Sue Woodward Krukoski  

     Ann Lindsay Chambers

Carole Lee Bierdeman Bean Booth

Maridel Montgomery Rippy

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- RT Burkett

FAMILY HISTORY:

GEORGETOWN, TEXAS RESIDENT 30 YEARS. RETIRED 1996 AFTER 26 
YEARS IN TEXAS STATE TREASURY. MARRIED 42 YEARS TO WIFE MARTHA
TWO GROWN CHILDREN AGES 30 AND 37.THREE GRANDDAUGHTERS AGES 
6,11,AND 17.ENJOY SPENDING TIME WITH FAMILY AND GRANDDAUGHTERS.     
                 
                 EDUCATION:

GRADUATE R.L. PASCHAL HIGH SCHOOL 1956
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON, TEXAS 1956-1958
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, TEXAS 1958-1961
RECEIVED BS DEGREE IN MATHEMATICS IN 1961 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
TEXAS TECH 1961-1962
TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY 1964-1970
RECEIVED MASTER MANAGEMENT SCIENCE TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY 1970 
                                              
                 EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:

ENGINEER/PROGRAMMER AT McDonald AIRCRAFT CORPORATION 
ST.LOUIS,MO.1962-1964.WORKED IN SPACE TECHNOLOGY DIVISION
ENGINEER/PROGRAMMER AT VAUGHT AERONAUTICS GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS 
1964-1965.
ENGINEER/PROGRAMMER AT GENERAL DYNAMICS FORT WORTH, TEXAS 1965-1970 
TEXAS STATE TREASURY AUSTIN, TEXAS 1971-1996
         PROGRAMMER/ANALYST 1971-1978
         ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION RESOURCES 1978-1987
          RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINFRAME, CHECK 
	  PROCESSING,SYSTEMS,PROGRAMMING,
          COMPUTER OPERATIONS AND NETWORK SERVICES.             
         DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION RESOURCES 1987-1996
          RESPONSIBLE FOR A STAFF OF 25-55 WHICH INCLUDED 
          SYSTEMS,PROGRAMMING,COMPUTER OPERATIONS, NETWORK 
          SERVICES,SECURITY,BUDGETING,LONG RANGE PLANNING,
          DISASTER RECOVERY, CHECK PROCESSING.
          RETIRED IN 1996 AFTER WORKING FOR FIVE STATE TREASURERS.
                                 
           - R T BURKETT
                   

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Sue Bennett Houck

of Gresham, Oregon

Biography Written for the R.L. Paschal High School 50-Year Reunion in April 2006

My family consists of Duane R. Houck, husband of 40 years, and three adult daughters. Duane is a pilot, retired U.S. Air Force officer, retired from civilian airlines, and a certified science teacher.

 I graduated from Paschal in January 1956 and immediately went to work in the Production Department of Gulf Oil Corporation at the age of 17.

 Fortunately, Paschal had an outstanding business department with stellar and kind-hearted teachers who spent many hours sharing their knowledge with me. I concentrated on business courses. Attending college was just a dream for me at that time, but I was determined to complete a degree --- someday. There was no doubt that I would need the best education the Paschal staff could give me to launch into the work-a-day world and build a productive future. The teachers made a great effort to prepare me to support myself and become a useful member of society. Mr. O. D. Wyatt provided the guiding hand and inspiration for my life-long joy of learning. Mr. Wyatt was highly visible in the halls and accessible to provide his counsel and understanding. He also possessed an uncanny knack for showing up when you least expected it. And yes, every time I hear Stardust, I remember Mr. Wyatt and Paschal High School.

 In my early twenties, my first marriage disintegrated and I moved to Abilene to be near my parents. My life regained stability, and I took college classes as I could afford them. I fell in love and married a fighter pilot from Arizona. We raised three daughters, have seen a major part of the world, and shared an interesting life. Now, Duane and I are enjoying our “golden years” and meddling in our kids’ lives.

 A recent incident worth sharing --- I volunteer at a community college jazz radio station. One day, the station manager asked me where I went to high school. I replied, “Paschal in Fort Worth.” He grinned and said, “So did I; graduated in 1966.” It just goes to show, you never know where you are going to find a Panther. It was comforting to discover that he also has warm memories of Stardust.

