John Dodson

     After graduating from Milby I attended Texas A & I College in Kingsville for four years.  While there I enjoyed playing golf, poker and drinking beer.  Upon graduation I was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army.  After going through basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, I was sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  After one year at Bragg, in the summer of 1965, we shipped out to Vietnam.  When I finished my tour of duty in Vietnam, I returned to Houston in poor health and had to undergo serious surgery at the Houston VA Hospital in 1966. 

 

      I shared an apartment in Houston with Larry Ainsworth and Richard Carlisle from 1967 - 1969, while I taught high school history at Aldine High School.  I then taught English at the Houston Community College and worked odd jobs for a few years.  In 1974 I began teaching at Milby, where I met my wife, Annette (Werland), another teacher.  We married in 1976 and lived in West University Place where we started our family, a daughter and a son.  In 1981 we decided to find a simpler life, so we moved to Schulenburg, TX–a town of 2,500 people located about 100 miles west of Houston.  Annette and I both taught school there and could not have been happier about small town life and raising our kids in this environment.

 

     While our kids were growing up we took them on family camping trips and summer vacations through out the West.  After a stint in the Navy our son Blake enrolled at the University of Texas where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.  He then earned a Master’s degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D. C., and on May 17, 2009, received his Juris Doctorate from the Law Center of Georgetown University.  Our daughter Becky also graduated from the University of Texas and has worked in the fashion industry in New York City and in Dallas.  She and her husband are making their home in Dallas, and will give us our first grandchild in mid-October, 2009.

 

     I retired from teaching in 2001, and Annette retired at mid-term this year.  We live in a small, but comfortable home that we built on a few acres in the country about 11 miles south of Schulenburg in Lavaca County.  We also own some property in Colorado County near Columbus where we have a small camphouse..  We still enjoy traveling and living in this peaceful quiet country area.  I still love playing golf.

 

 

John and Annette have promised to send photoa to add to their story. We'll wait patiently!!!

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Comments

[Charles Simmons]

Hello John - Charles Simmons here:

It was great to read your bio and catch up on your life. So grateful that you survived 'Nam -- I got there about three years after you left and I too am a survivor.

You've settled around the old Simmons stomping grounds. My great, great grandfather settled in Lavaca Co. in the 1850s. Sounds like it still has some allure.

Hope you and Annette can make the fiftieth. Come to think of it, I hope I can make the fiftieth! See you then, Lord willin'.

[Mike Roberts]

Hi John, sounds as though you did the right thing by your children and took them to the country to start their schooling and grow up closer to nature than any kid in the big city can imagine. They probably grew to know almost everyone in town. How much bigger is the town now than when you moved up there ?

Mom and Dad would take us kids for Sunday drives up thru Columbus and we would stop for dinner at The Cottonwood Inn there. I think it was in Columbus ? It's been a long time ago. Is it still there ? Beautiful countryside over that way.

I'd bet you have a tractor and keep a garden ?

I know you can hardly wait to get your paws on that grandbaby, I have 3 and each one brings pleasure to an old geezer whenever they are around.

Hey, now that you have done the BIO thing , peruse the blog and add some pages for your audience to read while we drink some morning joe ! Good to hear from ya !