Send your letter with a click...

Letters

Remembering Joseph Addison Clark

As a descendent of Joseph Addison Clark, I was very pleased to read your recent article in The TCU Magazine, "Muddle in the Middle: The 'C' in TCU." I cannot recall having seen in print anyone mentioning that my great great grandfather had anything to do with the founding of TCU. My grandmother, Modena Frank Rogers Spitler, was always saddened by this.

Family lore (our line, of course) has it that one of the reasons that J.A. Clark was not mentioned as one of the founding fathers in Colby Hall's book or Joseph Lynn Clark's book, Thank God We Made It, has to do with the split in the Christian Church/Church of Christ denominations over the musical instrument issue. I can well remember my grandmother telling me about the Sunday that they were gathered in the little town of Thorp Spring for worship, and a piano was brought in. She told that her grandfather quietly took her hand and walked out of the church, never to return. His sons, Addison and Randolph, remained in their pews. Because my grandmother loved music so much and played both the piano and violin, she came back to the Christian Church with her parents. This whole issue caused a very painful rift in the family for years to come.

Both my older brother (a TCU and Brite graduate) and I were very pleased to see that the cornerstone from old Thorp Spring had been placed underneath the statues of Addison and Randolph with our great great grandfather's name also listed as a founder.

Rev. Joseph Campbell Spitler '67
Columbus, Texas

Time of reckoning

I love and appreciate Frank Windegger for his many years of achievement as athletics director. Obviously, his was a labor of love. But this ol' boy [Eric] Hyman from "outside the family," once again has TCU athletics stepping up to a higher plain of competition.

With his recent hiring of Neil Dougherty as men's basketball coach, Hyman is sending his NCAA brethren a message: The Frogs are to be reckoned with!

Eric Hyman knows his job. In his few years on the hill, has he also received a transfusion of purple? I think yes.

Gary Blevins '62
Oak Harbor, Wash.

Mem'ries are sweet

I really enjoy receiving your magazine. Where I came from (Throckmorton) we would call it "SLICK." That may not sound too nice now, but we meant it to be the supreme compliment in 1942.

I must have missed the last issue of the Magazine or else I didn't look closely at the cover. The current magazine has a small, magnified picture of a girl at the bottom of page 3. She evidently was on the cover of the last issue and had the hidden frog on her shako. Could that possibly be Nina Shaw? If it is Nina, it really rings some memory bells in this old head. Nina and I were freshmen together. We played in the band and I thought she was about as sharp as they come. She was my first date at TCU and the only date I had during the first semester. We went to the Freshmen Prom, held in the old gym (barn) and spent most of our time in the bleachers watching everyone else dance.

By the way, I lived at the end of Hemphill and she lived on the far east side. Our transportation for the dance was a city bus. We didn't date again -- I didn't ask her and she probably would have declined anyway. But money was in short supply, as was time. I found that college was different from a hick high school, and I had to study just to find my way to class every day.

Our paths crossed once again in 1953, '54 or Ô55. Not sure which. I was a band director in a little east Texas town near Longview and Nina had married one of the Moorman Twins (great football stars) and they lived in Longview. She has passed on now, which makes me very sad, but that's what happens when you get to the age where what most of the people you know are doing is dying. (Not an original thought but it fits).

I really admire what you all do. You help us to relive and enjoy past years even though most of the people and places are not recognizable to us. When you get up there in years, the past becomes very important, particularly if there are places like TCU in it and gals like Nina. I can't resist adding a short poem. You'll find this in the 1946 Yearbook. It was written by the Valedictorian and Poet Laureate of TCU that Year.

In each or our hearts there's a secret place/ And each of us dream of a long lost face/ And all of us hide in ourselves, away,/ The golden hours of another day./ A violet brings to our eyes fresh tears/ a remembered waltz like a hand through the years/ We see a name in a yellowed book, we hear a tone and recall a look/ There's never one who doesn't try/ to bring the curtain of past years by.

Probably not exact, but close. Thanks for all you do.

Wade Pogue (Carroll W.) '49
Houston

A long-awaited visit

I visited the TCU campus in March for the first time in 27 years. My grandson Hunter Duesing and my daughter -- his mother from Dallas -- were going to visit the campus for a tour. I very happily joined them with a multitude of other prospective students who are juniors in high school, as my grandson is.

I was very impressed with how the campus has grown and changed. I was thrilled to see how the "old" has been integrated with the "new." I loved TCU 50 years ago as a student myself, and I still cherish the memories. I regret that I have not kept up with the many friends in these memories.

I thoroughly enjoy receiving The TCU Magazine so that I may keep up with activities and events going on at my alma mater.

Mary Louise Schuch Strain '52
Robert Lee, Texas

A tribute

I feel as though my good friend Nina Shaw has been improperly ignored by omission of her identity and wish to set the record straight. Nina was on the front cover of your Winter 2001 issue of The TCU Magazine and is the majorette wearing the "hidden" frog amonst the montage.

The identity omission continued with your Spring 2002 magazine issue on page 3. For further identification, see the 1950 Horned Frog Annual, pages 117 and 152.

In my opinion, Nina well deserves the recognition and my tribute as well.

Charles W. Kleinecke
Corsicana

More about Mary

I am going to have to eat humble pie with several people regarding Mary Couts Burnett ["Something about Mary" Spring 2002]. The story Nancy Bartosek tells is very different from the one I remember from a Tuesday luncheon program at Brite in 1970.

As I understood the story, Mary Couts Burnett was the principal donor for the original building on the library's present site, the previous location being on the other side of University Avenue during the first half of the 20th century.

Assuming Ms. Bartosek's story to be accurate, I have been passing on what evidently was a tall tale, and I will not repeat that mistake.

J. J. Stewart '73, '76
Eugene, Ore.

Editor's note: J.J. didn't mishear. The library was housed in a small room in Reed Hall, which was then the administration building, before moving to its new home across campus. Interestingly, MCB Library was the first building on the east campus, where it shared space with the athletic fields. Burnett's bequest also provided the funds that allowed the university to purchase the land Amon Carter Stadium and Daniel-Meyer Coliseum sit today.

Top