Kerry Gunnels:
CLASS OF 1969
Big Spring High SchoolClass of 1969
Big spring, TX
Kerry's Story
Kerry is from Big Spring, Texas. Kerry's schools include Big Spring High School. Kerry later attended University of North Texas (Journalism, Social Studies) . Kerry works(ed) at Ut Southwestern Medical Center, The Dallas Morning News.
Music Kerry likes includes Classic rock. Books Kerry likes include Robert B. Parker, Alan Furst, Bernard Cornwell. Movies Kerry likes include Turner Classics, Francis Ford Coppola, David Lean. TV shows Kerry likes include Covert Affairs, CSI, The Military Chanel.
More about Kerry:"I'm a third-generation Texan and proud of it. My children, Rachel and Ethan, are fourth-generation. Someday, that will mean more to them than it does now. Texas roots travel deep. They have to, given the arid nature of much of Texas.
I grew up in West Texas, an inhospitable land peopled by a hearty and friendly breed of individuals. I generally say that West Texas, Big Spring at the edge of the Permian Basin to be precise, is a great place to be from. But not really a great place to be. So I skedaddled as quickly as I could.
I went to college at the University of North Texas, known then as North Texas State University. I majored in journalism, God help me, because I wanted to be a newspaperman -- an inexplicable goal I pursued since I was roughly 13 years old. I think I had in miind that I would become another Ernest Hemingway, honing my writing skills at newspapers before becoming a renowned novelist. Ah, youth, and the stupidity that generally comes with it!
I graduated in 1975 and worked at a succession of Texas newspapers -- with a couple of brief sojourns in academia -- until I woke up one day unemployed in an industry headed for oblivion.
I did time -- sorry, I worked at the Lubbock Avalanche Journal, the Denton Record Chronicle, the now defunct Dallas Times Herald and the Austin American-Statesman.
If I'd had a lick of sense, I'd have stayed in Austin, the best city in Texas, bar none, and raised my family in its warm and beautiful embrace. But I had no sense, and journeyed to Missouri in 1984, where I pursued a master's degree and taught copy-editing at the University of Missouri at Columbia.
After a pretty interesting year, my then-girlfriend, now wife, lost her job at the Columbia Tribute -- replaced by the publlisher's freshly graduated daughter, go figure. We assessed the advisability of surviving on my pitiful faculty salary, declined the opportunity of starving to death and d...Expand for more
ecamped back to Texas.
I got a job at The Dallas Morning News and eventually she did, too, and the rest is history -- for better or worse.
I worked at The News for 26 years before being laid off in September 2011 during one of its many RIFs. I'm now happily employed in the Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs Office of the UT Southwestern Medical Center, where I'm using mu editing skills and my extensive knowledge of the news media to further the fortunes of an institution dedicated to teaching doctors, defeating disease and curing the sick. Not a bad way to spent the rest of my career.
I've often said, only half in jest, that I got into journalist to save the world. Now, more than 35 years later, I'm finally working for a place dedicated to doing just that. It's about damned time.
But my time at The News was not altogether unpleasant. I spent 15 years on the International desk, including four years as International editor. During that time, I was one of the editors on The News team that won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for a series on âViolence Against Women.â It remains the single most rewarding experience in my journalism career.
In August 2001, I joined the Metro section, where I edited the Arlington and Grand Prairie zoned sections of The News and supervised reporters in Fort Worth. In summer 2004, I moved to the main Metro desk, where I supervised reporters who covered Dallas city and county government, transportation and local politics until my abrupt ouster.
I am the proud husband of Marice Richter, who somehow has managed to put up with my nonsense for close to three decades (we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in 2011). She pursues a busy freelancing career and lavishes affection on her husband, kids and, most especially, on a certain West Highland terrier named Kiera.
The only great accomplishments in my life are my two kids, although Marice rightly claims most of the credit for them.
Rachel is a student at UNT and a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority there. She is majoring in English and plans to get her teaching certificate. But what she really wants is to be the next Tina Fey.
Ethan attends Southlake Carroll High School, where he plays lacrosse and works as an intern in the sports information and marketing department. He wants to be the next Quentin Tarratino.
Both are outstanding members of the human race and I love them fiercely.".
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