Deceased Class Members TJ Class of 67--July 2017

Statement on the status of the Lake Amanda dam repairs:

After about 85% the voters in the Lake Amanda Water Control & Improvement District ("LAWCID") ratified the creation of the district and authorized the issuance of up to $1 million in bonds to repair the dam, the LAWCID has been working with the Lake Amanda Property Owners Association ("LAPOA") to repair our dam in the shortest time possible at the most reasonable cost to the members of the district.  The initial work included hiring a professional engineer to survey the extent of the dam damage and to prepare a report that includes hydrologic and hydraulic studies, dam design and supervision of the construction of the dam when that takes place.  We expect the dam design to be completed this month and submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ("TCEQ") for their approval.  We will then be in a position to post public notices for contractors to submit bids for the dam repairs to us in a timely manner in accordance with our requirements.  Once the estimated costs of the dam repairs are determined, we will then be able to go to the debt markets and get the best financing we can get.  Any borrowings obtained to repair the dam will be secured by a guarantee of the tax revenues that the LAWCID will collect from our members to pay the annual debt service.  We hope to have all the requisite approvals of our design and financing approved by the TCEQ by early July and have the dam repaired by the end of 2017.  To date, all costs of the engineering and operations of the LAWCID have been funded by private donations from Lake Amanda homeowners to both the LAPOA and the LAWCID.

Letter to Rice Board of Trustees re Leebron Message re Travel Ban Executive Order

KIRWIN DROUET

1314 KENT OAK DRIVE

HOUSTON, TX 77077

February 2, 2017

Rice University Board of Trustees
Attention: Bobby Tudor, Chair
P.O. Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251-1892

Re: Message to the Rice community from President Leebron on January 30th re Presidential Executive Order on Travel Ban

Dear Trustees:

As a proud alumni, stake holder and supporter (financially, emotionally and otherwise) of Rice University, it pained me to see President Leebron’s recent message about President Trump’s executive order on travel for certain countries that was issued last Friday (http://news.rice.edu/2017/01/30/message-to-the-rice-community-from-president-leebron/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=Facebook+Links&utm_medium=Leebron). While I support President Leebron issuing assurances to those students affected by this executive order that Rice will assist them if needed, the language he used in a portion of his message was insulting to those Rice alumni, students and other interested parties that support the measures taken by our President on Friday. Specifically, President Leebron stated “Every country is entitled to defend its borders, to define an immigration policy, to keep its residents safe and to protect itself from terrorism. It is understandable that we will disagree about what measures are appropriate in pursuit of these goals. But we should be clear that there is no reasonable basis (emphasis added) in pursuit of those goals to support the measures taken Friday. These measures were implemented with a callous indifference (emphasis added) to their immediate impact on individuals and their families.” Excuse me? Where does it say in his job description that he alone gets to determine what is reasonable or not? And callous indifference? Perhaps President Leebron needs to appreciate that the executive order was precisely to protect those Rice students that he is charged with protecting. I’d like to see what President Leebron would say to the parents of any Rice students that were, God forbid, harmed or killed by any terrorists that came from those countries subject to the executive order.

Too bad President Leebron was disingenuous when he said later in the same message “As a university, we do not engage in partisan political activity.” Really? His statement sounded more like a SAG acceptance speech than a letter to all the stake holders of Rice University. Taking such political positions when communicating with the entire Rice community is not what I expect from the President of my alma mater. Support for our students is one thing; showing your prejudices whether liberal or conservative is another. Here is an example of how Texas A&M University’s President Michael K. Young addressed the same situation: http://president.tamu.edu/messages/response-to-white-house-executive-order-travel-ban.html A message from the Harvard University President was similar—no interjection of personal prejudices as to the political correctness of the executive order.

In conclusion, I expect an apology from President Leebron to the entire Rice community for making such obvious political statements in his message on this executive order. If none is forthcoming, I would ask that the Rice Board of Trustees consider removing him from office since he clearly cannot separate his political prejudices from his messages to the Rice community at large. I may not be the biggest donor at Rice but I am a Rice Associate (based on my contributions to the school) and have consistently made financial contributions to Rice since graduating in 1972 (annual fund, Owl Club, RBI Club, Extra Point Club). I was also on the Jones Graduate Business School Partners board, a member of the Class of 1971 Giving Committee, a member of The Parliament Hall of Fame, and have been a regular attendee at many Rice events every year. Any future financial contributions from me to Rice will depend on your response.

