Class of 1959

Judy McIntosh Ritchie

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Today as I read some more interesting bios, I realize what a good life I have. My days at MHS might not have been my finest, but they were fun and I still have all the good friends that have lasted all these years.

I married Sonny Ritchie in 1960, and here we are growing old together and having a great 

time.

We have two daughters, Terri and Karen. Terri lives in Ft. Worth, and Karen and her husband Matt live in Granbury, so we get to see them often.

We do not have grandchildren, but we do have granddogs.

Sonny retired from the car business after 30 plus years in Lubbock. He now works for the Auto Auction in San Antonio, and I am a Teacher’s Aide in a small school in Bertram, Texas. So we stay busy.

We have been living in the hill country for several years. We live in Burnet and just love it. We have traveled some and have had more fun that we probably should have. We are in good health and stay busy.

Judy Ritchie

RIP- Peter Lekisch (MHS Class of 1959)

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Long-time Alaskan Peter Allen Lekisch died on December 27, 2013, due to complications from surgery to correct atrial fibrillation.

Peter was born in Midland, Texas on January 7, 1941, to Dorle and Kurt Lekisch, M.D., F.A.C.P. He grew up participating in all school sports, especially enjoying football. During the summer of 1959, Peter traveled to Sens on the Yonne, France, where he lived with a French family who continued to manufacture corset stays from the keratinous material of baleen whales. Just before the thirty American students left for home, their French brothers and sisters voted Peter the most all-American of his fellow students. This was significant as Peter was a first-generation American.

Peter enjoyed playing football at Midland High School, The Pomfret School, Pomfret, Connecticut, and three years at Ohio Wesleyan University where he was voted captain of the football team his senior year. After graduating from college in 1963 he attended graduate studies at Cornell University, followed by law school at the University of Texas, Austin.

In 1967, he graduated from law school and moved to Alaska to work at the law firm of Robison McCaskey. It was there that Peter met Andrew “Andy” Hoge and the two later left to form the firm Hoge & Lekisch. Peter and Andy practiced law together for over three decades until Peter retired from practice in 2000. Peter specialized in real estate transactions; he was the principal real estate attorney for a number of developments during the period of Anchorage’s greatest growth.

Athletics and the outdoors were a central part of Peter’s life. The first winter in Alaska he nearly froze to death on a New Years Eve camping trip to Flattop Mountain. With no tent and only a thin sleeping bag, he barely survived the minus fifteen degree temperatures. He then took up downhill skiing and broke so many pairs of skis that the local sporting goods shops were very happy when he moved on to cross-country skiing. Among his achievements: running the Boston Marathon, competing in the American Birkebeiner cross-country ski marathon in Wisconsin, co-founding the Anchorage Racquet Club, competing in the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race with friends Jim Mendenhall, Bob Voris and George Stransky and riding on a relay with these same friends in the Race Across America. He was the first soloist over age sixty to complete the Race Across America, set a world age group record in indoor rowing, and co-founded The Fireweed 400 bicycle race which raises money for athletics in Alaska. He was also part of the same high-intensity circuit training group for over thirty years. Those who followed Jay Caldwell’s entertaining description of Peter’s age sixty record-setting cycling performance in the Race Across America from Portland, OR to Pensacola, FL could not help but be impressed with his courage and his physical and mental toughness.

The Lekisch family enjoyed many activities together, including rafting, tennis, and bicycling. Peter and his wife Ellen traversed the United States on a tandem bicycle in a sequence of trips. Peter also enjoyed fly fishing and nature photography. He had a keen, artistic eye, much to the satisfaction of his artist mother and displayed that talent in pursuit of his later interest in outdoor photography.

Peter will be remembered as a good friend. He enjoyed putting together slideshows and taking photos at local sporting events, especially the Arctic Cross bicycle races. While an accomplished fly fisherman, he took even greater joy in sharing his love of the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers with friends. He preferred rowing his friends in his drift boat to landing his own fish.

