Wylie ISD students heading into career and agriculture programs will do so in a building named for the man who spent three decades financing their livestock projects and championing the district's FFA program.

At its Monday, Aug. 17, Board of Trustees meeting, Wylie ISD announced that the new Career & Technical Education Center at the F.O. Birmingham Agriculture Center will be called the Marvin Fuller Career & Technical Education Center. The Board Naming Committee recommended the honor for Albert Marvin Fuller Jr., known throughout the community simply as Marvin.

"Agriculture and FFA helped shape his own life, and for more than three decades, he has turned around and invested in generations of Wylie ISD students," Superintendent Dr. Kim Spicer said at the meeting. "It is incredibly fitting that students will now prepare for their own futures in a building that carries his name."

The facility is part of a $298 million bond package voters approved in 2023. Roughly $20 million was earmarked for a new CTE building at the Birmingham Agriculture Center site, according to the Dallas Morning News in October 2024. Renovations are already underway; the 2026 Wylie Championship Rodeo was canceled earlier this month because of ongoing construction at the site.

Fuller, a 1977 Plano Senior High graduate who showed Brangus heifers and steers through FFA, moved to Wylie in 1991 to join American National Bank as vice president. His daughter Audrey started first grade at Akin Elementary that same year. Since 2002, he has served as president of Inwood National Bank's Wylie branch.

His civic record stretches well beyond banking. Fuller has served as president of both the Wylie Economic Development Corporation and the Wylie Chamber of Commerce, as a director of the North Texas Municipal Water District, and as a founding member of the Wylie ISD Education Foundation.

The Wylie Chamber named him Citizen of the Year in 2018.

But his deepest tie to the district runs through agriculture. More than 30 years ago, Fuller and his wife Melisa helped establish the annual Wylie Rodeo, held at the same Birmingham Agriculture Center that will now carry his name. He has purchased student animals at the Wylie Show and Sale and Collin County livestock show, and served as a ringman at the annual Wylie 4-H/FFA Sale to drive up bids for students. In March, the couple received the Wylie FFA Community Champion Award.

Both Fuller children, Audrey (WHS Class of 2003) and Dailey (WHS Class of 2005), showed animals through Wylie 4-H and FFA from elementary school through graduation. Dailey now serves as chief of staff for the Texas Tech University System and helped establish the Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine.

The district has not announced a specific opening date for the Marvin Fuller CTE Center; construction at the Birmingham Agriculture Center site is ongoing.