Sincerely,


Kirwin Drouet
BA Economics 1971
BS Accounting 1972
Masters in Accounting 1976


Rice Board of Trustees—

Mr. Robert B. Tudor, III, Chair '82
Mr. Edward B. "Teddy" Adams, Jr. '91
Mr. J.D. Bucky Allshouse '71
Mr. Doyle L. Arnold '70
Ms. Nancy Carlson '80
Mr. Albert Y. Chao
Mr. T. Jay Collins '69
Mr. Mark D. Dankberg '77
Mrs. Ann Doerr '75
Mr. Douglas Lee Foshee '92
Mr. Lawrence H. "Larry" Guffey '90
Mr. James T. Hackett
Ms. Patti Lipoma Kraft '87
Mr. Robert T. Ladd '78
Mr. L. Charles "Charley" Landgraf '75
Mr. David W. Leebron
Mr. David Rhodes '96
Dr. Ruth J. Simmons
Mr. Jeffrey A. Smisek
Ms. Gloria Meckel Tarpley '81
Mr. Guillermo "Memo" Treviño '83
Ms. Randa Duncan Williams '85
Mr. Scott Wise '71
Dr. Huda Y. Zoghbi

My Eulogy for Ted Scruggs

In Loving Memory of Ted Scruggs

·      Weren’t those touching tributes to Ted by his good friends?  I’ve known Mike and Bill and Bobby almost as long as I’ve known Ted.  We all met at Rice in 1967 when Ted and I were both freshmen.  If these guys were in town (usually for school holidays or spring break), they usually ended up visiting Ted at Rice.  They have been dear friends of Ted their entire lives.  But I must tell you that I was Ted’s best friend.  This, of course, isn’t true but Ted just made me feel that way.  I bet he made most of you feel that way too.  When we were with Ted, he always made us feel like we were his very best friend.  What a gift he had to make us feel that way!

·      I was asked by the family to speak today as the representative of Ted’s good ‘ole days at Rice.  I didn’t have any connection to Rice before coming to Houston but Ted sure did.  Both his dad and uncle graduated from Rice as well as his mom.  Truth be told, Ted would have probably rather gone to UT to be with his friends Bobby and Bill and his sister Karen but no self respecting namesake of an All-Southwest Conference Rice tight end could go anywhere else but Rice.  So Ted took his football scholarship to go play at Rice and made his parents proud.  The only problem with that plan was that his catastrophic knee injury during his senior year at Jones effectively ended his college career before it even began.  Oh, Ted tried and showed flashes of his past brilliance on the field at Rice and Ted always believed he was still the best at his position in spite of his injury but college stardom was just not to be.  But that didn’t keep Ted from being another kind of star at Rice!  He was the best poker playing, cigar smoking, bottle rocket throwing, girl chasing (and catching), party-throwing student I had ever seen! 

·      In a word, Ted was COOL—from his Greek god physique and good looks to his gold Riviera ride to his bachelor pad dorm room at Wiess College.  Ted was figuratively and literally a Big Man On a Campus that needed one.  And rather than being snobbish and condescending to us regular students (or wienies as we were lovingly called) he embraced us and took us into his cadre of ever expanding friends.  Oh sure, he had close friends from the Rice football team that he hung out with like Mike Birdwell, Bill Holmes, and Larry Caldwell, but there was also room for wienies like me and Josh Paillet and John Mikus and Scott Litin. 

·      My sophomore year at Rice was my best year at Rice, not counting my Grade Point Average.  That was the year that Ted and I decided to room together at Rice.  Rice was pretty unique in those days and did not have separate dedicated dorms for athletes like most big schools.  Instead, they integrated the athletes in the Rice college system with the other students at Rice to emphasize that our athletes were student-athletes, not just athletes.  That policy at Rice turned out to be my salvation.  I found that the Rice athletes were the most well rounded students on campus and not coincidentally, most fun.  And I had told myself the first week that I was at Rice that if I couldn’t have some fun in addition to studying, then I wasn’t going to make it there.  I probably wouldn’t be wearing this Rice ring today if I had not met Ted.  He knew how to balance both the academics and the fun and drug me along with him as well as others here in this room.  Thank you Ted for helping me keep my sanity during those early years away from home.

