Jerry Horton

Background

About Jerry Horton

I earned BA in Psychology and MA in Sociology at San Jose State U. Spent a number of years as a Social Worker in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. I was a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the 70s, serving as Instructor and Research Sociologist while there. I met and married Judith Page while at CU and a few days after we married we and her three girls drove to El Salvador, Central America, where I was a Latin American Teaching Fellow. Returned to Boulder and in 1978 and later moved to Austin, Texas, for Judy to enter graduate school at the University of Texas. I earned a Ph.D. through the University of Texas Community College Leadership Program in 1987, but the birth of a fourth daughter Kelly in 1984 changed my life. Kelly has Down syndrome and led Judy and me to incorporate Down Home Ranch on May 12, 1989. The Ranch stared with our idea of starting a Texas ranch for Kelly and others, creating jobs and revenue-producing enterprises, homes and recreational venues. When we left the leadership of Down Home Ranch in Sept. 2016 it was a 410 acre ranch with cattle, chickens, a dozen commercial greenhouses (Poinsettias in the fall, flowers in the spring), facilities for church retreats and homes for 37 Ranchers with intellectual disabilities. We left the leadership of DHR in Sept. 2016, changed the name of a nonprofit we had created in 2005 to Point Rider and began working on creating housing alternatives for adults with IDD. We designed the Hacienda San Tomas-as yet not constructed, but a great model community-and now are focusing on helping families and other groups tackle the huge housing need in the disability world. ​Point Rider, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works with families and organizations to develop housing for adults with intellectual or development disabilities through pro bono consulting and referrals, and paid project management services