The Kendall Gentleman

The August 2026 issue of The Kendall Gentleman, the monthly Kendall County magazine for men published by Oakridge Media in Boerne, Texas, features Bill Thomas on the cover. This is Volume 2, Issue 8.

Cover Story

The Man Who Built Joy. Born in 1930, he was a Burleson County ranch kid, an Air Force cryptography man, a pipe businessman, a cattleman and a Boerne patriarch.

In This Issue

• Publisher’s Note: A Man’s Word
  A Publisher’s Note on the things a man can lose and still recover, from money and a job to, sometimes, a damaged reputation.
• Cover Story: The Man Who Built Joy
  Bill Thomas, in a four-and-a-half-hour conversation that left our writer knowing he had heard only the beginning.
• History: August Hoffmann: A German-Texan Survivor of War, Principle, and the Hill Country Frontier
  August Hoffmann, born in Germany in 1842, lived through one of the most difficult and morally complex chapters of Texas history in the Hill Country.
• Hope for Heroes: Serving the Community He Calls Home
  Hope for Heroes: Officer Christian Lockwood’s path to law enforcement began with military service and a desire to build a life rooted in community.
• BetterMENt: Ask That Girl To Dance
  Every summer, boots clack on the concrete at the CCC Pavilion dance at Garner State Park, west of Kendall County.
• Outdoors: The Perfect Weekend in Boerne, Texas
  Plan the perfect weekend in Boerne, Texas: the Hill Country Mile, local watering holes and the eateries that draw visitors from all over the world.
• Faith & Leadership: Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow
  A Faith & Leadership column on growing up in a Baptist home where rhythm came from a hymn book, not a hardwood floor.
• Musings of JEV: Uncle Willie and Zodiac Farming
  Zodiac farming, Uncle Willie style: he planted, harvested and cultivated by the signs, and he was usually first to have his fields worked up each spring.
• Cigar Review: The ’64
  The ’64 from Los Vista Cigars, reviewed: a bolder but still light version of the cigar our columnist makes for weddings and other events.

Previous issue: July 2026. Next issue: September 2026.