Chuck Buckner’s “True Confession”

I continue to enjoy periodic respites from the accounting world with brief
surfs down memory lane on the Jones HS web site or e-mails. I particularly
enjoyed John Blair's and, more recently Marlene's, notes. It has also been
interesting to see how the traits of some from long ago seem to have
carried forward, yet others came as surprises--at least to me. I seem to
recall that Gary Howard was going to run off to Australia after HS, so a
hunting guide in Alaska, that fits. Chesley was the dancer in Junior High,
who's surprised she is still in theatre? But Kent Gasaway ran a mission? I
couldn't figure out what John Hipp is doing, but the note sure sounded like
the same guy I remember. And, Robert Clayton was the Houston fire chief?
Was that our Robert Clayton? I remember when he was a cowboy. And, Rhoda
Daniels a missionary in Turkmenistan?

Looks like we'll miss the 40th reunion due to another commitment, but I'm
still curious about what happened to a lot of the folks we knew.I sent a
note to a few people about what we've been up to, but in hopes of
encouraging others to brighten my recesses with their posting of "notes
from classmates", here's a brief of my last 40 years.

Valerie Winder (Lamar HS '64) and I have been married for 36 years; we
just recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of our first date . We have
two sons, David 33, divorced with 3 boys ages 6,8, and 10 in Dallas.
Great, lively kids, who just finished a week with us for Christmas. David
is an attorney. Incredibly intense kid still, now into yoga--but with a
vengeance, Bikram yoga where they heat the room up to 110 degrees and do
God knows what. Last month he passed out from de-hydration (belatedly,
after back to back yoga sessions) and they had to call the Dallas
paramedics to his office. Todd, 31, lives in League City and looking to
marry in February ( our last hope for a grand daughter some day). He is an
accountant for American National Insurance in Galveston; he fishes a lot
and sails with me. Most laid back kid you ever saw. Go figure.

I graduated UT in '66, an MBA from UH in '68. I'm a partner with Ernst &
Young, a large accounting firm, where I've been since '67. No, we are not
Enron's auditors. Most of that time has been based in Houston except for a
few years in Cleveland in the late 70's and in Moscow, Russia in '95 and
'96. I was fortunate enough to travel a lot with the firm, a great way to
see the world. It's been a fun career---worked for the Lybians for a while
in Paris, for the Saudi government in Al Khobar in the early 80's, spent a
lot of time in London; Bogota, Colombia; and Anchorage, Alaska for BP---fun
places to be, if one has to check the books for a living, but not quite up
to the level of an Alaskan bear hunting guide or a fire chief or a theatre
"icon". I'm looking forward to at least a reduced work load if not full
retirement this summer ---probably take some time to visit the America's
Cup activities in New Zealand in the next year and do some more extended
sailing on the East coast and maybe in the Caribbean.

Right now, we are actively sailing/racing our boat Heat Wave from Houston
Yacht Club near LaPorte. After years of being the "also sailed"in the back
of the racing fleet, we have really focused on putting our team together in
the last couple years; we're now a highly trained "also sailed". Sailing
and boating was also my Dad's love. Dad passed away about 18 months ago;
Mother is in good health and spirits in Shoreacres near us. My sister is
moving back to Texas after 30 years in California. We live in Morgan's
Point, a suburb of LaPorte, which is the smallest city in Harris county
(300 people)--- you may recall our 15 minutes of fame from the local news
last year re our vote to be"dry" and close the only bar in town. We found
an old Victorian home on the Bay front there which we bought about 15 years
ago. Interesting house, I think, which belonged to Judge Hofheinz for many
years and was know as the "Huckster House" in those days--we bought it from
his son Roy, Jr. It was built in 1896 and we've rebuilt it every year since
we got it. We've also stayed reasonably active with charities (Boys and
Girls Harbor near our home) and local politics (Valerie is a city council
person in Morgan's Point)---maybe more of that in the future.

My best wishes to all of you.