How Lucky We Are by Edis Oliver '63

The following is from Edis Oliver's Class History Address "How Lucky We Are!" given on March 19, 2018 during the Class of 1963 55th Anniversary Reunion and Sul Ross Group Induction: 

HOW LUCKY WE ARE!
BY EDIS OLIVER
MARCH 19, 2018

Howdy, Ags, 

How lucky we are! Here we are together again nearly 59 years after we first walked into the Housing Office in the YMCA Building to get our dorm and outfit assignments. Fifty-nine years since we unloaded our gear in our dorm room and met our fish ol’ lady. And it is fifty-nine years since we embarked on an experience that changed our lives and made friends forever.

Like most of us here tonight, I grew up in modest middle class circumstances, in my case in Waco. In 1959, the average family income in the United States was $5,400 per year, and the average price of a single family home in Texas was $35,000. We had already seen one of the greatest cultural changes in American history, the birth of rock ‘n roll. Our parents were already worried about us because we liked music played by late night stations in Nashville and Del Rio, Texas. They were used to Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, and could not imagine how we could listen to music by Little Richard or Chuck Berry. And it just sounded immoral.

But we were about to see another cultural change, one of structure, discipline, and college classes. And in a further sign of the times, as we enrolled at Texas A&M, our full payment for tuition, room board, and student activities, was $366.50 for the semester. And that included a room key deposit of $1.00. I guess they were afraid we would love this place so much we would not want to leave.

Most of us really did not know what we wanted to do with our lives. Some had family farms and ranches or family businesses to return to after graduation, but most of us were planning to seek our fortune in the military or business. And here we are nearly 59 years later, and fate has taken us in many directions, most likely much different than we imagined in September of 1959.

But how often do we think about how lucky we are. None of us in this room were accidental births, but we were accidents of our birth. We were born Americans. We don’t get to choose our parents. We could have been born to parents in India, Africa, or North Korea. But the first great blessing for our class is that we were born Americans. As Americans we were dealt the greatest hand ever dealt to a people in history.
- Our land has a temperate climate
- We have bountiful rainfall and water
- We were endowed with nearly endless natural resources at the dawn of the industrial revolution.
- We have the greatest physical barriers to invasion in the world, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
- We have wonderful peace-loving neighbors on our northern and southern borders.
- Through the God-given wisdom of our founders, we have a nation of private property rights and laws where everyone is equal before the law.
- We have our capitalist free-enterprise system that has brought us creativity and wealth beyond our imagination.
- And our nation is built on people like our ancestors who immigrated to our shores seeking to contribute to our society and improve their lives.
All of these things were our heritage before we set foot on the Texas A&M campus.

But, at 18 years old, most of us could not fully appreciate the full backpack of good fortune we had inherited. We were focused on our future. Some of us grew up in military families and had seen other worlds outside of Texas, but most had not. Some of us had been to Mexico, California, or Louisiana, but for most of us our world was Texas. We knew about the cold war with the Russians, and Sputnik inspired many of us to become engineers. But overall we had grown up in one of the most stable times in American history. Even if most of us did not come from affluent families, the economy was good, we could find pretty good summer jobs, and America was prosperous. How lucky we are to be Americans!

In the 1950’s Texas was not a prosperous state by national standards. Houston and Dallas were pretty large cities, but San Antonio was still pretty sleepy. Austin was a city of about 250,000, and Texas was still pretty much dependent on oil and gas and agriculture. Dallas was beginning to emerge as a center of banking and high technology with Texas instruments and Collins Radio, but we had probably the 6th largest economy among states in the U.S. to match our population rank.

I recently attended an Aggie breakfast meeting in Austin where our speaker was Glenn Hager ’93, Texas State Comptroller. He told us that prior to the decline of oil prices in 2014, if Texas were an independent country Texas had the 12th largest economy among all nations in the world. He said that with the decline in oil prices several years ago he projected that Texas would fall to 14th or 15th. Instead, Texas now has the 10th largest economy in the world. And guess who we passed at 11th? Russia!

And as an aside, Glenn also corrected the Aggie introducing him. Even though his title is spelled “C-o-m-p-t-r-o-l-l-e-r”, it is pronounced “Controller”. As he put it in pronouncing the word “the ‘P’ is silent as in swimming. How lucky we are to be Texans!

