Our Story

Gary Priour, Founder of Hill Country Youth Ranch in Ingram, Texas, graduated from Harvard University, cum laude, in 1969 with a major in English Literature. He received a Masters Degree in the same field at Portland State University in 1971. He taught high school and college English and literature before devoting himself full-time as a single parent to the care of his 2-year-old son. His involvement with at risk children began in 1972 when, at his daycare center in Portland, Oregon, a mother left a 2-year-old girl for whom she did not return. He has been involved with the care of such children ever since.

Priour has participated in the evolution of the Texas child care system since founding and opening Hill Country Youth Ranch in 1977. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Licensed Children’s Services, been State Chairman of the Residential Treatment Section of TALCS, served as President of the Texas Alliance for Children, and worked on two state task forces whose goal was to revamp the service delivery system for at-risk children and families in Texas. Priour has overseen the design and operation of a “continuum of care” that provides a broad array of residential and educational settings and services for children and youth of all ages and need levels. He has supervised the building of four charter school campuses, two medical/psychiatric assessment centers, three “small-town” villages in rural and ranch settings, and apartment complexes for young adult graduates of the foster care system. These facilities operate interconnectedly as a continuum to offer a variety of life-enhancing communities and programs, each promoting the healing and education of abused and homeless children and young adults, ages 5 – 24.

The constant goal of this continuum is to find the best possible setting for each child, teen, or young adult, where individual needs for healing and learning can be met at each stage of growth, while allowing him or her to remain in the same family of caregivers and mentors as he or she matures and enters adulthood. Priour’s idea of family is that it extends throughout life, and the more than 2000 alumni of the HCYR programs can attest to that. All are welcome to return to one of the numerous alumni guest houses at any time, apply for educational grants regardless of age, and also receive emergency aid in a time of crisis. The Alumni Association is an active community for Ranch graduates, exchanging support and advice to alumni of all ages.

Oma Bell Perry, with her mother and two sisters, came to settle the Upper Frio Canyon, where the Frio River begins, in 1928. Oma Bell was 15. The family would ranch the rugged canyons, carving out a living raising goats and cattle, for 75 years. None of the daughters married, and before their mother died in 1970, they agreed on a plan to give the land for a children’s home. Oma Bell’s two sisters both died in 1986, and Oma Bell was left to fulfill the family dream.

Oma Bell spent ten years visiting various organizations throughout the U.S., finally choosing the son of another hill country ranching family, Gary Priour, who had founded Hill Country Youth Ranch 50 miles away in 1977, to accept the challenge. The year was 1996, and Oma Bell would live long enough to see children playing in the river and studying in the charter school, experiencing the healing qualities of the beautiful land for which she had spent her life caring.

Miss Perry, great grandniece of Stephen F. Austin, Father of Texas, believed that history would prove that the health of a civilization depends on the quality of its investment in its children. She has certainly made her contribution to that cause.