Peter was preceded in death by his son, Andrew and is survived by his wife, Ellen Lekisch; daughter, Jennifer Lekisch, Seattle, WA; sister, Barbara Lekisch, San Rafael, CA; and niece, Hallie Webster, San Luis Obispo, CA. A celebration of Peter’s life will be held at 3:30 p.m., Thursday, January 23, 2014 at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage. In lieu of flowers, tax-deductible donations may be made to the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage for the Peter Lekisch Project; Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage, 203 W 15th Ave #204, Anchorage, AK 99501.

Robert Bruce Herring (RIP)

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Robert Bruce Herring
Oct. 22, 1940-Dec. 12, 2012
Resident of San Jose
Bob died of complications from esophageal cancer. He was born to the late George and Ruby Faye Herring, October 22, 1940 in Midland, Texas. Bob was Valedictorian of Midland High School, class of 1959. He went to Rice University for his BA and Masters degrees, then Northwestern University where he earned his Ph.D in Materials Science. Bob met Jonnie Lou Johnson at Rice University and they married on May 30, 1963. Bob lived in Boston, MA, where he served in the army, and then Scottsdale, AZ, before settling in San Jose, CA. He worked as a materials engineer for most of his life. He co-authored Handbook of Semiconductor Silicon Technology, a comprehensive summary of the science, technology, and manufacturing of semiconductor silicon materials, with William O’Mara and Lee P. Hunt. A resident of San Jose since 1974, Bob was an active member of Grace United Methodist Church in Saratoga for many years. Bob enjoyed travel and visited several European and Asian countries in his lifetime. His priorities in life were family, friends, teaching, and cooking. He was an adjunct professor for the Biochemical, Chemical, and Materials Engineering Department at San Jose State University where he taught courses on ceramics, metals and alloys. He is survived by Jonnie Herring, his wife for 49 years. He is also survived by his sister, Carolyn, his daughter, Katherine, his son and daughter-in-law, Doug and Christine, and his granddaughter, Virginia. We miss him terribly. A memorial service will be held at Saratoga Prospect Community Center at 5 pm on Thursday, December 20th. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Bob’s memory to the Materials Science Program through the Tower Foundation Student Success Fund, San Jose State University, Biomedical, Chemical, and Materials Engineering, E385, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0082

Bill Peacock

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Written by Bill Peacock

It is hard to believe that a full half of a century has elapsed since I have seen any of my classmates from Midland High School. Part of that is due to the fact my mom and dad moved to northern California shortly after our graduation, but most is attributable simply to the velocity of life.

After MHS, I attended Princeton where I graduated cum /aude from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1963. Three years later, I graduated Harvard Law School and immediately went to work for McKinsey & Co., a management consulting firm, in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. But Vietnam was heating up, and rather than argue with Vada Sikes of the Midland Draft Board, I volunteered for the Marine Corps and spent three years on active duty with one tour in RVN. Somehow, even after all that, the Marine Reserves beckoned, and 18 years later I was promoted to Colonel and finally retired from reserve duty after 27 years.

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Carl Peters

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Written by Carl Peters

I was born in Midland many many years ago, but I still have fond memories of growing up in Midland. I remember days during the summer after breakfast getting on my bike, joining other friends and staying gone most of the day. I would stop at a friend’s house and call my mother to let her know where I was during the day. Midland was a safe place for kids in those days. A favorite place to go was the caliche pits where we would catch horny toads. I also remember when I was around l O years old going to MHS basketball games. During half time they would let kids go on the court and shoot around. I always did that and dreamed of one day being on the high school team. That dream came true.

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Liz (Elizabeth Kelly) Stewart

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Written by Liz Stewart

Dear friends …

I’ve been putting this off for as long as possible because how can one cram 50 years into a couple of pages? Also because I’m awed by all of your bios! But, here goes …

I was one of the late arrivals at the party! We moved to Midland from Houston in the fall of 1953 and what a surprise it was! I’d always lived in lush … green .. . humid areas and wasn’t at all prepared for the starkness of west Texas. However, what I first felt and saw as stark. .. bleak, even … soon became beautiful to me. It was an openness that gave me a sense of freedom and a thrill to be able to “see forever”!