In 1959 the admission requirements to A&M were not too rigorous. To be accepted one had to be a high school graduate, of good moral character, and free of communicable diseases. And as I stand before you today, I nearly didn’t even make that list. Like most of you I came down to the campus in the summer of ’59 to take a battery of tests. I arrived the day before and we were assigned to a dorm in the “Old Area”. There were a group of us, and we decided to have some fun. So we drove out on Wellborn Road and bought some beer and ice and brought it back to the dorm. We had it iced down in a dorm room sink when a counselor came around. He informed us that alcohol was not allowed in the dorms (particularly by a bunch of high school Harry’s), and he took our names. The next day after completing our testing, I was given a note to come by the Basic Division building across from Sbisa. The head of the Basic Division called me in and had me write a letter to my parents explaining what I had done, and give him a self -addressed envelope to mail it. I was pretty nervous about it, so when I got home I alerted my younger sister to check the mail every day and intercept the letter when it arrived. She did, and my folks never knew about it. Several of the guys were dismissed on the spot and never enrolled at A&M. I guess I had a good test score or something. But I was just doing what we did in Waco. Just so you know, Waco even then was not the sleepy town many of you may think. High school years in Waco were pretty adventurous.

After we got settled, the first thing we found was that the Corps of Cadets was the great leveler. To paraphrase Henry Jordan’s famous comment about playing for the Green Bay Packers under Vince Lombardi, “We were all treated alike, like dogs”. The Corps was a meritocracy. Make your grades, clean your room, manage your uniform, and do your job as a fish and you would do just fine.

Over our four years in the Corps we learned the wisdom of the military school system. The first year as a fish, you learn to follow orders. You develop cohesion with your classmates, and learn to stand by your fish buddies. Mostly we developed structure and discipline. Hearing the whistle jock blow first call meant getting dressed and falling out was not negotiable. Getting your room ready for inspection and making the 8:00 A.M. class were not negotiable. Near the end of our fish year, we began to be treated as adults in preparation for becoming sophomores. Upper classmen needed to prepare us for our arrival on the campus the following September as sophomores.

I distinctly remember being taught the fundamentals of leadership by a sophomore in Squadron 11 near the end of my fish year. Several of us were called into the room of a leading sophomore who explained the fundamental principles of leadership.
- Lead by example
- Be fair, but firm
- Never lie to a subordinate
- Never show favoritism
- Never give a person responsibility for an assignment, without first giving them the authority and resources to succeed in the assignment
- Always support and back your people

These principles have served me my entire life. And I had to lecture a senior manager at my company on these principles just last month. He is a teasip.

The sophomore year in the Corps of Cadets was about learning to lead. We were given responsibility for a squad of fish, maybe two to four, or more. It depended on the ratio of sophomores to fish in the outfit. We learned to impose structure and discipline on the fish, lead by example, and mentor on classes, courses, and grades. We were LIT’s, “leaders in training”. You could not criticize a fish’s shoe shine or uniform if yours did not look better. We made sure they were at CQ, and checked on their grades and quizzes from time to time. And, of course, there was the ritualistic hazing a mealtime with making fish memorize names, hometowns, and various campusology questions. But the sophomore year was about learning to lead.

The junior year was about learning to delegate. Juniors are not supposed to handle the routine day-to-day discipline and management issues with the fish. The job of the junior was to delegate such responsibilities to sophomores and to hold them accountable for the results. The Corps has improved on the emphasis on delegation and accountability today, but it definitely was there in 1960 and understood as a primary function for us as junior cadets.

As seniors we were exposed to executive leadership. We made personnel decisions about the junior and sophomore classes. Who will be the guide on bearer and first sergeant? Who will move up to staff? What are the overall grade point ratios for the outfit? What is the retention rate for our outfit, and how many are we losing to grades, finances, marriage, or other reasons. Retention was not the goal it is today in the Corps, but no one liked to see our friends and good Aggie cadets dropping out for any reason. The Corps of Cadets was a microcosm of the organizations we would later join whether in business, government, or the armed forces. The Corps of Cadets taught lessons that have many times unconsciously enabled us to solve both management and personnel problems in our careers. Our practice in the Corps gave us the human relations tools to resolve organization conflicts and to handle discipline problems firmly, but fairly. Most of us became unconsciously aware of keeping our gig lines straight and shoes shined even in the business world. We understood that our subordinates were observing our appearance and watching our behavior and how we treated people. Our superiors in business, the military, and government noticed how we reacted to stress and unforeseen situations. In short, the Corps of Cadets trained us for life as leaders in the real world. How lucky we are to have been in the Corps of Cadets.

As we approach the twilight of our lives, it is important to reflect on what we have seen and what our lives have meant. Reflect for a minute on events that have occurred in our lives of the last 75 years.
- The most cataclysmic event of the twentieth century, WWII, ended while we were in kindergarten or preschool.
- The world entered the atomic age.
- American aircraft created supersonic flight.
- The Marshall Plan saved Western Europe from falling into communism.
- The Korean War occurred.
- The Russians launched Sputnik and triggered the exploration of space.
- We occupied and converted the two bad boys of the 20th century, Germany and Japan, to democracies.
- The electronic computer was born.
- The first transcontinental jet, a Boeing 707, flew from New York to Los Angeles launching routine jet aircraft travel.
- The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred while we were students at A&M.
- The Civil Rights Act was passed.
- The Aggies beat Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.
- The War in Vietnam occurred and many of our classmates fought heroically in that conflict.
- Americans landed on the moon.
- Texas A&M became fully coeducational.
- The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes launched in 1977 reached interstellar space in 2013 and are projected to continue transmitting through 2025. The on-board data recorder is a single eight-track digital tape. Six on-board computers have a total of 32K of memory.
- The evil empire of the Soviet Union collapsed under Western economic and military pressure without a shot being fired.
- We have sent unmanned missions to Mars and beyond.
- And wireless technology is changing everything from the iPhone to autonomous vehicles.

