James (Jim) Hoffpauir:
CLASS OF 1969
Marion High SchoolClass of 1969
Lake charles, LA
James (Jim)'s Story
Some eight days after we graduated from high school I found myself in a Biology 101 class. From there it all went downhill. That same biology course led me to the first Y in the road five weeks later. After scoring a big 57 on my first test, I went down to the naval recruiting office, met a man I would later share a night sports desk with down at the local paper, and walked out of the room when he told me to hold on, he had to go to the bathroom. I thought I might give college one more spin after free-associating gunboats, the Mekong Delta, and the survival rate thereon. Anyway, I made a blistering 97 on the mid-term test and rallied for eight total hours and a 2.9 GPA and caught the first space walk, all in one eight-week summer semester. That led to the Sophomore Slump, a "take some time off kid," visit to a small town newspaper in Sulphur Springs, TX, a rally upon my return and a final 3.0 GPA and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Studies, Philosophy, and Communications with a minor in Business. Boy, what I did with that degree!
After seven years in sports information and sports journalism I woke up one day and said, "They're out there living without me." Many of you know that I've always loved sports. Well, after getting on the inside of everything from Class A Cumby High School football in DEEP NE Texas to the WHA champion Houston Aeros, parties with Coach Eddie Robinson everywhere Grambling College showed up, to covering LSU opening new football stadiums in Lexington, KY and Columbia, SC to getting beamed by a stray golf ball the night of the sixth game between Houston's Rockets and the Boston Celtics NBA finals, I decided I really could not love something that kept me longing for a home cooked meal. Then the mundane world arrived.
Purchasing at Chicago Bridge & Iron ended that. Then there was four glorious years with Continental Airlines and Frank Lorenzo, son-in-law of David Rockefeller and notorious for problematic relationships with employees of National, Texas Air, and Continen...Expand for more
tal Airlines. Frank and I thought we were semi-rid of each other until we showed up in the same hotel dinning room in Miami the morning he was having a super secret meeting with his staff and I was headed down to the Keys for some fishing, pole dancing, and a good drunk. Frank recognized us immediately. I can only imagine what was going through his head. You may or may not remember how the Continental and Phillips copper mine strikes were won by the companies, thus sealing a near-perfect demise of organized labor there after. Behold! We now have an equity gap between the one and the 99 percent.
Then I met my one and only true love Rocio when I went to work for her family business, Alpha Precision Plastics here in Houston. We were involved in leading edge engineering plastics. Back to school for a degree in Organic Chemistry. Then back to purchasing, inventory, and materials management. A company sell to DSM Corporation and a three-year contract. The Houston business was moved to Ontario, Pennsylvania, and Mexico. I moved on to Robbins and Meyers and then Smith-Schlumberger where I stayed for 13 years until the ripe old age of 62. Schlumberger, a French corporation, believes in the French social net that comes along at 59.5 years of age. Though we don't have it state side, they still practice it with abandon. And, considering their package programs I don't necessarily disagree. Since, buming around from under-funded oil service company to under-funded oil service company. You know the drill. Anyway, I get even with the Schlumberger family by going to their more than exquisite libraries and museums here in Houston. What's it call, "Give to the Poor" or "Take back from the Rich," or something along those lines.
No children, no dogs, 26 nieces and nephews, 28 years of blissful marriage, no runs, no hits, no errors. I'm now a 32nd degree mason and trying to do a little good after having partaken of the assets of life. Someone asked once, "If you had it all to do over?" My answer ... I WOULD.
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