On 03/31/10, David Gager wrote:
I was born on Galveston Island just before WWII began for our country. I grew up living on Moss Rose in Pecan Park. I attended Southmayd elementary, Deady Jr. High and of course Milby. Oh, the glorious years and memories, especially the Milby Band. To this day I believe Mr. Seastrand should be made a saint.
After Milby and having no idea what I wanted to do with my life, I followed several of my Milby band buddies to A&M and the Aggie band. The Aggie Corp was not what I was looking for at that young age, so the second year I joined other Milby buddies at Texas Tech. Lubbock was the friendliest place I have ever lived. While in Lubbock I worked as a professional photographer, trained by a pioneer in medical photography and inventor of photo I.D. systems. Photography has remained my favorite past time.
Two and a half years into Texas tech the money ran out, so it was back to Houston to finish with a degree in Biology and Math at U. of Houston. To finance U. of H, I got a job with M. D. Anderson Hospital and found what I was looking for. The work was in the radiation physics department treating cancer patients. So on to U. of Texas grad school.
After grad school I went to work for Baylor College of Medicine. In 1976 I became an assistant professor of radiological physics and director of radiation oncology physics at BCM and Baylor’s teaching hospitals, primarily The Methodist Hospital of Houston. What followed was an exciting and very busy 30 plus years. I am proud to have been part of a fantastic group of folks training physicians, physicist and technologists while innovating, developing and applying new methods and equipment to treat cancer. There was a lot of traveling to medical and scientific meetings all over the U.S., Canada, Europe and South America. Baylor encouraged the faculty to develop private practice in the community, so I was able to build a nice consulting group to design and serve radiation therapy facilities in hospitals in Texas and Louisiana.
I tried my first retirement in 2006. After about six months of fun, I was made an offer I could not refuse - to go back to work part time for a year or so. Three years later, I hope I have retired the final time at the end of last year.
When I returned to Houston from Texas Tech, I went on a blind date with a very pretty Jones High graduate named Dianne Hobbs. We were married less than a year later and will celebrate our 46th anniversary this year. Di is winding up her private CPA practice to also fully retire this year. Our plans are to play with the grandkids while dividing our time between our small mountain home near Grand Lake, Colorado and our hill country home near Fredericksburg, Texas.
We have two lovely daughters, Sherri age 39 and Holly age 36. Sherri is a city planner in Austin with her husband Bob and our two grandkids Kyra (3 1\2) and Ryan (1 ½) . Holly is a professional photographer, writer, graphic designer, Nordic ski instructor, fly fishing instructor, yoga instructor, ex ( I hope) mountain climber and world adventurer, etc.. etc.. who lives with her husband Matt near Winter Park, Colorado.
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David, you are one of the main folks I remember from our school years. I hope we are able to see each other at the reunion. I heard from Ray that Charles Stevenson is planning to be at the reunion. Sounds like it will be a good one.
...Larry
Posted by: Larry Smith | April 13, 2010 at 10:23 PM