Its been a long time since I thought about Childress High School. I cannot make the reunion because that is in the middle of the semester.Presently, I am Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Arkansas and my wife, Jean Turner, is a Professor in the same department. We have been in Fayetteville since 1991 and love it here. We are about to become grandparents for the third time in October. Heather and her husband Tim live in Lake Jackson, Texas so we are in Texas regularly. Their two boys, Alex (28 months) and Bailey (13 months), were born in Texas. David and Amanda live locally and are expecting our first girl.
Last year I retired from the United Methodist Church where I was clergyman for 31 years. I served churches in Texas, Wyoming and Colorado. Although I have not served a church as a pastor for sometime, I felt that keeping my orders after graduating from Perkins School of Theology at SMU was important as I taught marriage and family classes in Arkansas, which is part of the buckle of the Bible belt.
In addition to my position at U. of Arkansas, I am also adjunct
faculty at Texas Tech U. and at Texas A&M - Kingsville. I help their
doctoral students complete their dissertations with guiding and
directing their research from afar. Education and distance mean
nothing today in our connected world.
I taught high school for three years--Baytown, TX and Silverton, TX
before I went to seminary. I served churches in Casper, Wyoming ,
Wheatridge, CO and Hygiene, CO (yep, a clean town near Longmont).
After that I returned to Texas where I was an administrator at Texas
Tech U. School of Medicine for several years. I started my Ph.D. when
I was 38 and completed it when I was 42. Jean also finished about the
same and I got a job in Extension at the U. of Wyoming in Laramie.
before I went to seminary. I served churches in Casper, Wyoming ,
Wheatridge, CO and Hygiene, CO (yep, a clean town near Longmont).
After that I returned to Texas where I was an administrator at Texas
Tech U. School of Medicine for several years. I started my Ph.D. when
I was 38 and completed it when I was 42. Jean also finished about the
same and I got a job in Extension at the U. of Wyoming in Laramie.
We later move to Indianapolis where we were researchers in aging
and long term care at IUPUI. After the grant ran out, we hoped
to return to the West but it is quite difficult to get two
university jobs. We lucked out with Arkansas.
Presently, I am working with the U.S. military to help their
servicemen and women with financial literacy and financial counseling
programs. It is quite gratifying to help these young (some not so
much) men and women maintain financial stability at home when
we are fighting a hot war that I feel very negative about. We did
learn something from the Vietnam War. It is not the serviceman
but their leadership that keeps making mistakes and sending
them into harms way without sufficient resources in both
personnel and equipment. If we do not move back to
Colorado (Jean is a native) where we lived for sometime,
we are planning to retire in Fayetteville sometime in the near future.
Life is good and we keep putting one foot in front of the
other with gusto!
As a fat old man who has had several heart attacks, I cannot believe
I looked so tall and skinny when I was in high school. Thanks for
putting those photos on the web.
