Brother Nesmith was a leader at Zeta-Theta from the start. As a pledge, he served as Beta Class Vice President and won the “Outstanding Pledge” award. He held “multiple offices” for the chapter, including serving as President in 1968-69. Gary also participated in the presentation at National Headquarters in 1969, resulting in the purchase of the first fraternity house on campus – the “Big House” on Belvin.
Nesmith received a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in 1969 and followed up by earning his Masters of Business Administration two years later.
Although now mostly retired, Gary continues to serve as the Senior Vice President of Signet Partners, a consulting firm whose clients primarily include agencies of the federal government and financial institutions. The firm specializes in nationwide engagements, providing advisory services involving real estate, financial assets and commercial real estate lending. As a subject matter expert, Nesmith has conducted national and local workshops for federal and state examiners.
Prior to his current position, he served as President of Partners for Health Systems, a for-profit sister company to a national medical research institution. There, he managed the full range of corporate operations for the research institution and other similar entities, including their respective real estate holdings.
Most of his career was in the financial services industry, where he held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer for First Columbia Financial Corporation, a multi-billion dollar entity with offices throughout Colorado. In this capacity, Gary was responsible for all primary corporate revenue operations, principally involving commercial real estate lending, acquisition, development, and construction lending, commercial banking, secondary marketing and mortgage banking.
Brother Nesmith has also remained committed to Pike’s Zeta-Theta Chapter. He was a board member of the original housing corporation, served a year as Financial Advisor to the chapter and has been a board member of the current housing corporation, the Garnet and Gold Social Society of San Marcos, Texas, since its formation. In 2012 he was honored as Outstanding Alumnus.
Gary and his wife, Sara, who was a charter member of the Pikettes and former chapter Dream Girl, have one daughter, Nicci, who lives in Incline Village (Lake Tahoe) with her husband Jim Hammerel. Gary and Sara have one grandchild, Ayla, who is 16 months old.
Looking at his time with Zeta-Theta, Gary is proud.
“The fellowship and diverse experiences gained as a proud member of Zeta Theta have been instrumental in shaping my adult life and remain very much a part of who I am today. I fully recognize I owe a great deal of the success I have enjoyed as a person, husband, father, grandpa, and throughout my career, to the fraternity and my time at Texas State. Many of my closest friends today are my fraternity brothers from the ’60s.”
“I am honored to be able, in some small measure, to give back to the fraternity, our great alumni base and current and future undergrad members.”