A Marriage of Minds

Kathleen finished Plan II with a B.A. in 1955, the same year Gene got his master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Cockrell School. "Kathleen was always proud she went to Plan II," Gene recalls. "She appreciated the quality of the courses and professors." A highlight of her experience was writing a senior thesis on the long-term development of the historic La Villita village of San Antonio. Her thesis advisor was Dr. Harry Huntt Ransom, who helped found Plan II and later became University president and namesake of the Harry Ransom Center.

Winning over Kathleen was no easy task for Gene. "She had a lot of fellows who pursued her," he says. "I had to work pretty hard to court her." After her passing, he discovered a letter she'd written to her parents after a date early in their courtship. She told them that the reason she agreed to go with Gene to the UT-Oklahoma football game in Dallas was that he'd promised to take her to see the musical "The King and I" in town as well. "She wasn't interested in athletics. That's what got her to say yes," he says.

Later, as the pair grew closer, they took a day trip to Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. "In those days, you didn't take a young lady someplace you'd have to spend the night," remembers Gene. In a jewelry store, Kathleen noticed a turquoise ring she liked, and Gene bought it for her on the spot. "I'm told she decided to marry me then," he says.

By then, Gene was receiving a salary at Cockrell, first for his research work establishing parameters for welding metal sheets together, then for teaching undergraduates. After graduating, he got a job with General Electric. The big suspense around the time of their wedding was where the young couple would be asked to relocate for his first years on the job. Gene got the news the day of the rehearsal dinner. "That day I told everyone, 'We're going to Holland,'" he recalls. "You could see the faces drop all over the room. Then I added, 'Holland, Michigan.'"

The early years of the marriage were spent in cold climates. After Michigan, the couple decamped to Cincinnati, Schenectady (GE's headquarters), and eventually Boston, where Gene attended Harvard Business School. Kathleen taught elementary school. "She was a natural teacher. She did extremely well," Gene says. When the couple had children, she took time off to raise two boys.

After Harvard, Gene and Kathleen decided to leave the cold weather and return to Texas. They settled in Dallas, where their daughter was born. Gene had grown up between Fort Worth and the nearby small town of Weatherford, where his family has owned ranchland since 1885. In Dallas, Gene found a series of roles in investment and business management. Perhaps his biggest breakthrough was creating and leading a wholly owned subsidiary of the optical technology company Recognition Equipment, which in 1969 built and installed the first ATMs.

Later Gene became a turnaround consultant, advising companies that had run into trouble, and in some cases taking over briefly as CEO, though he tried to avoid that drastic measure. "It's like being called and asked if you'd like to be captain of the Titanic, and by the way we've already hit the iceberg," he jokes.