Aggies played a role in all of these events, and the Class of ’63 played a role in everyone after the Cuban Missile Crisis.


And what about the Aggie Core Values? Even though they have only been codified in the past twenty years the Core Values of this university have always been present.
- Respect
- Excellence
- Leadership
- Loyalty
- Integrity
- Selfless Service

Everyone in this room tonight has demonstrated selfless service throughout your life in many ways. You have lived a life of meaning. You have contributed positively to your family, your community, your state, and your nation. You have contributed money for charitable purposes to your church, your schools, and your university. You have mentored subordinates in your organizations and young people in schools, colleges and universities, and you have left your mark with a life of meaning. In short, you have been the epitome of the Aggie Network. In the world of givers and takers, Aggies and members of the Class of ’63 are givers, and the world is a better place because we were here.

Thoughts of Texas A&M are rarely far from our minds. We promote and defend Texas A&M to our friends and colleagues, and we think about ways we can help other Aggies.
Our classmate, Jim Carter, devoted his career to the Foreign Service as a diplomat with the State Department. He served in many places around the world. During his long career one of his assignments was duty in the Philippines. As April 21st, 1986 approached, Jim wanted to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the famous 1946 Muster at Corregidor pictured in the historic photograph with the Texas Aggies flag in the background. Jim was well positioned to obtain the use of President Ferdinand Marcos Presidential yacht and full crew. So, Jim organized a group of about 50 Aggies for the one hour voyage in the Presidential yacht across Manila Bay to the island of Corregidor. The famous Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor was an underground fortress in 1941 with many branch tunnels. It was the last bastion of defense before the surrender to the Japanese. The main tunnel had many branch lateral tunnels. General Douglas MacArthur had a private branch tunnel, as did General George F. Moore, Class of ’08 and Commander of the Fort. Jim arranged for the Philippine government to open General Moore’s private tunnel, clean it up, and install lighting. Thanks to Jim Carter’s efforts, there the Aggies in Manila held the 1986 Muster, likely on the same spot as the famous 1941 Muster which was announced across the world. Aggies do things like that. Jim said several Aggies got lost wandering down the wrong tunnels, but he kept reminding them that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

But while Aggies remember the past, we look to the future. Another thought constantly in our minds is can and will Texas A&M remain true to its heritage and values as it grows to a world-class research institution with global impact and over 60,000 students in College Station? Of course we worried about that when women were admitted, didn’t we? I will share an anecdote that solidified my view on that.

One day in the early 1980’s I was on the A&M campus during the week for business. I was walking from the MSC toward the Quad and cross a thin stretch of grass then present between Rudder Tower and Joe Routt Blvd. A soft female voice from behind me said “Excuse me, sir”, “Excuse me, sir”. I stopped and turned around, and a slightly built young woman in a Corps uniform said, “Excuse me, sir, but the grass around the Memorial Student Center is a part of the memorial to Aggies who have died in wars, so we do not walk on that grass.” I said very politely, “Thank you for sharing that with me, and actually as a former student, I know and honor that tradition. But when I was a student, this was Guion Hall grass and not part of the memorial grass, so I appreciate the information”. And I thanked her, again for the admonishment. But I felt better all day because of that exchange.

As another confidence builder, go in any classroom building and you will find a poster with the Aggie Code of Conduct on the wall in the hallways. “Aggies do not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do”. The administration, faculty, and student leadership promote the age-old, traditional Aggie culture. For your own test, walk across the campus, stop anywhere and look lost. Just wait and see how long it takes for a student to come up to you and say “can I help you with directions”.

Well, even though the student body is eight times larger than in 1963, the Aggie spirit, traditions, and culture that we helped perpetuate are alive and well. A&M continues to promote and perpetuate what Dr. Bob Gates called “the Aggie miracle”, where students of modest means, often the first in their families to attend college, come to A&M, excel, graduate, and go on to become highly successful in their field. You helped make that possible! And, we are not through yet. Although we are nearing the twilight of our lives, we still have more time to continue our journey in making the United States of America, our State of Texas and Texas A&M University even better.


How lucky we are!
So, God Bless America, God Bless Texas, God Bless Texas A&M, and continue to bless our Class of 1963.

Gig ‘Em!