Clifford Damstrom - Pflugerville

Clifford Damstrom - Pflugerville

Written by Christi Covington Friday, 07 September 2007

In the 1950s and ‘60s, small-town Clifford Damstrom often found himself interacting with the popular entertainer Danny Thomas of the “Danny Thomas Show.” As a regional development director for St. Jude’s, Damstrom traveled 11 states from Texas up into the midwest and southwest organizing dinner events for fundraisers that spotlighted Thomas who had founded the Memphis-based medical institution. He was an acquaintance that Damstrom would always respect.

“[Thomas] said that each child on earth is a child of us all,” Damstrom said. “Sometimes we forget that, but it is kind of the way that I like to look at life.”

From little league baseball to almost two decades on the school board, Damstrom has kept children as his focus.

He came from what he described as “humble beginnings” in a Rio Grande Valley cotton town called Lyford. He later attended the University of Texas Pan Am in Edinburg, Texas where he received his Bachelor of Arts.

“So many people helped me,” he said. “I realized I could not have made it without them, so I thought, ‘Now it’s my turn.’”

For the first part of his professional life, Damstrom and his wife, Joann, rotated between south and central Texas. It was while living in Austin that they first heard about Pflugerville. Joann worked with the wife of Tommy Pfluger who told them about his home. He knew Damstrom missed the country-style community, so he told them about his little town of around 400 residents.

“I guess it was less than 400 people, and I liked it,” Damstrom said. “This town accepted us and we fell in love.”

When he moved to Pflugerville in 1974, 10th Street marked the end of town. He quickly got involved and became a first responder with the local volunteer fire department. After the team learned that he knew how to perform a new and innovative lifesaving method called CPR, Damstrom received any calls related to automobile accidents, strokes, faintings or heart attacks.

It was not long before he started to meet others in the community whether from church or Lions Club activities. Sometimes he took on leadership inadvertently. He was just showing up to his son’s T-ball Little League parent meeting and suddenly found himself volunteering to fill in for the absence of a coach. One thing led to another until over the years he also joined the board of directors.

As his children got older, he became active with the school district, eventually running for the school board in 1986. By the time he finished, he had served 18 years and filled every officer’s position with two years as president. Even after his son and daughter graduated from Pflugerville High School, Damstrom continued his work with the district, remembering what he had learned from Thomas.

“Again, it was the chance to pay back,” he said. “Here is a chance to help literally thousands of children.”

Denise, his daughter, is now a teacher, and Damstrom’s grandson will soon attend Pflugerville schools. All four of his grandchildren often come to visit their grandparents who live in an old downtown neighborhood. Damstrom has watched the city grow around him, but he believes Pflugerville has maintained the atmosphere that first attracted his family.

“I still think it has that solid community spirit,” he said. “It started with these solid folks who lived here first and that has spilled over to the newcomers and spread into this solid community spirit. Somehow we can see this same community spirit that started a way long time ago.”