JESSE H. JONES HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1962

 

Personal History:

 

Name:                    Larry A.                Marshall                                                Spouse:                Phyllis J.

 

Address:                6630 Wagner Way,                      

San Antonio, TX 78256

 

Phone:                   (210) 698-5516                                 E-Mail: LarryMarshall@SATX.RR.Com

Web: Home.Satx.RR.Com/marshallcountry

 

Children:                Pamela Leslie (31)

                                Kathy Cummings (29)

                               

Grandchildren:                 Zachary Austin Cummings (4 yrs)

Christian Grant Leslie (4 yrs)

Seth Marshall Cummings (2 yrs)

Claire Elise Leslie (4 Mos)

 

My 40 Years of Highlights

 

I began my quest for a college education shortly after leaving high school.  I enrolled in the summer session of 1962.  At the same time I began to work part time and party full time.  The college education was not the priority that it should have been.  After a couple of years, I began to work full time, and went to college part time, and continued to enjoy the partying.   My first job with a major company was with Western Electric where I was involved in the installation of electronic equipment in the telephone offices.

 

In 1966, when the draft was hot on my tail, I joined the US Air Force.  In the Air Force, I received an education in electronics and learned to maintain aircraft automatic flight control systems.  After the training, I was stationed at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.  In 1967, I was sent to Thailand and spent a year maintaining fighter aircraft that were engaged in the Vietnam War.   After the year in Thailand, I was sent back to Davis Monthan, where I remained until I received an early release in May of 1969.  By that time I had been promoted to the rank of Staff Sargent.  Also in 1966, I met and married Phyllis Metcalf.  We have now been happily married for over 35 years.

 

Upon discharge from the USAF, I returned to Houston with Phyllis.  I went to work for Schlumberger Well Services as an Electronic Technician, using the skills I learned in the USAF.  While working there, I was introduced to computers and discovered the occupation that was meant for me.  I loved doing anything that involved computers.  I requested a transfer to the computer operations area of the company and started back to college part time to learn more about computer programming.  In 1974, I finally completed my quest for a college degree, with a BS degree from the University of Houston.  Following that I did graduate work in Computer Science at the U of H.  Also during these years, our family size doubled with the births of our two daughters.

 

In 1977, I left Schlumberger to go to work for Gulf Oil Corporation as a computer programmer.  While working at Gulf, my job duties changed from programming to managing other programmers.  In 1983, the Gulf Oil Corporation was purchased by Chevron and my job was to eventually be moved to California.  I did not want to move to California.  Also in 1983, we had purchased a second home on acreage in the Texas hill country near Utopia.  I had discovered a love for the Texas hill country during family trips to Garner State Park and deer hunting trips to the same area.  California was too far from Utopia.  So, in 1985 we sold our house in Houston, bought a house in San Antonio, I resigned from my job with Chevron and we moved to San Antonio so that we could be closer to our second home. 

 

Upon moving to San Antonio, I was fortunate to get a job with USAA, a large insurance company that specializes in serving the US military personnel with insurance and financial services.  My various jobs at USAA included programming, management of computer programmers and project management.  USAA is a wonderful company and has frequently been included in lists of the top 100 companies to work for in America.  For most of the 17 years that I worked for USAA, I had a 4-day workweek.  That left many 3-day weekends that my family and I were able to enjoy trips to our second home. 

 

On January 31st of this year I retired from USAA and have been enjoying a freedom that I had not known since I gave it up to start working after graduation from high school.  I now have time to spend with my wife doing things that I never seemed to have enough time to do before.  We now have time that we can spend traveling, working on projects here at home, or working on projects at our Utopia home.  We also enjoy spending time with our grandchildren and working with our church.  God has been good to us.