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Jerry Harrison
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When I graduated from Col-Hi I had lots of black hair, weighed 145 lbs, had a 28" waist and a 28" inseam. I still have the 28" inseam. I headed to OSU where I had a very active 4 years, got a business degree, joined the Army Reserves, obtained Army Reserve Second Lieutenant bars and married my wife, Evelyn. I entered the management training program of Kroger Co. in Kansas City and worked on a very interesting inventory control computerization project. The Army ordered me to active duty at Fort Lee, VA for further assignment to Vicenza, Italy. You should have seen Evelyn and me try to decipher the cryptic shorthand in which those smudged mimeographed orders were written. It became a fascinating 2 years of active military service. I learned the duties of all Quartermaster officers, mostly supply and how to run an officer's club. We lived in an apartment in a converted Stuckey's restaurant/travel store (remember the pecan log rolls?). In Italy I was Post Commissary Officer responsible for mess hall supplies, giving me plenty of managerial experience. I was also Assistant Class VI Officer (booze supply), Assistant Post Quartermaster and Assistant Graves Registration Officer. We were still shipping home bodies of WWII airmen and |
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soldiers. One Saturday night, I heard sirens blowing and saw Army trucks rolling out of the post's main gate. I headed to my room to get my uniform and met another lieutenant who was charging downstairs with his rifle, shouting, "Hear that siren? It's a Red Alert. You probably have someplace to be." ----- Welcome to the cold war!!! Evelyn joined me later and we traveled extensively. 40 years later we returned to Vicenza via a cruise ship and took a picture in front of our old apartment.
We were transferred to Fort Huachuca, AZ where we had our first child, Cynthia, in the Army hospital. After the Army we went to Bartlesville looking for a job and ended up with one at Cities Service Co. It was a fascinating career in the supply and transportation division, moving to Tulsa, Houston and back to Tulsa. I received an enormous amount of management training including management school at KU. I had a mid-life crisis, bought a company in MO, was unsuccessful so went back to work for CITGO in Tulsa. Our second daughter, Jane, and son, Jay, were born in Tulsa. A late career assignment at CITGO to help install |
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SAP, an enterprise-wide computing system, inspired my 1st book after retirement. In late '03 I grabbed a nice opportunity to retire early from CITGO. In retirement I have been writing books, Christian fiction suspense novels. My first book comes out in June of '10, titled "Striking Down Scoundrels".
I should tell you that Evelyn is a wonderful wife, mom, grandmother and cook who constantly volunteers at church, school and other civic activities. She is now actively involved in Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary and church activities. We enjoy traveling and taking cruises. Since our 45th reunion I have enjoyed renewing friendships with lunches in Tulsa with Bob Lawson, Ralph Rucker, Gary Grover and Dean Mandlebaum. One thing I want to do at the reunion is show Jim Legg my new straight nose, now fully fixed from what he did to it years ago.
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