Updated Bio-Carolyn & Bud

I spent a few minutes updating our bios, and I suppose it's a sad but significant commentary that it only took me a few minutes to summarize the last five years of our lives. Oh, well, at least we had the five years to summarize...beats the alternative. Now, if I can remember the lesson David taught me about transferring files to a blog, the updated bio will appear below:

Bingo! I remembered!

Hugh F. (Bud) Wynn
Carolyn J. (Burke) Wynn
17214 Hillview Lane Spring, TX 77379
hwynn1941@comcast.net

My original intent was to print the bio I wrote for Carolyn (Burke) and I back in 1999 (or was it 2004). But after a quick perusal, I concluded that it was much too long to reproduce on the blog. With David’s permission and help, I fully intend to reproduce all of the bios that classmates wrote the last time around, including many of the photos they submitted. And how about some new photos for the updated bio versions? In any event, set forth below are brief summaries of our lives since our last posting.

To begin with the important stuff, both of our daughters, Kim (now 41) and Nikki (now 38) still live in Houston. Nikki spent 4 ½ years with Ogilvie & Mather in New York during the past decade, but decided that she was really a Texan and came back home. Truth is, she couldn’t afford to live there, even with a good job. Those Yanks really love high taxes and their welfare programs. Since her return to Houston, Nikki has joined forces with a water conservation constituency, has written two children’s books about storm water pollution and water conservation, and largely occupies her time as a journalist (she still has no husband to contend with).

When Kim returned from her 4 years in Hong Kong, she shucked her first husband and became a newspaper reporter. After knocking around with several small local community papers, she became a Houston Chronicle reporter, first full-time, and then as a freelance journalist. She went to freelance status when little Henry was born in order to spend more time at home with our only grandchild. She’s still a freelancer, and I’m an occasional babysitter while she attends all of those nighttime meetings, reporting on local events. Oh, yeah, Kim remarried…a Houston cop…a lieutenant on the HPD force who is currently completing requirements to become an attorney. Carolyn says we need a good attorney in the family…apparently, divorce court still looms.

I sold my “goat farm” northwest of Houston, so Abbie and I make do with each other’s company. Yep, Abbie, the golden retriever, still lives, but she is about as gimpy and gray as her master (I’m not sure who’s really the master). So, we no longer commune with nature, mow pastures, prune trees, and fight off the wood ticks and chiggers…but the farm did inspire my first novel, “Laundry List”(authors never miss the opportunity to plug a book). I’ve written four other books since (or is it three after the first two…time gets away), none of which sold nearly as many copies as Nikki’s first children’s book. In fact, her first book outsold all of mine combined! And she doesn’t let me forget it. If only I had paid more attention in Mary Miller’s English class. Are David and Shirley (Young) still writing?

Those books and my involvement in the water conservation effort with my daughters… and a brief fling with local Cypress Creek flood control issues…has kept me busy these many years. Not to mention the bay house on Galveston Island. We built this bay house in the late 1990’s, and Lord help me, that home has cbeen a pain in my...well, you get the point. The place is haunted, or hexed, or something. Our builder declared bankruptcy when it was about 95% completed…and guess who had to finish it? Several years later the stucco started leaking, thanks again to that absentee builder. Guess who won the honors of replacing the complete exterior? And more recently, after dodging Hurricane Ike, an attic water heater ruptured, and yep, we had to replace most of the interior…including the furniture? The silver lining to this saga is that we have a brand new, 10-year old house…and a slimmed-down bank account. But it gave me something to do, Carolyn said.

We’ve traveled some during these recent years, Carolyn more than I. She travels on occasion with some Okie buddies, and allows me to stay at home with the dog. Our most recent trip together was a couple of week in Alaska with, yep, some Okie friends. It’s hard to shake those Okies. We may go to England one of these years, but I’ll put that off as long as I can.

I’m a longtime member of the local YMCA, and as a consequence, my body is lean, lithe, muscular, well-buffed...and did I mention that my hair was coming back in, black. While I’m over there contemplating whether or not to exercise, I help the organization with fundraisers and such. It’s a fantastically well-equipped organization with thousands of members, young and old, many like me who “contemplate” more than “exercise.”

Life goes on…today pretty much like the day before. Carolyn is working three days a week now instead of five; still with Family Service; still trying to cure bad marriages. She plans to completely retire soon (at age 67), probably before the reunion. But she had better stay out of my hair!! I’ve had a home office for 25 years, and sure as shootin’, she’ll be trying to invade my space. I have no intentions of retiring as long as I can make the “commute” across the breezeway and up the stairs.

My latest literary effort is writing the biography of a prominent Houstonian oilman, who’s also a friend. It’s coming along nicely…if I can just figure out how to efficiently transcribe those interviews tapes. Why, oh, why didn't I pay attention in Doris Lamb’s shorthand class. That’s pretty much it. We're just trying to enjoy life and stay healthy. So far, so good.
Looking forward to seeing all of you at the 50th reunion.