
Jackson helped organize the first C4CR team-roping fundraiser 29 years ago in the Calhoun Arena.
Jackson worked for U.S. West Telephone for 31 years as a lineman, installation technician and manager. He is a longtime member of the Telephone Pioneers, a fraternal organization of telephone workers, founded 100 years ago in Boston.
In Las Cruces, the organization has painted U.S. maps at school playgrounds and the women have made hug-a-bears for firemen and police officers to help console children after emergencies.
“I’m just a stuck-in-the-mud ol’ country boy, and to be selected for this award from over 50,000 members in our district, I feel overwhelmed,” Jackson said.
His selection has another special meaning.
Two of his grandsons were inspired by his C4CR work to study cancer.
One grandson, Mathew Jackson, is in medical school at the University of Texas-San Antonio, majoring in oncology. Grandson Steven Jackson is attending the University of Oklahoma, studying radiation treatment of cancer.
The 29th annual C4CR team-roping contest will be conducted Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 8-9, at the Sproul Arena on Harvey Road north of Las Cruces.
The C4CR team-roping is the largest cancer fundraiser roping event in New Mexico. All of the money remains in New Mexico and is used for cancer research at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center and at New Mexico State University.
