Lee Note 19 Jim Herring April 10, 2001

Kay:

Thanks so much for coordinating the effort to communicate with the REL class of 1960 and for the telephone call yesterday. Glad we are neighbors in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It is great hearing about our classmates. Even though I was not able to attend the reunion last summer, I look forward to other opportunities in the future. A few words about what I've been doing since Lee days.

After high school, I embarked on a lengthy college career, which took me to Lee College and the University of Houston. I received a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology in 1969 from University of Houston. During my graduate training, I worked with Exxon (then Humble Co.) for two years and taught as a Fellow at UH.

My first job (actually, career) was with a beltway bandit management consulting firm in Washington, D.C. We did large-scale human resources research projects with large companies and the federal government. I became Vice President and Chief Operations Officer.

My second job (career) began in 1977 with Exxon USA in Houston. For 20+ years, I worked in a variety of Human Resources positions in Exxon Corporation, most of the time at executive level. Most of the assignments probably wouldn't strike a familiar chord with most people, but a couple might.

For several years, I was the Compensation Design Manager and, later, the Labor Relations Manager for the Corporation. A highlight of my career with Exxon was a 5-year stint at Baytown (Refinery and Olefins Plant). I retired from Exxon in 1997 at age 55 and formed my own business, a human resources consulting firm (third career).

My clients are very large corporations all over the world. I do mostly general human resources consulting, but have done some psychological consulting (executive coaching, change management, team building, etc.) as well. I am a licensed psychologist in the state of Texas.

I also maintain an active relationship with various universities; for example, I am a Professor of Management (Adjunct Faculty), Graduate Programs in Business at Houston Baptist University and a Professor of Psychology (Adjunct Faculty), Department of Psychology, University of Houston.

I married Beverly Ward (Angleton) in 1966. We have one child, John Brandon, born in 1978 after years of unsuccessful efforts to get Beverly pregnant. Beverly is a most talented individual and has never failed to surprise me with her exploits.

For example, after we moved back to Houston in 1977 and after she had John, she decided she wanted a career as a physician. She entered medical school at the ripe old age of 38 and embarked on a career in medicine. She completed her medical training in Houston at UT Houston and did her residency at Baylor in Houston.

She practiced in Houston and Harlingen as an Internist before retiring in 1998. John is a senior at Texas Christian University majoring in Finance and Marketing. He graduates in December of this year and intends to go to Wall Street as an investment analyst; he wants to work for 2-3 years in New York City, get an MBA at Harvard and then go "run something big." Isn't being young wonderful! We were once, remember? He is married and has a two-year old son, Gabriel, which explains why we are living in Fort Worth--gotta be close to the boy.

Left out of all this basic stuff about jobs and family are the ongoing attempts to live life to the fullest and be all I can be. Being a guy and, as you can see, fairly driven, relationships have suffered a bit in my personal developmental path.

I intend to devote much more time to relationships for the rest of my life. For example, my current consulting work is only part-time (about 30-50%).

So I am delighted that Kay and others have raised my awareness about people I once cared about and with whom I can re-connect. I think I've been missing out on a lot of richness in life with many of you.

For example, Virgil Tiemann, Bobby Carter, Ken Perdue and I were college roommates for a while. I was shocked to hear from Kay that Ken was dead. I just had not been keeping up with him at all.

Look forward to the next opportunity to get together. I get back to Baytown from time to time; my parents still live there.

Jim Herring