If you've looked at the link associated with the degrees, you'll already have a summary of some of this stuff.

After graduating from Victoria High School (number 7 out of over 300), I went to Victoria College for two years.  First, I was going to be an engineer, then a chemist.  I finally settled on a major in mathematics and a minor physics. I graduated from Victoria College (A.A.) in 1963.

As with high school, I can recall most of my Victoria College teachers there, too (except for the coaches). I remember most of them as very capable and dedicated teachers. I don't know how all junior, uh, community colleges are, but this one proved a very valuable experience, and it prepared me quite well for the next step. Not all of the lessons learned there were out of books, either.

I remember very vividly my second term of sophomore physics ("Electricity and Magnetism"). The class had about 20 people in it. One day the late Professor Beard (whom I liked and respected, in spite of this story) decided that too few had read the assignment. Like a good little geek, I'd studied chapter N (don't remember the actual number). It was the one he had assigned according to my notes. Sooo the good professor, told us to get out some paper. We were going to have a pop quiz over chapter N+1.

Relentlessly outspoken, I allowed as to how it was not chapter N+1, but N. The professor turned to the rest of the class and asked one of my classmates if it weren't chapter N+1. This classmate agreed with him! Later in the day, I met this classmate on campus and asked him if I had simply lost my mind with all its memory. He said, "Oh no," and allowed as to how I was right!  I never got a satisfactory answer as to why he'd agreed with the professor, but I did learn a valuable lesson in how much support you can count on if the chips are down.

After graduating from Victoria College in 1963, I went to the University of Texas (it wasn't the University of Texas at Austin at that point). The enrollment was about 20,000 (cp. the current SWT enrollment). After two years, in 1965,  I graduated with a B.A. in mathematics and a minor in physics.

I suppose I ought to tell a couple of stories about those days. If I get time, I'll come back later and tell you about my advanced calculus professor and "miracles." I'll also regale you with my view of how every physics course I've had has been graded. A certain British professor will be my example. So mark this spot for MORE LATER.

I entered graduate school at UT and graduated in the summer of 1967 with an M.A. in mathematics and a minor in probablility and statistics.

There are a couple of stories to be told here, too. One involves a little ditty from a course entitled, "Algebraic Number Theory." The tale might be called, "Who is Master? Man or Matrix?"

The second story involves the number of hooves a camel possesses. It's a bit esoteric, but I like the story.  So mark this spot for MORE LATER.

After the M.A., I was trying to figure a way to avoid being killed in  what I considered to be Lyndon Johnson's War (aka the Viet Nam "conflict"), and the local secretary of my draft board led me to believe that I couldn't continue with my student deferment and continue in school. So I managed to get an instructorship in the Mathematics Department at what was then Southwest Texas State Teacher's College. This netted me an occupational deferment, but the folks down at the local draft board wanted to take it away the next year. The story's too long to tell here, but I managed three years of occupational deferments.  By that time, I was over 26 and could return to school (where I'd wanted to be in the first place) since they weren't drafting folks over 26. This was the beginning of what I sometimes call my "radicalization." This, too, is a story for another time. You live a long time, you have a lot of stories you can tell, even a few that are interesting.

In any case, the three years from 1967 to 1970 at SWT hooked me on wanting to teach.

In 1970, I returned to what had now become UT-Austin. With the help of a National Science Foundation Traineeship, I managed to complete a Ph.D. in something called, "Operations Research" with a minor in applied statistics.  The degree came out of the Mechanical Engineering Department. This was the summer of 1973.

There's an interesting story about the final defense of my Ph.D. dissertation. It simply goes to show that I can seldom keep my mouth shut.  My committee kept me out in the hall waiting for quite awhile. I've always thought it was to teach me a little humility and to learn my place. Can't prove it, of course. Fortunately for me, they did let me out. So mark this spot for MORE LATER, too.

Upon graduating the third time from UT-Austin (1973), I got a job working in computer/mathematical modeling with City Public Service of San Antonio. I was able to use some of the work I'd done on my dissertation to construct computer-based mathematical models for their long range planning. It was very interesting work and although San Antonio is a very interesting city, I really wanted to get back to living in Austin. So when I was offered a position with the Governor's Energy Advisory Council, I took it. This was early in 1976.

I worked at the Governor's Energy Advisory Council for about 6 months, and in the summer of 1976 I was offered a tenure track position at what was now being called Southwest Texas State University. I took it and have been here ever since, with the exception of a year's visiting appointment at UT-Austin in 1979.