My Somewhat Checkered Past and Career, reduced by necessity to a few key elements
I was stationed after basic training at Randolph Air Force Base
in
San Antonio, Texas, where I worked in the Office of Information. I
wrote
articles, mostly feature stories, for the base newspaper, took visitors
on tours of the installation, and also wrote and edited the base
history.
After a couple of years I was sent to school to learn radio &
television
the armed forces way, and was sent to Iraklion, Crete, in Greece. There
I was a radio announcer, news person, producer and did television news
and production. I also spent some time at Armed Forces Radio and
Television
in Wiesbaden, Germany.
KHFI-AM-FM-TV, Austin, Texas
I began as a morning radio news announcer for the AM-FM
operations.
Did the 7:25 a.m. and 8:25 a.m. local news cut-ins for the Today Show
for
the television station. At 27 years old I was the News Director,
which was a glorified way of saying I handled the assignments and
decided
what would appear on the air as news. It was actually a little
surprising
that I reached that point so quickly. I let it go to my head, and
within about a year, I needed to find another kind of work. I
really
wasn't cut out to be in front of television cameras. I did like
radio,
a lot.
After that short stint in Austin, Texas, in Radio and Television in
the late 60's and early 70's, I decided that I really did need a degree
to get much beyond reading news over the air and I chose to attend this
fine institution in Houston, Texas. I was a liberal arts major with
concentrations
in English, Media Studies, Philosophy, Theology and Religious
Education.
I earned a B.A. Graduated Summa Cum Laude (a fact that still amazes me
and my family). I also later earned a Master's Degree in
Religious
Studies from the same institution.
After my Masters, I taught for 4 and one-half years at St.
Agnes Academy, a Catholic High School for young women. That
experience
led me to believe that I might need another degree. I found a job at
the
next place in the list and went to graduate school in Religious Studies
at Rice University.
There are some who might say that I got lost at Rice. I have a very special relationship with the University. I came as a graduate student in Religious Studies with the intent to complete a Ph.D. project in medical ethics. The school has a wonderful program in medical ethics operated in cooperation with the U.T. School of Health Sciences in the Texas Medical Center. I also worked as a student worker on campus. I am ABD and about 249 pages short of the 250 pages I need to complete the degree. Maybe when I retire, but probably not. At any rate, I appear to have moved into phase in my life in which Rice University serves some deep unfathomable need in my psyche. For the last three years, I have worked for the Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at Rice. It has been extremely challenging and rewarding. I worked full-time for the last two years, but feel that it is imprortant for me to get a little time to pursue addtional interests. As a result, I continue to work at this fine institution, but now am working part-time, and am able to support the pursuits of its athletic teams, especially Rice Baseball. But there is more to life at 65.
Indeed, because of Rice University, I have met two filmmakers, whose
careers in filmmaking, I have encouraged with various kinds of support
and help. The first one is Kyle N. Henry who directed,
photographed
and edited "American Cowboy", a documentary film. Kyle is also
the filmmaker for "Room" which was screened at the 2005 Sundance Film
Festival. The other is Tariq
Tapa, who has done two short films. One is an
experimental-narrative
titled "Spite." The other a documentary about a father-son trip
to
Kashmir. Click-throughs for both of them appear below.
Also, I was reminded recently that I also encouraged another filmmaker to pursue his dreams. He is a Danish film and television producer, Lars Christian Hermann. I met Lars when I was a graduate student. He has made a number of very successful films that have played in Europe. He is now working as an indepenent film producer.
