My junior year at Rice ('66-'67) was probably my worst year

My junior year at Rice (‘66-‘67) was probably my worst year academically. No probably, it was almost a disaster. I was seriously overcommitted.

I was finally heavily into my electrical engineering major with Circuit Analysis, Thermo, Differential Equations, Second Year German and economics. The circuit analysis course was taught by Joel Cyprus who was an awesome teacher. I really learned how transistors worked and how to design circuits.

Dr. Cyprus worked for Texas Instruments so he always taught an 8 AM class so he could rush off after class and put in his work day.

He taught with colored chalk and wanted us to have colored pencils to replicate his figures. I think he was awesome.

The German class was hard, we had to read a German newspaper and discuss events.

Junior Year at Rice

The thermo class still sticks with me today. The three laws of thermodynamics boil down to: – You can’t win – You can’t break even – Even if you break even, you lose

Interesting that thermo persisted in my life periodically even into retirement.

I was still at the Houston Speech and Hearing Center and still in the band. This was probably my worst year grade wise - I was too interested in stuff other than school.

Dr James Jerger was my boss and benefactor at the Center.

I worked with James Thelin who turned out to be our next door neighbor in Poverty Pocket.

At the end of the summer of ‘67 Steve and I vacated the Branard house and moved to an apartment on Bartlett.

Mid summer in 1967 I made a second trip to St Louis. Jim Jerger had arranged for me to meet with Bob Cox at Washington University and discuss with him the possibilities for grad school.

Probably as big a motivator was a chance to see Kathy again. To be honest, that was the tremendous motivator. I was really in love with her and missed her a bunch.

I traded my Valiant for Bob Holloway’s VW bug for the trip. The VW got much better gas mileage and it had cruise control. Put the accelerator on the floor and it cruised at about 70 mph. This is the Missouri Mens room I encountered on the trip.

Second Trip to St Louis

I will never lose the image of Kathy running out of the front door of the house toward me in the driveway. Tall, slender, long red hair, her trademark smile - the picture of beauty!

Later that evening in her dad’s study, I got onto my knee and proposed marriage. She accepted! We had no idea what we were getting into.

One thing we did on that trip was take a ride on the Admiral. The Admiral was an aluminum paddle wheeler docked near the St Louis Arch. It went up and down the Mississippi for about 3 hours with a couple of bands, food, dancing and a gift shop.

One thing we did on that trip was take a ride on the Admiral. The Admiral was an aluminum paddle wheeler docked near the St Louis Arch. It went up and down the Mississippi for about 3 hours with a couple of bands, food, dancing and a gift shop.

Are you seeing a pattern develop?

As the Summer ended and it was time to head back to class, I offered to drive to St Louis and pick Kathy up and take her back to Trinity. I was significantly infatuated with her.

Again, I switched cars with Bob so I could use the VW. We carpooled with Tim in his Jag. Here are a couple of photos of the trip.

Third Trip to St Louis