Don Pack
8903 Tweedbrook Dr.
Spring, TX 77379
(281) 379-6832
Photo - 1969
Information - 1999
High School Activities - Cross Country, Track, Intramurals, National Honor Society, Geology Club
E-mail - [email protected]
Hello from Don and Barbara (Zemanek) Pack to everyone of MHHS Class of 69 from Houston, Texas. It is nice to finally find out what has happened to all our friends these past thirty years through the work of Steve Rajtar and others.
Here's our story for those thirty years.
I took off for Alliance, Ohio, and Mount Union College right after graduation to earn a BS Degree in Geology in 1973. It was in 1974 while I was earning an MS Degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville that Barbara and I married at St. Wenceslas Catholic Church on Libby Road. We haven't lived in Ohio since! We set up our first home in Knoxville while I pursued my masters. Just before I was to defend my thesis, I was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease. After an operation and some radiation treatment (don't glow in the dark yet!), I finished my degree and started working as a contract mineral geologist for Getty Oil looking for Lead-Zinc deposits. Soon, an opening in the Missouri Lead Belt field office in Rolla, Missouri, became available and we were off. In May of 1977, Katherine Elizabeth was born, our Show-Me girl. Well, the need for leaded gas and the EPA Lead restrictions soon killed that venture. Our next stop was Atlanta, Georgia, where I began a career as a uranium geologist working on DOE Uranium Resource projects through Bendix Field Engineering. In August, 1979, Jennifer Lynn was born, our Georgia Peach. Well, soon after we bought our first house, I was transferred to Austin, Texas, as budget cuts closed the Atlanta office.
That was 1980 and it wasn't too long before the DOE program ran out of money and me out of a job. Luckily, the oil and gas industry needed geologists. I landed a job with Gulf Oil in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, looking for O&G in the Appalachian Mountains from New York to Alabama. After being in our third house for only 18 months, Gulf shut down the Oklahoma City office and moved what was left of the staff to Houston. But before that, in December 1981, Christine Marie, our Sooner girl, was born.
Houston has been home since that move in 1983. We suffered through many staff reductions, the merger with Chevron and had a pleasant but short stay in Midland, Texas, from 1990-1993. When Chevron sold O&G properties to Pennziol in 1992, I was "transferred" with them. Finally, Pennzoil moved us back to Houston where we settled not far from our first house. We've been here ever since.
Pennzoil couldn't afford me in early 1996 and I went job-hunting for three months. I decided to become a computer geologist with Landmark Graphics. I consult with O&G companies instructing/mentoring/problem solving their geoscientists. I worked at Exxon for 2 years and now am at Conoco. I love the work, the hours are set and I don't have to attend meetings nor write reports. What's better than that?
Our oldest, Kathy, is a senior at Texas A&M in College Station finishing her Math & Education degrees. Jennifer is attending the University of Houston studying for a degree in English. Christy will be a senior at Klein High School next year.
Barbara has had many part-time jobs when the kids were growing up and not in school. Once they attended full-time, she has enjoyed working as a teacher's aide at the junior high level.
I enjoy gardening, rock-n-roll music trivia, fishing, cooking, and working around the house. Barbara has a great gift for making art crafts which decorate our home. All our girls played in the Klein HS marching band. Kathy went to the Rose Bowl parade while she attended Midland High in 1992.
We would live to hear from any classmates.
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