As most of you know, BILL KING has been contacting everyone he can from the BHS Class of '57 in order to update our information, and to locate those we have thought we lost forever. Last month he located JEARL CUNNINGHAM, who kindly gave us a rundown on the years since he left Ballinger that I posted on the blog. BILL recently sent me contact information for the following smiling gentleman now known as BOB HOLLIS. He has led a full life indeed, and among his many accomplishments is his talent as a public speaker. I hope someone can convince him to give a talk to those who gather in the fall for the 60th Class Reunion. (Maybe one of those stories he mentions at the end of the first paragraph.)
"The long-lost ROBERT HOLLIS here. (My friends call me Bob since my Navy days).
The shorter version of my long story since graduating from BHS in 1957 sounds like this:
Baylor University, BBA, 1961. Navy, 1961 to 1965. Commissioned in early 1962 and reported aboard the only LST home ported at Pearl Harbor as the Communications Officer and left as the Operations Officer (3rd in command) in 1965. Met a Missouri girl, educated at California Baptist University in Riverside, CA, who was working at the University of Hawaii. Dated her for two years in Hawaii and left her at the airport when I flew back to the mainland to get out of the Navy. I went to work for Van Camp Sea Food Company in Long Beach, CA. Margaret left Hawaii and went to work in Atlanta, Georgia. I dated that girl in seven states before she agreed to marry me in Atlanta in June, 1966. (Lots of stories in there).
I have been a Regional Sales Manager for Van Camp Seafood Co., a Program Manager for McDonnell Douglas, A Regional Vice President for Great Western Savings, a Senior Vice President for Downey Savings and Loan, and I have run a small Real Estate Development Company in Anaheim, CA, for the last 30 years. We built properties (office buildings, apartments, condos, custom homes, shopping center, housing tracts, and even got involved in building and owning Health Clubs in Seattle). Five states from Texas to Hawaii. Oh yes, I did go back to school to get an MBA from Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA, in 1973.
All of our four partners in the Real Estate business got older and didn’t care to go into debt for any more projects, so I started selling our properties several years ago. When I got the company on a comfortable financial footing, it was a small manageable size. I still go to the office on a regular basis, but I have good people who could probably run the place without me, but I don’t let them know that.
Margaret & I celebrated our 50th Anniversary last year. We have three grown, married kids: Rick and his family (four of our grandkids) in Phoenix, Bill and his family (two of our grandkids) in Dallas, and Anita and her boys in Garden Grove, CA, three blocks from us. The grandkids range in age from 24 to nine. Two of our kids went to Baylor and Margaret was Baylor’s only employee in California for 15 years. She was a Regional Admissions Counselor traveling the state of California recruiting students to go to Baylor…and she was good. She retired several years ago and still gets Baylor calls. Margaret has us involved in Operation Christmas Child (a Division of Samaritans Purse), packing shoeboxes to send to kids in over 100 countries around the world.
I have been in Toastmasters for years. I am a DTM (a Distinguished Toastmaster; Toastmasters highest award). With thousands of Toastmaster Clubs in over 126 countries around the world, they tell me that only about 2% of all those Toastmasters ever work their way up to DTM. But look who is bragging now, so I’d better quit this email stuff. I’ll try to send you a few pictures in a separate email or two. I am sure looking forward to seeing you folks in October."
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What a wonderful life BOB has led. Congratulations on 50 years of marriage, and especially on such a large, lovely family. I have heard about Operation Christmas Child and the shoeboxes they fill to send to needy children around the world. Samaritan's Purse has one of the highest ratings for charities listed on Charity Navigator. What a great way to share the "good stuff" that happens in BOB and Margaret's lives.
There are a few other folks that we obtained email addresses for the first time. You should receive a link to this blog. I hope reading what some of your former classmates have contributed here will prompt you to send me your own version of what you've been up to the past 60 years. And by all means, photos of yourself and family. Bragging rights are always in order here. Of course, if you scan through past postings you can see that for yourself.
JUNE HASH CURRY is recovering from knee surgery she had last week, and is supposed to be home from rehab today. I heard through the grapevine that JAMES HAYS has had back surgery, but so far I haven't heard anything else other than he is recovering. Warm wishes and prayers to these two.
An acquaintance heard me bemoaning my aches and pains a while back, and said to me, "Oh, Marilyn, once we reach 60 it's just patch, patch, patch!" I think it's great that so many of us are only now having to patch, patch, patch. After all, we are long past 60!
Take care... and remember to share the "good stuff".
Peace and love,
Marilyn