·      Rooming with Ted that year was something special.  Ted never did anything the ordinary way.  Traditionally, our typical dorm rooms had two beds and two desks in it for two students with a bathroom shared with the adjacent room.  But that’s not how Ted did it!  When Ted and Mike and Bill and I roomed together, Ted told us to move all four beds into the same room and to use the additional room as our party room.  You may be wondering how we could have gotten four beds into a regular two-man room—that problem was solved by Mike Birdwell who had custom bunk beds made so that we could all sleep in the same room.  The party room was then outfitted with the latest stereo system, couch, bar and, of course, black lights!  I told you Ted was COOL!  Oh if those walls could talk…

·      Another fun aspect of being Ted’s friend in those years was that he had to give you a nickname.  How many of you here were given a nickname by Ted?  In my case, Ted gave me several.  First, it was just “Drouet”.  Drouet do this, Drouet do that.  You get the picture.  Later, as Ted began to recognize my own COOLNESS, I became “Louie Drouie”.  And finally, in recognition of my black belt in COOLNESS, I became KK or Kirwin Kool.  I wore those nicknames like medals of honor!

·      Unfortunately or fortunately as the case may be, the party came to an end when I got married after my sophomore year.  No more living on campus, no more Kirwin Kool, just buckling down and getting my grades up to get a job and take care of my family.  In his own way, Ted did the same and concentrated on getting that Economics degree from Rice.  He proudly wore his dad’s Rice 1947 graduation ring the rest of his life.

·      During the years since Rice, Ted and I remained close friends.  I proudly drank at Theodore’s and the Texas Beach Club and was honored to be included as a groomsman at Ted and Suzan’s wedding.  Which leads me to point out that being Ted’s friend was not just about being cool and having fun.  You knew in your soul that Ted had a heart as big as his massive chest and that there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for you.  I believe that while Ted got his athleticism and engineering interests from his dad, it was his mom that gave his that giant, caring heart.  All of us here recognized it and knew there was nothing he wouldn’t do for each of us in our time of need.  I am so thankful that he found a life partner in Suzan who did the same for him in his time of need.

·      Finally, I’d see Ted’s parents at almost all of the Rice home football games but Ted’s interest in that Rice endeavor waned and was rarely seen out there.  I was happy to host Ted and Suzan to a Rice football game a couple of years ago and it was difficult then for Ted to get around.  Nevertheless, he still had a great time and I could tell that he still had great memories of Rice and that field.  I couldn’t help thinking that attending that game was one of several items that Ted had on his bucket list.

·      As I said at the start, I was asked to talk about Ted and our Rice days.  I hope I have given you at least a taste of what it was like to be Ted’s friend during those both difficult and wonderful times in college.  And what a taste it was—Ted was the Tabasco sauce to my Cajun red beans and rice!  He spiced up the lives of everyone he touched.  I am proud to have been part of his life and I will dearly miss my best friend.  I love you, Ted.

Bill Atessis, me, Mike Wollard and Bobby Wuensch.  We gave eulogies today at Ted Scruggs' Memorial Service.

Ted Scruggs and his wife Suzan with their beloved dogs.

RIP Kent Rowald

Wet Masters 2014

Liberty Bowl brings out-of-state money to local businesses - Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

Liberty Bowl brings out-of-state money to local businesses - Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

FAU/Rice TV

My Eulogy for Greig

Death of My Oldest Friend

A Tribute to Greig Placette

August 30, 2013

Most people here know me but for the record, I’m Kirwin, Greig’s oldest friend (as opposed to family, cousins, etc.).  I hold that record because our parents were best friends in high school and they did everything together, including having babies.  Even though my parents had been married for over six years without successfully having a baby and were seriously considering adoption, all it took was for his mom, Gloria, to get pregnant for my mom, who is here today, to get with the program and have me three months after Greig was born.  The same thing happened almost four years later when my sister Kathy was born a couple of months after Theresa, Greig’s sister.  Thus, the nearest thing Kathy and I had to a sister and brother growing up was Theresa and Greig.  And that bond has lasted our entire lives.  I don’t know what happened to this conception cycle between the Placettes and Drouets when Renee was born a few years later but I suspect that Mom’s labor difficulties having two kids that weighed over 9 lbs. superseded any thoughts of trying again so I think that’s when we got our first dog!  But I digress.

