Luke Musselman '02

Luke was a student at Trinity from 1986 until 1998.  In second grade, he joined the School’s bagpipe band led by long-time Trinity teacher Anne Wemple. The bagpipe band was a staple at the annual Trinity graduation ceremony.  Members also traveled the state to attend workshops and Scottish festivals and performed in weddings, funerals, and various other events.  Luke played both basketball and football at Trinity as well.  Luke left Midland for the University of Texas in 2002 as part of the Liberal Arts Honors Program where he majored in history and minored in business. Luke was a starter on the University of Texas polo team all four years of college where he also served as captain and president of the club. In 2005 Luke was selected as a Normandy Scholar.  The Frank Denius Normandy Scholar Program selects twenty students each year from various majors across the University of Texas for an intense semester-long study of the Second World War, culminating in a month in Europe following the war from London to Berlin.  In 2012 Luke established an endowment, the Musselman Family Scholarship, to provide scholarship support for students in the Normandy Scholars Program.  Luke graduated from UT in 2006 with Special Honors in Liberal Arts Honors and was admitted as a member to the Phi Beta Kappa Society.  Luke is still active in the UT community and has served on the College of Liberal Arts Advisory Council since 2011.

Following his graduation in 2006, Luke moved back to Midland to start a career in the oil and gas industry with Compass Operating, LLC.  Serving as the company’s landman, Luke was active in leasing and putting together prospects across the Permian Basin.  In 2009, he married Julie Pohl.  

Luke has also embraced a role in his family’s multi-generational ranching operation based in Albany, Texas.  Although Luke and his sisters were part of the first generation not to grow up on the ranch, they have recently joined their parents in an effort to revitalize the family’s cattle business and rebuild many of the original ranch structures.  They are placing heavy emphasis on sustainable grazing and brush control in an effort to restore the land to its original prairie form.  Luke is currently serving as president of the Lazy 3 management company and helps oversee the financial side of the operation.

The Musselman family has hosted a fundraiser, Polo on the Prairie, on the Lazy 3 Ranch since 1986.  Led by the vision of Luke’s grandmother Mary Anne McCloud, what started as an impromptu polo match on a Lazy 3 hay field has morphed into an annual gathering of over 1,000 to raise money for MD Anderson Hospital.  Over the last 35 Years, Polo on the Prairie has raised over eight million dollars for the hospital.  

Luke and Julie have three daughters. Leslie (3rd grade), Perry (1st grade), and Mia (K-3) are all currently students at Trinity.  Luke joined the Trinity Board of Trustees in June of 2019 where he currently serves as 2nd Vice-President and Governance Committee Chair.  Luke continues to give so much to his alma mater, speaking to alumni, an involved dad never missing an event but his service as a young trustee has been stellar from being a great support with school’s response to COVID 19, and serving on the current strategic planning committee. Luke has been a long-time member of First Presbyterian Church where he has served as both a deacon and an elder.  He is also an avid fly fisherman and continues to play polo.