At San Jacinto, I met my first friend – Chadsey Hayes – who helped me get over my initial shyness. Moving to a completely new place at age 13 must be painful for anyone, but it was especially so for me. However, I soon found my niche (and second home) at the most beautiful rusty Quonset hut I’d ever seen .. . the old Midland Community Theatre! Jr. High and H.S. years were full of plays and terrific acting classes with a true mentor and friend, Art Cole. (Roz Redfern and I knocked ’em dead as the two “mischievous weavers Zar and Zan” in The Emperor ‘s New Clothes!)

Wonderful memories: Finding the best friends ever in Roz, Mary Lynn Osborn, Mary Ada Rosson, Mary Jane Aldridge (and listening to endless Broadway musicals -Pajama Game – up in her room), Emily Stall (at whose house I first read about “Eloise” and her enchahnting life at the Plaza), Polly Langley, Patsy Aday (a movie theatre owner for a dad … How great is that!), Paula Crites, Ann Elder (who invited me to go to New Mexico one summer…and where the neatest guy gave me my first kiss … OK, I’ll admit it…I was a late bloomer), Mary Pat Speed, Sherry Benn, Susan Jones, Melba Davis (who groaned along with me through our debutante “season” in ’62), Carolyn Evans, and so many, many more .. .

. . . Starching “petticoats” in the bathtub on Saturdays, leading to my dad’s refusing to sit with me in church! We Episcopalians are up and down a lot and Dad said I sounded like a “damn sack of Fritos!”

… The gang (accompanied by Dennis Kelley, Bill Pannill, Hugh West, Kenneth Fletcher, etc. – AKA the “WestFlePanSki Brothers” -waterskiing at Lake Thomas. I will never forget Dennis dressed in a dark three-piece suit, cigar in hand, hitting the water. With Dennis under the surface, aJl you could see was that lit cigar being towed along like a periscope! I miss him! .. . Drama classes at MHS with my all-time favorite teacher, Verna Harris. Traveling to speech tournaments in the dead of winter on the “yellow dawgs” with ice forming on the inside of the windows! … The Youth Center dances … yearbook signings … Persian Melon lipstick. .. Whew! Needless to say, I had a wonderful time in high school!

This promptly led to my comeuppance at UT!

Mary Ada and I headed off to Kinsolving Dorm, corded bedspreads and sweater sets in hand. We went through Rush and pledged Zeta Tau Alpha (Mary) and Delta Delta Delta (moi). The only bad thing about my high school years was that I made great grades without having a clue about how to study.

One would have thought that having two brilliant gals as roommates (Mary and later another Liz from San Antonio), would have inspired me to great things, but no. I just continued having a super time which led to scho-pro, not making the grades for Tri-Delt initiation, but becoming involved with the most fun group on campus: the staff of the “Texas Ranger” humor magazine!

I’d gone off to UT as a Radio-Television major, but after learning that I wouldn’t even be able to touch a camera until my junior year, I switched to Speech Pathology and loved it. One evening, Liz and I were walking down Congress Avenue from our apartment and happened to meet a deaf student who scribbled a note asking whether we had any matches. We said, “Sorry, no” and walked on. When we got to our restaurant, there he was with a group of his friends. He waved us over and we started trying to communicate. They quickly taught us the manual alphabet and .. .I … was … hooked! The next morning I went into the Speech Building and asked whether there was “a course to learn how to teach deaf kids.” There was, and I became the second person in the program. I graduated in ’63 as one of the very few “Certified Teachers of the Deaf’ in the U.S. and started my career as a third-grade teacher at the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin. After two years I moved to Houston where I taught for the next five years.

