I grew up in San Antonio.
I graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Chemical Engineering.
I lived in Ohio, Alabama, and Iowa as well as Texas.
I worked for seven years as a chemical engineer for TRACOR before coming to U of H to teach Math.
This is Ray Hutchinson. He retired from the U of H Math Department a few years after I was hired. There was time for us to serve on several committees together. He started at U of H in 1936! |
This is Andy Aucoin. Andy saved my life. I was
in Austin working for a company called TRACOR and my wife was working in the
Craft Center at the U.T. student union. Every day I walked to the
student union and had lunch with her.
I was supposed to start at U of H in September, but, because Andy had a stroke, I came in June to cover his summer school courses. Otherwise, I would have been crossing the plaza in front of the U.T. tower just when Charles Whitman was shooting from the top of the tower. |
For my midlife crisis, instead of buying a red sports car, I went back to school and got a law degree. I recommend that. Law school is a lot of fun if you are not having to compete for grades. (It seems to be pretty stressful if you are competing for grades.) I do some cases for the local legal aid society. I like the people that work there.
One of the reasons that I was interested in law was that I thought that there could be some useful applications of mathematics there. It turned out to be a lot more complicated than I (and a lot of other people) thought. I am still working on that, trying to pare down some questions to something doable and still useful.
If I could wish for something, it would be more time in my day.
Some of my personal interests are watching Japanese anime and reading Japanese manga. I take courses in Japanese at the Japan-America Society of Houston from time to time. I am now trying to learn my alphabet.