The Terrell Blodgett Endowment for Government Services in Urban Management and Finance was established by the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System on June 17, 1983, for the benefit of the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Gift funds were provided by the estate of William S. Blodgett and KPMG LLP, both of Austin. The endowment honors Professor W. Terrell Blodgett of Austin. Terrell is a native Texan who graduated from Baylor University in 1943 and joined the US Army the following day. After the Army, he went on to earn his MA in 1947 from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. He was hired as a research associate in the Bureau of Municipal Research at The University of Texas at Austin. The bureau was headed by Dr. Stuart MacCorkle and later became the Institute of Public Affairs. When the LBJ School was established, the Institute was folded into the new school. Terrell left the bureau in 1950 to become personnel director for the City of Austin, eventually returning to the LBJ School in 1982 as the first holder of the Mike Hogg Professorship in Urban Management.

The endowment funds second-year students who are interested in urban government management and finance. It also supports faculty research. Students are given a stipend that supports a summer internship and their second year of studies. In order to qualify for the internship and fellowship package, students must negotiate their own research projects with a municipal government and then submit their project proposals to an LBJ School selection committee.