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Remember Joe Hook? How could you forget - football player, in the band, most handsome and active in many UHS organizations? Joe was a ferocious fullback and linebacker on the Coyote football team and was all-district his senior year. He was also a scholar and right at the top of the class in his academic accomplishments. Joe has provided us with a great bio and photos including one with his best friend, Freddy Edwards and wife Barbara that was taken just prior to Freddy's passing.
Fond memories from my UHS years include a small number of girlfriends (they know who they are), long-time friendships with Freddy Edwards and Coleman Davenport and some special teachers: John Buchanan – band instructor and friend, Rex Kelly – football coach and Spanish teacher, and Bill Cave – mad scientist, super science teacher and friend. I went to the University of Oklahoma out of UHS but ran out of money. That meant going to work, saving some money, living at home for a while and then spending a year at SWTJC. I dropped out of school for a while after that and went to work later in a para-professional job for IRS. At the same time, I married. My wife and I lived in Houston for 10 years and had 2 sons, Jason and Heath. I was working for IRS and got transferred to Austin (4 years), Denver (3 years) and then Atlanta (almost 8 years). During that time, I returned to university part-time at night and finished my Bachelor degree in Economics and Finance from University of Houston and later my Juris Doctor (Law). While in Atlanta, I became aware of the international operations side of IRS and eventually was selected for a position in Washington, DC (My wife and I separated and later divorced.) In Washington, I was in charge of international technical assistance for IRS, a sort of consultancy for other countries who wanted to improve their tax systems. In May of 1987, I was a part of the US delegation to a meeting of all the tax officials in the Americas that was being held in Ottawa, Canada. I met a special woman, Louise Bélanger, from Canada who was helping run the meeting and at the end of the week I asked her to move to Washington and, surprisingly, she accepted, However: she had a 12 year old daughter who had to approve as well. I passed the test and, after a difficult battle with Immigration and Naturalization Service, we married in Alexandria, Virginia in February, 1988 and the rest is history. After all the difficulty of getting Louise to the U.S. legally, I ended up getting a foreign posting to (guess where!) Ottawa, Canada! I was assigned to the Embassy and served as a liaison to Revenue Canada while also conducting investigations and carrying our taxpayer education activities. I was on live television and live radio programs while there, was pictured and interviewed by several newspapers and probably saw more of Canada than the vast majority of Canadians. Five years later, I was assigned to a similar job at the U.S. Embassy in Bonn, Germany (still working for IRS) and had responsibility for numerous countries in Europe, including Russia. This provided incredible opportunities for travel, both official and personal. This assignment was to last three years. In the Fall of 1995, I took an early retirement from IRS and went directly to a private posting in Moscow for a subsidiary of KPMG for a project to assist in the modernization of the Russian State Tax Service. Two years in Moscow meant witnessing an incredible series of events, sights and experiences beyond my expectations. The professional side was the most frustrating and unrewarding of my life; – thank goodness my wife was/is a psycho-therapist! Day-to-day living was not easy, but the cultural activities and historical sites were unbelievable. I had a chance to see much of Russia and a week-long business trip to Siberia was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Finally after two years, we moved back to Alexandria, Virginia where I went back to work for U.S. Treasury managing its international program for technical assistance in tax.
IN 2002, we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico(where else but in NM with a name like that!) to be closer to family in Texas. We enjoy the dry climate and slower pace of life here. There are still many places we want to visit, so travel continues to be on the agenda. What I have taken away from all this is the appreciation of the benefits of being a Texan and an American plus an awareness of just how blessed we are. I have met and visited with people from a host of different cultures and religions and have found that people, on the whole, care about the same things We do and are peaceful at heart. I have seen numerous instances of just how generous the poorest people are. Luckily, our three children have had the opportunity to learn much of the same from their visits with us. I landed in Johannesburg on the fateful 9-11 only to learn of the terrorist attacks in a phone call from my wife: she could see the smoke over the Pentagon from our house in Alexandria. The first email I got that next day was from a very devout Muslim gentleman I had worked with in the Nigerian equivalent of IRS: he wanted assurances that I and my family were safe plus he apologized for the atrocity that had been caused in the name of his religion. Our three adult children are successful in each of their careers and are a real source of pride and joy. Moreover, they have blessed us with 4 grand-children (so far!). Life has been exceedingly good to/for me. I’ve had opportunities that I, and most people could never have imagined. Over the last 20 years I’ve flown more than 2 MILLION air miles! I lived outside the U.S. for ten years and have worked in 52 countries. Who’d a ever thunk it for a poor boy from Uvalde?
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