Announcement last week of the nominees for the Academy Awards provides the opportunity to post on two subjects. For a long while I have wanted to tell about the magical place that was Fort Worth, Texas and R. L. Paschal High School in the 1950s and 1960s. Fort Worth and Paschal are a natural segue to what I believe are the best solutions to many problems in our Country and our culture.
Most people have pride in their school and feel a strong attachment to theirs and their upbringing. Many times I am overly nostalgic but I feel no less connected to Fort Worth and Paschal. My Grandmother, Father, Wife, Brother and Sister in Law are all graduates. While I was not anywhere even close to being an average student, I did learn many life lessons there.
The culture at Paschal did one thing and it did it really well. Paschal made good citizens. They did this by focusing on teaching the importance of and providing a good education. Panthers also learned that reward fosters achievement and success.
Success, achievement, and reward bring me back to the Oscars. T Bone Burnett is one of Paschal’s most well known alums. Last week T Bone was nominated for co composing the music and lyrics for the Academy Award for Original Song, “The Weary Kind” from the movie “Crazy Heart.” This is not T Bone’s first Oscar nomination. He was nominated in 2002 with Elvis Costello for “The Scarlet Tide” in the film “Cold Mountain.” “The Weary Kind” has a great chance to win as it has already won a Golden Globe this year.
T Bone was a year behind me and was in my wife Susan’s class. He was a tall lanky kid who even then was called T Bone though his school name was Terry Burnett. A little research shows that his given name is Joseph Henry Burnett.
(Just a little more on T Bone’s success) He has won 10 Grammy Awards, produced his first record in 1965 the year he graduated from Paschal, and in 1975 and 1976 he played guitar and toured with Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue. T Bone has many accomplishments both as a Performer, Songwriter and Producer. Check out his Bio.
Paschal has many other famous graduates. Among them are Captain Alan Bean (the 4th man to walk on the moon), Dr. Frank Ryan (NFL quarterback for the Cleveland Browns who led the Browns to their last championship in 1964), Bill Owens (former Republican Governor of Colorado), Charles Tandy (Entrepreneur and CEO of Tandy Corporation later Radio Shack), Dan Jenkins (Author and Sportswriter), Ben Hogan, Martin Frost (Congressman and Chairman of the U S House Democratic Caucus and now FOX News Commentator).
Sidebar on Dr. Ryan- Ryan is former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s favorite professional player and holds a PhD from Rice University. After his distinguished NFL career, Dr. Ryan was the Director of Information Services for the U S House of Representatives where he established their first electronic voting system there. He later served as athletic director at Yale University. Ryan’s career numbers are 1,090 completions in 2,133 attempts for 16,044 yards, and 149 touchdowns. Ryan rushed for 1,358 yards and six touchdowns on 310 carries. From my own class Greg Pipes became a consensus First Team All American at Baylor in football. A look at Greg speaks again to the kind of place Paschal was (is). Ryan and Pipes are not the typical jocks you see today. They were true student athletes.
Those are the famous and near famous. Certainly times were different. My classmates were the daughters and sons of World War II veterans. Hard work and hard play were the norms in Fort Worth. People went to Church. Neighbors looked after each other. Success was expected. Overwhelmingly we were middle class but with strong aspirations to be upwardly mobile and economically successful and wanting to enjoy the fruits of our labor. There was little if any expectation that the government should provide entitlements or that the fruits of hard work should be redistributed. To achieve this Citizens demanded and expected good schools that promoted the work ethic and self reliance.
More pride and nostalgia – The overwhelmingly large majority of my classmates represent the large spectrum of occupations. Professionals – doctors, lawyers, engineers, car dealers, real estate developers and sales persons, many teachers., business executives, artists, gospel singers, clergy, counselors, bankers, and homemakers. Many classmates served in the Armed Forces, many in Southeast Asia. Several gave their lives to their Country.
A few very successful classmates I would note (and am aware of) – a heart surgeon who was a pioneer in heart bypass and artificial transplant surgery, the current dean of the graduate school and Princeton University, and Dean of the School of Divinity at Wake Forrest University. Those may have been the stars but we had many great people who all have been successful in so many ways.
My classmates and I lived in a time where Americans believed life would be better for our Children. I am not certain our children are as optimistic for their progeny.
That’s enough looking back for now. The points I want to reiterate is that and educated citizenry improves everyone’s quality of life, but rewarding achievement is critical. What makes America great is equality of opportunity not equality of outcome.
I will post again on Education and Rewarding innovation and hard work.
Finally don’t miss “Crazy Heart” while it is still on the Big Screen. Jeff Bridges deserves to finally win his little gold man and Maggie Gyllenhaal probably has a shot at an Oscar for best Supporting Actress. She was marvelous. You will never forget Bad Blake. To Be Sure T Bone will finally pick up his Oscar too.
Hail Dear Old Paschal! – I don’t miss you nearly as much as I appreciate you.
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Tags: Popular culture
