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Football player, basketball player, pep squad beau and friend. Gary has some great photos, including one with wife, Beverly, and children at their 30th wedding anniversary party where Gary and Beverly renewed their wedding vows
Dear Classmates, It's great that we have this place to tell our story. I hope to see your's out here. In my junior/senior years at UHS, I began to wonder more about who I really was, where I was going and what I wanted to be or do. The answers(still working on them!) to these questions would guide me throughout the rest of my life. I loved my senior year at UHS. I had some great friends and loved all my classmates in general. I could have been a perpetual senior. That year was a huge awakening for me. I suddenly seem to grow up (in many ways both mentally and physically) and felt like there was hope and life could be interesting and challenging. One important key to that thought process occurred when a group of us (Tommy Luce, Deanna Dimmitt, Sue Finley and other high achievers in our class) took a trig class at SWTJC taught by M.V. Howitt (the man was a genius!). I was able to learn and compete with this group and based on that and the admiration I had for this teacher (Great teacher!), I realized I wanted to attend and complete college and hopefully improve my life! What a wonderful thought and goal! I hadn’t thought about this much prior to this event, but it changed my life by allowing me to grow and improve! As a result, and with a little hard work, I went to SWTJC (what a great school this is!) and got an AA degree. During this time I received a scholarship, was a Who’s Who and had a 3.5 grade point average. It took a lot of hard work and concentration, but I was on my way! I then attended Texas A&M University ("The University" - They have beat OU, Texas, Notre Dame, etc. and all the rest of the Big 12 schools!) along with some of my other ’59 classmates ( Nick Fohn, Larry Warren, Paul Smith and Gary Sutherland). I received my B.A. in Math with a minor in physics. Never thought that could happen in my wildest dreams. I took Russian (12 hrs.). My thought process was simple, it would be a small class, the professor would be happy to have any students and he would pass everyone that enrolled and tried and that was the way it turned out. I did study though! Never used it and wish I had taken Spanish now. Your may be wondering if I ever dated. That was a challenge at A&M back then (An all male school)! I did have a few dates but managed to stay single throughout my college days. Sounds like I’m bragging! I graduated from A&M in ‘64 and immediately moved to Houston where I got my first post-college job with Texaco (company doesn’t even exist anymore) in beautiful downtown Houston. The first of many I had over my working career (my first job was sweeping the sidewalk in front of the Stevenson Hotel in Uvalde when I was 6 years old). I’ve been thinking about all the companies I worked for along the way and it's at least twenty different firms (from small to very large)! I can’t even remember some of the names! The first four after college were Texaco, Boeing, Lockheed and IBM. Then I worked for Dell Computers, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, a chocolate firm in Dallas, EDS (Ross Perot), Frito Lay, various Austin Golf courses including The Hills of Lakeway, Wachovia bank and others. I’m still working today at the Uvalde Leader-News - bookkeeper for the Frio-Nueces Current newspaper, serving the greater Pearsall, Cotulla, Devine, Dilley, Bigfoot, etc. area. Don’t tell me you can’t survive! I have a resume to prove it! I have been very lucky though and have been able to land on my feet over the years, so life has been very sweet! My first career, as a Software Engineer, concentrated on the aerospace field. I worked on the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle missions and programs and was a member of the on-board programming team that programmed the Guidance, Navigation and Control software for the Space Shuttle. I was working at Mission Control in Houston when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I have received several software patents related to computer applications in general, which resulted in cash awards from IBM. My working life has been and continues to be very interesting, challenging, satisfying and worthwhile. I'm still at it and enjoy that part of my life. Another part of my life that I’m very proud of is the Founding of and association with the Uvalde High School Alumni Association. My friend and classmate Mel Glauberg and I created the class of ‘59 web site in 2003 and founded UHSAA that same year. Beverly and I were privileged to be the coordinators of the first All-Class reunion in 2005. This has been one of my goals for a long time, i.e., to bring all Uvalde Alumni together under an organization that represented this great group and our great school. We have it now and I hope it will continue to survive and grow.
Beverly worked in the field of International Education for both Jr. Colleges and Universities as an international student advisor and is the only person I know who worked for both Texas A&M and UT Austin in the same year . We have two wonderful children, Dan and Amy, and two beautiful grandchildren. Our daughter graduated from UT Austin and our son went to Texas Tech, so no Aggies yet. I plan to change that! We are very happy and have a great life here in Uvalde. We see old friends, people I grew up with, regularly, do volunteer work and attend the Episcopal church I grew up in. It can't get much better than this! I want to congratulate my '59 classmates. “We have come a long way baby” and we still aren’t through yet! I’m really looking forward to our 50th. It didn't seem possible when I graduated, but now we are here! What an accomplishment!
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