Our History

Manuel and Edith DeBusk established DeBusk Foundation on March 5, 1979, as means of giving financial support to charitable activities. Both gifted themselves, Mr. & Mrs. DeBusk grew up in a time where there were virtually no opportunities in the area of academic enrichment for talented young students. Anxious to provide these types of opportunities, they both knew they wanted to make a difference.

Mr. DeBusk came to Dr. Diane Cooper, Principal at Immaculate Conception High School in Grand Prairie, Texas, to help develop ideas for how DeBusk Foundation could make an impact. Dr. Cooper’s school had recently been selected as a National Exemplary School, which Mr. DeBusk read about in an edition of the Dallas News.

“After reading the article, I said, ‘the principal there must be good.’ So, I walked into this little school with a $7,000 check in my hand. I presented it to the principal, Diane Cooper, and asked if she would like to use this money to set up a program for talented kids. She did, and that’s how the DECATS program got started,” Mr. DeBusk said.

Since then, the program has replicated from Dallas to Houston and Austin and has been in continuous operation ever since, with lead funding still provided by DeBusk Foundation as its signature program. Dr. Marty Webb first founded DECATS in Houston in fall of 1994 at Corpus Christi Catholic School, where and when she served as Principal. The program’s inaugural session was June 1995.

Together, Drs. Cooper and Webb were visionaries with a lasting impact, and both spent time in leadership roles as members of DeBusk Foundation’s Board of Directors. Dr. Webb helmed an unparalleled and impressive career as Principal at Corpus Christi Catholic School, Founder and Head of School at The Monarch Institute, the first Program Director of DECATS and more than two decades on the foundation’s board. Likewise, Dr. Cooper blazed an amazing career path as a principal for more than 30 years, earning recognition by both NCEA and the US Department of Education as a National Distinguished Principal.

DECATS Houston today operates at three campus locations each summer serving 800 Scholar participants.