TRTA has more than 96,000 members who continue to be involved in local public school education and in the well-being of their communities. In 2023, TRTA members contributed 5,233,757 hours of community service, valued at $133,303,791.

In addition, the TRTA Children’s Book Project, which began in 1998, has involved TRTA local chapter members in giving books to children who might not otherwise have books of their own. Since the inception of the book project, more than 900,000 books have been placed into the hands of children who otherwise might never have a book to call their own. In 2023, 143,870 books were distributed as part of the Children’s Book Project and the Student to Student Book Program.

We turned 71 in 2024, but our roots stretch back even further. There were six local retired teachers association chapters organized in Texas by the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA): El Paso in 1945; Dallas in 1949; Fort Worth in 1950; Houston in 1951; San Antonio in 1952; and Austin in 1952.

Sixty-five of the 200 members of these six local chapters attended the NRTA convention in Miami Beach, Florida, with her guidance they planned a state organization to be known as the Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA). Officers were nominated and a meeting was scheduled for November 27, 1953.

At the November 27, 1953 meeting in Dallas, the nominated officers were elected, a constitution and bylaws were adopted, and the first convention was held in November of 1954.

In the early years of TRTA, it was not financially practical to make provisions for a headquarters office. The first presidents kept the files and records of the TRTA in their homes. Construction of TRTA’s permanent headquarters in downtown Austin on Trinity Street was completed in 2004, a mere 200 steps from the East door of the historic Texas Capitol.