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.