Mom and Dad had moved back to Houston in ’64 so that was lovely. The only bad thing about it was that – except for the summer after my freshman year at UT, when a bunch of us took classes at Odessa College – I never really had any reason or opportunity to go back to Midland. I’m so sorry now that I didn’ t. I lost contact with so many of you and I’ll always regret that. My true love had always been acting and “the theatre” and I’d wanted to pursue that as a profession. But “born to reject rejection,” I went into something less risky but which provided a regular paycheck, meager though it was! When you really think about it, though, teaching the deaf is very emotive and so I was quite happy.

In 1968 my “baby brother” John (21) was killed in Vietnam and it hit me that life was indeed too short not to go for my dream of living in New York. I moved to New York in ’69 (actually Ft. Lee, NJ where I had friends) and started commuting to my new school, the New York School for the Deaf

in White Plains. What a wonderful place! And it was without a doubt the best thing I’d done in my life. A couple of years later, I got sick of the daily commute and moved up to Hartsdale, NY, a couple of miles from school. A good friend and I would get on the train on Saturdays, go into THE CITY to see a couple of plays and have dinner at Sardi’s! Heaven!

I became involved with an organization called “Bedside Network,” made up of professional actors, singers, and just plain “hams” like me, who volunteered at area VA hospitals. Remember that this was at the height of the war and the wards were full of returning wounded vets. We’d go to different wards and lead them in singing, or we’d have them star in radio shows using actual scripts such as “The Lone Ranger,” “Mystery Theatre,” or “Fibber McGee and Molly,” complete with sound effects. Each session was recorded and played later over the hospital PA system. It was extremely moving to see a lot of the men (boys in reality) come out of their shells and show off talents even they didn’t know they possessed!

Also, I had the opportunity to work with the National Theatre of the Deaf at their campus in Connecticut. Linda Bove (of “Sesame Street”) became a good friend, as did her husband who taught fencing classes. I’m reminded of Ed every time my knees crack going up and down stairs! My life continued happily – and singly – although by age 36 I’d acquired five cats and was well on my way to definite spinsterhood.

I’d been dating the Athletic Director at the school for several years and one day a couple of my friends asked me – idly – whether I thought I’d ever get married. “Oh, I don’t know,” I said airliy, ‘Tm waiting for a widower with three sons” a la Fred MacMurray!

About a month later my erstwhile swain decided to take his mom to North Carolina for Christmas, 1976. So .. . taking pity on the li’l gal so far from her Texas family, my headmaster and his wife Carolyn invited me to Christmas dinner! Also attending would be her brother and his family from Temple, Texas. And there I met the love of my life, my best friend, and true soul mate Warren Stewart! He’d been suddenly widowed two years before and (tah-dahhhh!) had three sons! After a wonderful evening, they invited me back the next day for Warren’s middle son’s 21st birthday. From there on, my life took a definite tum for the better!

Warren and the guys flew back to Temple; he called me mid-week and invited me to a New Year’s party being given by friends; he flew me to Temple; we drove to College Station and met my mom and dad; he asked me to marry him; I flew back to New York on clouds! All of this happened in one week and we married in New York six weeks later! I was finally back home where I belonged with a wonderful new family! Doug (now 56) and Greg (54) were out of college, so Andrew (then 12) was the only one at home.

Warren was the Chief of Clinical Psychology at a large medical specialty clinic and hospital in Temple, Scott & White, and I happily settled into being a “Sadie, Sadie Married Lady!” I stopped teaching, but soon became involved in local theatre and – over the years – a succession of “professions” … realtor, travel agent, part-time bookseller at our local Walden Books (where Emily Stall and her sister Kay found me one evening after about 30 years!), Manager of the Central Texas Orchestra, and Business Manager of the Temple Civic Theatre. In 1984, I went back to school at our local community college and got an Associate Degree in Telecommunications (finally!) and went on to host and produce community affairs programs for their PBS station. A somewhat checkered background and Warren ( or as Emily Stall has dubbed him, “Juan”) insists that the kiss of death for any job I take is to have business cards printed! I’ll admit that I really love learning more about how to do something rather than actually doing it!

