Samuel Brush:
CLASS OF 1971
Ridge High SchoolClass of 1971
Basking ridge, NJ
Texas Christian UniversityClass of 1980
Ft. worth, TX
Hobart & William Smith CollegesClass of 1975
Geneva, NY
Samuel's Story
After graduation from Ridge I spent the next two years at Hobart College in Geneva, New York. At that point I decided to transfer somewhere else, took the fall of 1973 off (working at Crane's Farm in Basking Ridge). I applied to several state universities, but since I was an "out of state" applicant, none of those panned out, but Texas Christian University in Fort Worth accepted me, and so I headed to the Lone Star State and the Environmental Science program. Finished my B.S. in 1976, bounced back to NJ to work a year (actually doing water science work!) and then went back to TCU in 1978 for a Masters in Environmental Science. Finished that in 1980, came BACK to NJ and worked at Berkeley Florist while trying to find a real job where I could use my environmental expertise. Nothing panned out in NJ (plenty of pollution but no jobs) so it was back to Texas where I worked for a friend that owned Sweet Shop Candies (the BEST gourmet chocolate!) I was down to my last $40 in the checking account, and packing to head home to NJ once again when I was offered an intern position with the North Central Texas Council of Governments in their Environmental Resources department. I took it and just reached my 26th year anniversary the end of May. I am their veteran water quality staff member, and I often characterize myself as a dirty water biologist who can write a half-way decent memo or report, so they made me a Manager. NCTCOG is an interesting place to work - non-regulatory, and mostly we are a planning agency that coordinates with, and at times shields our member governments from state agencies or the feds.
On the home front, after a 9 year "acquaintance" through my TCU years, I married my wife Lynne in 1988. We tried to get married on 8/8/88, but that was a day of the week, so we settled for 8/28/08. "8" is our number as you might guess. She got her M.S. in Biology at TCU also, and we both had the same major professor, doing our research on lizard-related topics in the Kansas sand prairie. You get to know a...Expand for more
person pretty well during a summer of research in no-where Kansas! Lynne and I are both essentially science geeks, and we'll go driving the countryside to check out everything from birds to snakes to fish. Lynne is an accomplished bicycle rider too, having completed two Hotter'n Hell 100 rides in Wichita Falls, Texas. Not so much a racer, but she can do the distance. I actually have two professional snake tongs that I keep in my car just in case we come across those rattlers. Let's see - no kids. Suzee the Dog (a wonderful part Border Collie, part Springer Spaniel hand-me-down adopted dog) is, much to my mother-in-law's chagrin, the grandchild. I haven't been back to NJ since about 1984 when my dad passed away. I have one older brother living in Deerfield, Mass., and my sister is in Richmond, Virginia, so I try to catch trips to those locales when I can.
On the feather front, my main hobby is - chickens. What can I say. I am good at fancy or show chickens. I am a General Licensed Poultry judge, which gets me a chance to visit some different parts of the country on show trips, but trust me, it isn't a money maker. I'm secretary of our local club in Texas, secretary of a national breed club, and superintendent for the State Fair of Texas Poultry Show. I am currently Vice President of the American Poultry Association (no salary there either..) I get to keep way too many chickens in my þ acre back yard, but fortunately we are in the more rural north side of Keller, and I have REALLY good neighbors. I do gardening big time too, and pretty much every year I put in 100+ chile plants, that interestingly enough come from a nursery in New Jersey.
Thatÿs the Tale. Just working at planning for the future (now when can I retire?) and finding those work-arounds for all the challenges of getting older. My older brother will be 70 this November (yep, 13 years between us!?.) and he is retiring and moving to a country house in Mass. We are pretty much alike, so I see where I'm headed in a lot of ways.
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