16. Honorary Citizenship in the Republic of Texas / Dr. William Ko / 1968

I am a watercolor artist with invited articles published in the watercolor page of the October 1970 issue of American Artist magazine, and a special article published in the July/August 1976 issue of Southwest Art magazine. I lived in San Antonio, Texas while I was doing research work at Southwest Research Institute, and I was invited by the San Antonio City Library to hold regular one-man shows almost every year. During the HemisFair ’68 world’s fair, I was invited to demonstrate my advanced watercolor painting techniques for the President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson; Texas Governor John Connolly; and numerous international dignitaries. I painted “L.B.J. Ranch in Springtime” that day, and that painting is now in the permanent collection of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texas. Because of my artistic contributions to the state of Texas, the governor bestowed upon me honorary citizenship in the Republic of Texas.