Leadership

The Wylys have contributed their leadership to the community in many ways. For example, Charles serves as chairman of the Communities Foundation of Texas, one of the nation's largest community foundations. As the largest foundation of its kind in the Southwest, Communities Foundation of Texas has distributed more than $600 million in grants.

Charles is also a member of The Salvation Army's National Advisory Board, and the past chairman of The Dallas Salvation Army. He is a member of the board of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Symphony and the Dallas Theater Center.

Sam provided start-up funding for "Newsroom" at a PBS television station in Dallas, which evolved into the nationwide "Jim Lehrer NewsHour" and at one time he served on the board of directors of PBS. In 1972 and 1976, Sam was a member of the Electoral College, and during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations, he served as the first chairman of a Presidential Advisory Commission that championed minority enterprise.