Robert Simpson:
CLASS OF 1971
Gregory-Portland High SchoolClass of 1971
Portland, TX
Robert's Story
I was born on November 8, 1953 in Corpus Christi, Texas the first of three children. My mother taught high school Biology, Oceanography and Sunday school. My father worked in the sporting goods business before coming to TDLR¿s precursor agency, Texas Department of Labor & Standards as chief boxing inspector. Both retired in 1987 and today live in Portland, Texas. My greatest inheritance was his sense of humor and her perfect mental marriage of science and religion. Call me the seeing believer walking by faith with both eyes open.
My high school years were marked by leadership in the science club and UIL literary team, taking first place in State prose reading and best actor in zone one act play my senior year. This and placing in the top quarter of my graduating class earned me a full drama scholarship to Texas A & I University, Kingsville in 1971. During that first semester I was drawn to the music from a suite down the hall from the theater that housed the university radio station, KTAI-FM. That music and the microphone changed my life forever. Within three months I received an FCC third class broadcast license and had my first DJ gig. This was followed by a paid part time position as music director in 1973. For two years my colleague Rey Martinez, and I produced a one hour weekly campus news and entertainment program "The KEYS to A & I" aired on KEYS-AM in Corpus Christi. Then I embarked on a full time career in professional radio as news and production director of KBIC-FM, Alice from 1974-75. Duties included news gathering, script writing and live broadcasts, commercial and public affairs production and editing.
Call me a ham. I loved the spotlight, but did my best work performing a service that I believed in.
After a break from college working in the construction and oilfield service industries, I returned to Texas A & I embarking on a new field of study. In December of 1979 I received my Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Hearing Therapy with a double minor in Psychology and Broadcasting. After a year of student teaching as speech therapist for Driscoll ISD, I moved to Austin entering the graduate program in Communication Disorders at The University of Texas in 1980. The nascent semiconductor industry soon drew my attention and I spent the next 5 years at Advanced Micro Devices, rising to the position of wafer fabrication specialist in a record 14 months. When that industry hit a slump I took a position as a Speech Therapist for Brush Country Co-op, Mathis providing services to four school districts and several Head Start programs working with children with a variety of disabilities. Call me an over achiever always up for climbing the next mountain.
It was 1988 when I was introduced to a club in Corpus Christi practicing the most sublime of sciences, Astronomy. Mentored by Edgar Cortes, M....Expand for more
D. Michael Marcario, master optician and Gary Mayer, club president, I set to work building an amateur telescope. I quickly learned to navigate the heavens with a star chart and homemade 5" reflector. Over the next 5 years I gave informal sky tours for school and church groups, and explored the remote reaches of Texas in search of ever better observing sites. That search ended with a trip to the Davis Mountains and McDonald Observatory. My first job there was on the graveyard shift, alternating night runs with Marcario setting and guiding the 107" Harlan J. Smith telescope for visiting professors, researchers and graduate students. This was followed by a promotion to Public Information Officer at the Observatory visitors center giving guided tours by day and directing public telescope observing sessions at night. While in that capacity I also gave extensive interviews for print and broadcast media outlets on then current events such as the Heaven¿s Gate cult mass suicide, the great El Paso daytime meteor, and the Republic of Texas standoff which occurred just 3 miles from my home. One of the highlights of the evening programs was the technique of coupling a TV camera to the telescope and showing live images of the moon for large groups. Laser pointer in hand hovering over the lunar landscape as if looking out the window of a spaceship, I took my guests to visit lava flows, impact craters, and all 6 Apollo landing sites. Some staff members dubbed me the moongod.
It was a dream job. But life only got better when I met Deborah Olsovsky, R.N. We were married on top of the mountain and she lived with me there for two years before we both decided to make our marks in the city. I managed a home health agency in San Antonio while she returned to surgical nursing. In 1999 I served as assistant editor for Harcourt Educational Measurement working on math and science modules for the Florida and Ohio high school graduation exams.
The next 8 years with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation expanded upon my previous experience working with the disabled, but in a more concrete fashion inspecting buildings for accessibility. I have seen our family grow with the marriage of our daughter, Nicole, last year. It has also been a time of sadness and loss seeing the passing of my two best friends, Gary and Michael, from cancer. I had my own bout with it five years ago, but surgery and chemistry saved my life and our marriage. Call me a survivor. I get knocked down, but I get up again...
and again.
For the past year, I have been working in the private sector as a Registered Accessibility Specialist. I still get out the telescope on clear evenings, play some funky acoustic guitar, and perform at karaoke clubs as "Stargazm" with an act that ranges from musical theater to stand up comedy.
To be continued...
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