Mike Gray:  

It might help to remember me if I reminded you that my family owned a hamburger stand on Bellaire Blvd. near Hartman Junior High. It was called Gray's Dairymaid. I worked there virtually every day from when I was in the 7th grade until I left for UT. It limited my extracurricular activities somewhat, but I learned the value of hard work. It served me well at UT. There were a lot of smart people there to compete with but I knew I could outwork them if I choose to. I was at UT Austin from 1965 to 1970. Graduated with an engineering degree in Aerospace Engineering but never worked in that field. Studied mostly fluid mechanics and structural mechanics. Learned structural mechanics from Eric Becker, a genius who was also a dedicated teacher. Married a lady from Bellaire High School in 1971. We are still married and have 3 sons 3 daughters-in-law and 6 grandkids. Janie and I met at Astroworld. We both worked there during summers while we were in college. She went to Stephen F Austin and graduated from U of H. Until we had our first child she was a stewardess with Delta. We got to travel a lot until the kids arrived. Worked for US Home as a builder and Anheuser Busch until around 1973. Went to work for Brown & Root as a structural engineer designing offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1974 I was 27 and was the lead author of a paper for The Offshore Technology Conference. The other two authors were PhDs. I made the presentation for the paper at the OTC. In 1975 my boss at Brown & Root went to work at an offshore drilling contractor called The Offshore Compa...Expand for more