Anyway, Greig and I did EVERYTHING together growing up.  One of my first memories was going to Barbara Borsman’s Dance Studio at age 4 and taking tap dancing—with Grieg.  Not long after that I was a train bearer for the very first CavOilcade queen—with Grieg.  When our parents took vacation, they did it together by renting a beach house at Crystal Beach for a week.  This was pretty much an annual affair in those early years and Greig and I and Kathy and Theresa were always together.  When I caught my first fish at Rollover Pass—it was with Greig.  When I went crabbing for the first time, I did it with Greig.  My first memory of someone dying was with Greig when a little boy drowned at Rollover Pass on a fishing trip there.  So many early memories during those times and always with Greig.  Gloria and Mom used to laugh about how Kathy and Theresa fought every time they got together on those trips.  Theresa wanted to go one way on the beach and Kathy wanted to go the other so they went their separate ways.  Not Greig and I however.  We were always in sync and very rarely disagreed about anything.  We kept that bond and affinity for each other our entire lives. 

By the time school started, Greig and I did not see each other quite as often since he went to a different elementary and junior high school than me.  However, we still spent the summers together at the beach along with many mutual family outings like birthdays, etc.  When my parents went to New York City for my Dad to receive an award for saving a young man’s life at a Little League game, Kathy and I stayed with the Placettes.  Little did we know that we were just mirroring the same friendship that our parents had for each other in our own lives.  I guess that’s what makes this so hard for me because I assumed I’d be sitting on a couch with Greig sometimes in the future when we would be in our late eighties saying goodbye just like his dad, Harold,  and my Dad did when Pop passed away in 2009. 

When I received the call from my daughter to call my sister concerning Greig on Tuesday morning, it didn’t sound good but I never imagined it was going to be this bad.  When I heard the details from Kathy, I was numb because it really was hard to comprehend the magnitude of what happened to Greig.  No tears were shed that morning and really for most of that day.  It was not until I read the loving tribute from my daughter, Keely, Greig’s goddaughter, that afternoon that the welled-up emotions hit me like a freight train and I let them wash all over me.  I remember saying to me as much as him: “Dammit Greig, why couldn’t you be a coward like most people so you’d be alive today and continue growing old with me and the rest of us?”  But then I knew that Greig would always have made the choice to protect an innocent person ahead of himself—after all, his DNA came from the tenderness of Gloria and the strength of Harold.  He was hard wired to save those people that fateful night. 

I’ll leave it to others to tell you the detail about all of Greig’s other qualities, and there were many.  He was a self-made man, comedian, fearless cold caller, a man of faith, and a wonderful son, brother, father and grandfather.  But most important to me, he was always there for me as my closest friend—I love you my brother.

Beaumont Video of Renee and Fr. Placette

Renee and Fr. Placette Talk About Greig

A Tribute to Greig Placette

On Monday, August 26, 2013, my lifelong friend, Greig Placette, was gunned down in a Denny's Restaurant in Houston while shielding a child from the gunmen.  You can see the clip of the news coverage in my other blog.  Rest in Peace my friend.

Kirwin

Rest in Peace Greig

Cold-blooded Murder of My Lifelong Friend Greig Placette

Click link above to see news coverage of his murder.

Greig roasting me on my 60th birthday.

Jackpot!

Let's Go to Luckenbach, TX

Let's Go to Luckenbach, TX, a set on Flickr.

Pictures from our great visit to the Corleys in their lovely home near Boerne, TX. We took a tour of the Hill Country with a stop in Luckenbach for good measure. Leonard and Margaret Bedell were guests of Tex and Doris Corley as well. We had a ball. Thanks again Doris and Tex!

Saved Bunny

Saved Bunny, a set on Flickr.

This is Bunny, a dog Scooter and I rescued on the way to breakfast this morning....

Landon's Tball and Lacey's Birthday Fair

Landon's Tball and Lacey's Birthday Fair, a set on Flickr.