    Education:    

             University of South Florida (postgraduate study in Business Management)

             University of South Florida (B.A., Political Science) (finally at age 40)

Employment:          Saudi Arabian International Schools                     

BAMSI, Inc.           Private Consultant      GTE Data Services                                                               Hillsborough County, Florida         Gulf Oil Corporation             

Memberships:         Alpha Mu Gamma (honors society, languages)

                                    Phoenix Chapter of the 99’s (women’s aviation)

                                    Who’s Who of American Women

                                    Society of Technical Communicators

                                    National School Public Relations Association

Volunteer:                   Girl Scouts of America, Board member for various community interests, Mercy Corps, Radio Station KMHD-FM, Meals on Wheels

 Hobbies:      Licensed Private Pilot, Travel, Photography, Music, Reading, Hiking

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       - Jerry Ward Bio

 It was Lily B. Clayton, McLean, and Paschal, then TCU, ACU, IBM.  IBM gave me the opportunity to work and live in Germany, England, and Vienna/Budapest, as well as Houston.  I ended up doing a PhD at the University of Warwick in the UK.  Met a Dane, got married, two kids, Kris and Sofie.  (Well, we are no longer married, but we work diligently with the kids).  IBM offered a “package” when I was 49, and so I joined some of my former Exxon customers who were setting up an operation in Europe.  I went back to work in Europe and live in Denmark.  (Well, that is where my kids were.)

 A few years ago I came back to Houston where I do Supply Chain Consulting.  Supply Chain Consulting is dealing with Mathematical Models, Expert Systems and Data Base technology to optimize Product Distribution.  I spend as much time as possible at my place on Lake LBJ and try to spend as much of the summer as I can in Europe.  Currently, my son is here studying.

 I have never forgotten my friends at Paschal!  Glen Turbeville and I remained good friends until he passed away. Another good friend, Mike Todd, just disappeared from the scene many years ago.  Many of you I hear about sometimes or now see on the PHS site.

      Regards, Jerry Ward

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        Robert Joseph Ahola

Bob Ahola – PHS ‘56

        Robert Joseph Ahola is an author, playwright, producer and director who lives in Malibu, California. As CEO of Galahad Films, he has written and produced over 300 films, commercials and documentaries. He has scripted numerous screenplays, including Taking Maria Home, WORLD CLASS/The Jerry Quarry Story, and Synchronicity.

          An environmentalist and animal rights activist, Mr. Ahola was the founding Creative Director of The Environmental Network and one of the originators of The Nostalgia Network (sold to Nickelodeon).

He is the author and co-author of twelve published books including the Silent Healer, Delusion is Good, The Return of the Hummingbird Wizard, and I, Dragon (due out in May). He is in the process of completing a 13^th, GALAHAD/A Cross in Time, to be published in 2007 by Airleaf.  

          Robert Joseph Ahola has also authored six published plays, including The Year of the Tiger, HIGH TEA/With His Excellency, Dr. Max Love, Judas Agonistes, Pavlov’s Cats and SCOREKEEPER/The Uncertain Future of Unconditional Love, and is currently at work on a seventh, A Good Walk Spoiled.

          He is the winner of several awards for advertising and production design, including three Clios and is Editor and Co-Publisher of a new environmental magazine – The Invisible Quarterly™ — specializing in the rapidly advancing art of Thermography and due out in the summer of 2006. *

* On a personal note, Robert ended up playing rugby (English football) for nearly 30 years, and now coaches Pepperdine University’s Rugby Football Club (pro bono). He attended Washington & Lee and TCU, and did a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was married twice briefly longer ago than he can remember and has been single for at least 37 years. A couple of near trips to the altar were aborted after he finally came to his senses. But he remains good friends with all of his ex-girlfriends and at least one of his ex-wives. He fondly remembers his days at PHS, and did manage to make it back for at least one night during the 1991 Reunion (which is still something of a blur). He looks forward to seeing all of you and to telling as many lies as he can about how perfect everything is in his life. Robert quit going by “Bob” in the early 1960’s because in Texas Bob Ahola always sounded like “Bubba Holder.” And he got tired of explaining himself.  He now uses his full name — Robert Joseph Ahola —not so much because it sounds appropriately literary and pretentious (which it does), but also because there is some nut case out there with a Scientology website named… (you guessed it)… Robert Ahola.

“Three Robert Ahola’s in North America, and I get this guy… Hope to see you all on April 28 at Joe T.’s. And by the way it’s amazing how seldom you find good Mexican food in Southern California. Wouldn’t have thought…”

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Sue Woodward Krukoski                                                                                             

 It is funny now to look back and remember how I thought I was “so grown up” at 17 years of age.  Snort!

 After graduation in May of 1956, I began working at General Dynamics.  There was no preparation or encouragement by my family to go to college, which is what I wanted to do.

My mother worked there, and she paved the way for me to be hired.  I worked in the Tooling Department for twelve years.  In my latter few years there I worked as secretary to the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft office.

