Set 1 of Our Texas Memories on the 10th Anniversary of My Retirement in May 2006

Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

These photographs are more personal than usual to celebrate the 527th edition of Tidbits

 

I luckily joined the faculty of Trinity University of San Antonio in August of 1982
And remained delighted at that campus full time until my retirement in 2006
The picture below from my retirement reception shows Erika, Me, and my long-time faithful secretary Debbie Bowling
I moved the banner outside the Chapman Great Hall to where it is now nailed to a wall in my New Hampshire barn

 

We only lived about 300 feet from where Erika worked as a surgical nurse at the Northeast Baptist Hospital
This was our white brick home at 9010 Village Drive in the Marymont Subdivision in Northeast San Antonio
Erika easily walked to and from work until she had her first spine surgery and had to retire
My recommendation is to avoid owning a house with a flat roof
This is especially the case when you have to bag up enormous piles of live oak leaves on the roof every springtime
Use of a leaf blower horribly clogged the bushes below

 

Happily when I sold the above house I no longer had to maintain any swimming pool
The pool pictured below was extra trouble because of all the live oak trees and little acorns that leave stains
One day the palm tree leaning over the pool actually fell into the pool

 

My recommendation is to avoid the serious cost and trouble of owning a swimming pool
Even if it looks romantic when lit up at night

 

This picture was taken inside the house during a visit from my parents and daughter Lisl
Lisl was then an undergraduate biology major at the University of Texas in Austin
She later married a University of Maine mirobioloy professor and taught high school biology
Her daughter became a Boston pharmacist, and her son CJ just finished his first year of college

 

This is Erika with Lisl in 1990
Lisl graduated from Macarthur High School in San Antonio before starting college at the University of Texas

 

Erika made up later in life for not having dolls as a war refuge living in a garden shed in Munich
She lined our Texas home with large collection of dolls

 

Erika and Bob (the one breathing in)  --- 1990

 

This is Bob with son Marshall and daughter Lisl who now live in Maine
Our grown children are scattered from coast-to-coast and in between

 

Erika with daughter-bride Maria who's now a mental health nurse supervisor in Milwaukee
Her son and daughter are both grown ---although  Jonathon is still in college in Iowa

 

Now that we're retired in New Hampshire we have to wait until June for wildflowers
One of the delights while living in Texas for 24 years was the wildflowers in March
We always spent part of March in bed and breakfasts in Fredericksburg, Texas

Fredericksburg is near the pinkish dome of Enchanted Rock State Park

 

Fredericksburg is near the Johnson Ranch Federal and State Parks
This was LBJ's childhood home
There's a very informative minibus tour of the ranch conducted by the National Park Service

 

These are cypress trees on San Antonio's famous downtown river walk
This river walk is one of the unique tourist sites in the world
Sometimes when there was a special showing at the Majestic Theatre
Erika and I would stay overnight in the Gunter Hotel even though we lived in San Antonio

 

Erika on a Texas beach in 1987
She really did not want me to include one of my all time favorite  pictures below
On rare occasions I don't listen to her
You really don't want to see my picture on that same beach that I did not paste below

 

It's hard to believe thin Erika was the mother of big Mike
This is Mike and his wife Rene when they visited our San Antonio house from their home in California
Their family of two boys and two girls are now almost grown up
Mike is a tax accountant in Yuba City, California

 

Erika and Rene made a good team then and still make a good team

 

Fredericksburg, Texas is near the beautiful Hill Country wildflowers
Ladybird Johnson helped plant wildflowers throughout the state of Texas

 

 

Paula Ward sends me humorous email messages every week for my blogs
Paula retired from Trinity's Public Relations department years ago
Her scientist husband recently retired, and they're now moving back to Virginia in 2016
She will send me more pictures from the Blue Ridge Mountains that I will share on Tidbits
Below she's out standing among Texas wildflowers



 

Erika with sons David and Mike at the MGM Hotel in Reno
Since Erika is 5' 6" it gives you an idea about the tallness of sons David and Mike
David graduated from McArthur High School in San Antonio
David and Cindy have four nearly grown children and lives near Mike and Rene
When we fly to Yuba City (not far from Reno)  there are eight grandchildren to visit
The docile lion below was a living and breathing beast who posed for the photograph
I think he was looking at me as if I'd be a tasty lunch

 

We were blessed with friends (especially retired military officers)  in San Antonio
Military officers like to party often (in our case weekly)
Sometimes like on Halloween and St. Patty's day we wore costumes
Why can't I remember some of those fun nights?

 

 

 

Partying years ago with Dixie Van Eynde

 

This is Erika's niece Anita, Anita's husband, and Anita's mother from Bavaria
The suntans were courtesy of the hot Texas sun
They visited San Antonio not long after Erika's older brother died
Erika and Rudy grew up in a bombed-out Munich during hard times after World War II

 

Before returning home to Algona, Iowa each year
My parents used to rent a townhouse in Donna, Texas for a month in the wintertime
The couple (Ethyl and Howard)  in the middle owned 2,000 acres of North Dakota
Where they mostly raised navy beans and wheat

 

Below you can guess about two of my all time great memories of Texas
Lone Star Beer and Texas Swing Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csQD4Z_uHL8

 

 

The link below lists pictures taken by a professional photographer at my March 23, 2006 retirement party in the Great Hall of the Chapman Building on the campus of Trinity University.
Sadly, many of the faculty shown in these photographs have passed on. Those who are still living are now mostly retired.
Those who were not Trinity employees were our social friends who visited the campus for my going away party.
Click here to see how many faculty and friends you can remember who attended this party ---

http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/PictureHistory/2006RetirementParty/

 

Texas Wildflowers Set 1 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Wildflowers/Texas/WildflowersTexas.htm

Texas Wildflowers Set 2 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Wildflowers/Texas02/TexasWildflowersSet02.htm

Texas Wildflowers Set 3 --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Wildflowers/Texas03/TexasWildflowersSet03.htm

Also see my Texas wildflower pictures at ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/Wildflowers/Texas/WildflowersTexas.htm

 

More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

 

On May 14, 2006 I retired from Trinity University after a long and wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm

Bob Jensen's Blogs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New Bookmarks --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Tidbits --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   

Our address is 190 Sunset Hill Road, Sugar Hill, New Hampshire
Our cottage was known as the Brayton Cottage in the early 1900s
Sunset Hill is a ridge overlooking with New Hampshire's White Mountains to the East
and Vermont's Green Mountains to the West

 

 

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/