Warren retired in 1994 and we took off in our motor home, traveling extensively throughout the U.S. We bought a bigger one and were on the road one year for over five months! Warren likens it to running off and joining the circus! He’s a musician as well (acoustic bass … the BIG one) and played with our local symphony for several years.

In 1999 we moved to Sun City in Georgetown -just north of Austin – and we love it! Warren plays golf and has a jazz combo which entertains all around the area. We helped form our local Georgetown Symphony Society in 2000 and I’m still involved in that as well as fundraising for the organization. A lot of my fundraising has been through organizing trips and we’ve traveled to China, Spain and Portugal, Greece, and Mexico. We were also fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel all over Europe, Australia, Russia, and New Zealand.

I truly consider myself so lucky to have been blessed with Warren and our family (three sons, two daughters in law, and four grandchildren, aged 13 through 30) who live close enough (Wimberley, Fredericksburg, and Flower Mound, TX) that we can visit often. I’m also thankful for friends old and new, good health, and with the steadying and firm background of having lived in such a place as Midland, Texas!

So here I am after 50 years, looking back and remembering sleepovers at Roz’s, sandstorms, “come-as-you-are (kidnap!) breakfasts,” Princess phones .. . STOP ME!

Nancy Estes-MHS Class of 1959

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After graduation I went to TCU for one year and then transferred to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, at that time an all-female university, rather a strange experience! Spent two years there and then moved to New York City. After working at a travel agency and a hotel reservations agency, I ended up at Columbia University. I worked in the graduate dean’s office as essay and dissertation secretary, then the School of Architecture and Columbia College History Department, and also did freelance manuscript typing. I also took classes, majoring in art history as they didn’t offer a major in fine arts.

When I worked for the hotel reservations agency I was able to go to Antigua, Guadeloupe, St. Croix, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. While working at Columbia I took advantage of their charter flights to Europe – Amsterdam, Geneva, and England.

After 11 years in NYC I moved to Florence, Colorado, where I discovered I couldn’t make a living. (The Federal Pen wasn’t there then. Maybe I missed my calling as a prison guard!) So, moved back to Midland, worked for John Redfern Ill for awhile and then moved to College Station, this time majoring (for a short while) in Biomedical Sciences (pre-vet). I don’t think I’ve ever hated a course as much as I did chemistry! I also worked at Texas A&M College of Education and the vet school during this time and again did manuscript typing.

So after many years of education and no degree, I gave up formal schooling for good and ended up back in Midland.

I got involved in pure bred dogs while I was in College Station, Bassets and Rottweilers, bred and showed them, mostly the Rottweilers, for about 30 years. In Midland I worked for various attorneys and oil companies. After the bust in the 1980s, I worked contract until taking early social security at age 62. In 2003 I heard Tinariwen, a Tuareg music group from Mali, on NPR. I fell in love with the music and later the culture and made my first trip to Mali in 2007 for the Festival au Desert. I returned to Mali this year (a separate story), after an 8-day stopover in Morocco. Went to Festival au Desert for 3 days and nights and then to the north of Mali, Tuareg country, for 19 days – Kidal, Aguelhoc, Tessalit, the Tamadacht Festival at Anderamboucam, and Gao, before heading back to Bamako to fly home. The Tuareg rebels were fighting the government troops during this time so there were places I didn’t get to go. But I will be going back in December and plan to move there sometime in 2010. If you’re up to roughing it (and eating lots of stewed goat), come visit!

I went to Santa Fe in April to see Tinariwen in concert. (I had met several of them in Tessalit.) I was their guest and had a great time visiting with them, drinking Tuareg tea, and cementing friendships. I also got to meet Berta Benally and her son Clayton of Blackfire, a Navajo group from Arizona, who are very close friends with Tinariwen.

Oh, yeah, no husbands and no children. Just dogs and boyfriends©