 At the Pratt and Whitney office I met a young man who was an engineer with them.  We dated when he would travel down from Connecticut, and, at one point we decided to marry.  For the most part it was a long distance courtship.  We only saw each other when he would travel down to Fort Worth from Hartford, CT for his job.  At Pratt they had teams of rotating engineers, who would rotate to Fort Worth for two weeks at a time.   We were married in Fort Worth in April of 1970.  His parents came down for the wedding from Scranton, PA, which is the area he grew up in.  That was my first time to meet them.  The wedding was small because I was long out of school and older.  There weren’t as many people around to attend.

 For our honeymoon we flew to Honolulu, HI, and I go on record to say ‘a week is not long enough to partake of the island of paradise there.’  What a beautiful land!

 I resigned General Dynamics, and we moved to East Hartford, CT, where my new husband Leo lived and worked.  He was an analytical engineer and received many patent awards.

 We moved from his apartment to a home in Coventry, CT in 1972, which home we are still living at.  Our first son, Leo, was born in May of 1971, so he was a little over a year old when we moved.  In January of 1973 our twin sons were born, John and Paul, and in April of 1975 a last son was born, Bill.

 My sons grew up in the Coventry school system.  Coventry is a very small community; the historic Nathan Hale was from there.  In fact, George Washington stayed at an Inn right down the road from us. 

 My son John was the first to marry.  He joined the Army in 1994, and he and his little family moved to Fort Hood, Texas.  He is back after being deployed to Iraq for a year.  Thank my Lord Jesus for that!  They have five children.  John’s twin Paul is married with two children, and they live in Eden, N.C.  My other two sons are bachelors, for now. 

 In 1984 I graduated from Manchester Community College with an AS Degree in Legal Secretary.  Since that time I have worked as a ‘temporary employee,’ mostly so I could be home with the children when necessary.  We have no family here, so it was only us to watch them.

I liked working as a ‘temp’, though, because I found I enjoyed going to different companies and meeting different people.  I liked the challenges of different opportunities.  The last few years of working before I retired in October of 2003, I worked at our CT Department of Information Technology.  I loved working there!

My husband and I both retired in good health in October of 2003.  He loves it.  I stay busy doing volunteer work at my church (I became a born again Christian there) and being with my lovely grandchildren.

 Along the years there have been plenty of heartaches, but today I live on the victory side.

 We are very much looking forward to the Paschal High reunion in April.      

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           - Carole Lee Bierdeman Bean Booth

 When I was 13, my family moved from Chicago to Ft. Worth, so by the time I got to Paschal I was just getting used to being a Texan. Do you remember Western Day when everyone dressed “Western”, and some of the boys even demonstrated how to roll cigarettes like cowboys did?  That was an amazing event for a Yankee girl to witness.

 I smile as I remember how friends would drive by honking their “Hello’s” in code, and how we wore layers of horsehair and crinoline petticoats under our poodle skirts.       After Paschal, and after graduating from SMU, I taught high school, got married to Larry Bean, a tax attorney, lived in Dallas and had two children.

When my children were young, a friend and I got involved in trying to influence neighborhood gardeners to go organic. We started an organization called, The Pesticide Task Force, which was later merged into the Texas Committee on Natural Resources. We gave lectures and put on Dallas’ first Organic Garden Tour, during which we sold beneficial insects like ladybugs and praying mantis’ and convinced a few nurseries to do the same. We were some of the first “organic” people in the city back then. That was probably the reason for getting involved in Mayor Eric Jonsson’s Goals for Dallas Program, back in 1971. It was a neighborhood movement designed to generate ideas on how our city should plan for the future. It was exhilarating being involved in the planning process for Dallas’ future.

I married again in 1978 to my husband, Daryl. We moved from Dallas and now we live outside of Allen, just north of Dallas in the country and in a geodesic dome, which we built ourselves.  We work together, running an electronics distribution company, known as Prime Distributing.  I did outside sales in Austin for several years, especially because both children were in school there and it was a good reason to go down there frequently. Now, I work out of the office in Allen. We just celebrated our 34^th year in business.

My interest in beneficial insects expanded to beekeeping, and I have been a beekeeper for twenty-eight years. Some folks in our area don’t like to drive at night, so we started a little association in Allen, which has become the leading club of beekeepers in the state.  I sell the honey to health food stores and a farmers market.  The number of colonies topped at about twenty-hive colonies but dry weather has reduced the amount of honey produced as well as bees, so now the number is at 10. Most customers are people with allergies.

  In 1991, an acupuncturist got me started with Tai Chi, and after practicing what is called, “The Form” for eight years, I began to teach classes through the Recreation Center in Allen, two nights a week.  I am pleased to say that the Tai Chi classes are very popular, and teaching it has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life.  

