Above: J.B. and Naomi
After graduation I attended Texas Tech,
and with taking a semester off after my apartment burned and
changing majors I graduated in 1963 with a BS in Education (chemistry
and math). I was commissioned into Air Defense Artillery and
after training was sent to Okinawa. When in Okinawa I met the
love of my life who was a nurse in a local hospital. After separation
from the service in 1965, I returned to Okinawa and worked for the
newspaper and in a military education center. In May of 1966 I
was hired by Lyon Associates as Administrative Assistant and was sent
to Saigon, Vietnam. I worked for Lyon for six months and then
went to work in the Education Division of RMK-BRJ (a construction
conglomerate) teaching English to Vietnamese employees at the Phan Rang
and Tan Son Nhut job sites. When the Training Division was
being reduced in size, I transferred to Internal Audit and did
investigations of claims for and against the company. When in
Saigon I had the unusual experience of meeting a cousin of Delma
and Zelma Franklin. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and we
were the only two Americans in a hotel bar on Tu Do
Street. After introductions he said he had twin cousins in Pampa
and was surprised that I was in their class....small world. I
brought Naomi, my fiancee, to Saigon in June of 1967, and we were
married there in a Vietnamese civil ceremony. We recently
celebrated our fortieth anniversary. Our daughter was born
in Lubbock in December of 1968. She and Ray who have our two
grandchildren live in Hurricane, WV where he works as a pharmaceutical
sales representative.
When we came to the states in late 1967,
I entered graduate school at Texas Tech and received my
Master of Education in Guidance and Counseling in June of 1969. I
had the intention of working overseas in military education centers,
but the military was closing overseas bases. I obtained a
teaching position in Lamesa and taught chemistry II, physics, and math
for two years before I started working for the Federal Prison
System. I spent 20 years with the prison system working as a
teacher, counselor, assistant supervisor of education and supervisor of
education in El Paso, TX (FCI La Tuna); Tallahassee, Fl;
Lexington, KY; Texarkana, TX; and Big Spring, TX. In 1991 I
retired from the prison system and moved to Canton, TX to be near my
parents. I returned to public school and taught math in middle
school for 14 more years before retiring again in 2005.