Back in 1971, I met a lady who changed my life and directed me into the spiritual path that has been mine all these years. Now, I also teach Meditation and a course written by her, called, “A Balanced Path”.

I think back to the people who influenced our lives in high school. Many of you who have written biographies mention the names of a few who have changed and molded their being. One person can make such a big difference.  I like to think that being a facilitator, more than being a motivator, is what helps the right people come together at the right time, to make a positive difference.  I commend the committee who have taken the time and dedicated it with their energy and drive to facilitate this reunion.  It puts a totally different perspective on those days and on those of us who walked the halls together. I love reading each person’s story. I was glad to leave when it was time to graduate, but now I will be glad to return to see you again. Carole   

              - Maridel Montgomery Rippy

Biography 2006

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I moved in the eighth grade with my family to Ft. Worth.  We lived in a new house (then) at 3544 Parkridge Blvd. off of Blue Bonnet Circle.  Among the first persons I met at McLean were June Nelson, Carole Stow, and Mary Tinkle.  We still correspond at Christmas.  In the middle of senior year, my father was transferred back to Tulsa.  Being a typical teenager, I thought this was the end of my world.  I came back to go through graduation at Paschal, however, so, probably, most people didn't know I wasn't there.

In the fall of 1956 I started at North Texas and soon met my future husband, David Charles (A.K.A. "Bubba" at the time) Rippy from Sulphur Springs.  We were married at the end of our sophomore year in Tulsa.  Mary Tinkle was my maid of honor and Bill Eschenbrenner was an usher (he and Dave were in KA at North Texas).  Dave and I will be married 48 years in May.

We have five children: twin sons born in 1959 (we were expecting one until the second was born); a daughter in 1961; and sons born in 1965 and 1967--yes, five under eight.  In the first eighteen years of our marriage, because of Dave's promotions with Sun Oil, we lived in eight cities:  Tulsa; Terre Haute, Indiana; again, Tulsa; Des Moines and Waterloo, Iowa; Chesterfield, Mo.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; and, Malvern, Pa., 35 miles west of Philadelphia. 

While living in Pittsburgh, I had started back to college at Duquesne University, changing my major from Business to a degree in Nursing.  (And, no, I had not always wanted to be a nurse since I was little.)   So, at age 35 in 1973, I was trying to learn to concentrate again and taking chemistry and microbiology, etc., for the first time and wearing bellbottoms and driving a Volkswagen bus.  All with 5 kids at home and a husband who traveled.  Of course, when I was in my junior year, Dave was transferred to the main headquarters in Philadelphia.  I applied to the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a B.S in Nursing at age 40.  It was also our 20th anniversary and Dave had a huge surprise party to celebrate.  Friends from all the places we'd lived came and neighbors, family, and even some of my 22-year-old classmates from Penn.

I worked as a med-surg nurse from 1979 until 1984.  One of our twin sons had graduated from Texas A&M and worked in Houston.  He had moved back to Malvern for a new job two weeks before he was in a car accident (they hit a deer).  He was a front seat passenger and, as a result, was left C4,5 quadriplegic, and paralyzed from the neck down.  He has been incredible.  With his degree in Economics and Finance and some grad-level courses he has had a very successful career in asset management.  Currently, he is an Investment Manager for The Vanguard Group.  He needs assistance with all "activities of living" from caregivers, uses a mouthstick for the computer, and has a battery-powered, computer-driven, "sip and puff" wheelchair.  He is driven in his van to work every day and lives on his own now.  He will take his last test (verbally) this summer to become a Certified Financial Planner. 

We are very fortunate in so many ways.  All of our kids graduated from college.  They all live within 45 minutes of us in PA.  Three are married and we have five grandchildren:  twin boys (17); a grandson (9); a granddaughter (6); and a grandson (5).

Dave retired in 1995.  During his career, we had the opportunity to travel internationally, mostly to Europe and Asia, and continue to travel frequently.  We spend Jan-May in Jupiter, FL, and the summer months at the beach in NJ.  We have many interests, but nothing unusual or exotic.  I have enjoyed very much reading the biographies on the web site.  Our class certainly had a lot of creative and intelligent people in it!  Since 1959 I have been back to Ft. Worth just twice--for the 20th and 30th reunions--and am not going to be at the 50th since we are packing to leave FL the first week of May.  I know everyone will have a great time.  Thanks to everyone who planned it and kept us up-to-date on plans.  I hope to continue reading about the news on the website--it is very well done.  (Thanks, Bill Ralston!)