Brownwood Bulletin
BROWNWOOD Norman V. Horner is a retired educator who doesn’t really care whether folks call him “Dr.” or not. His distinguished career plus his 40 articles in professional journals and his leadership in scholarly organizations suggest he’s been worthy of his degree for a long time.
A Brown County native, Horner earned A.A., B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, respectively, from Tarleton State (then Junior) College, two from the former University of North Texas and his doctorate from Oklahoma State University.
Most of us would need help to pronounce much less understand all the multi-syllabic words employed by this distinguished educator. He rose from the role of instructor to Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics during his tenure at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls (1971-2006). Mild-mannered and Christ-centered, he is at once humble, modest, agreeable and engaging, even chuckling when folks refer to him as “the spider man.
Stephenville Empire-Tribune
Purple is a color I am generally neutral about, but it has taken decades for me to elevate it from negative status.
I’m guessing it barely made the grade for inclusion in those tiny boxes of crayons used down to the very last smidge by Early School first graders in 1944.
Somebody claimed that it started out as “red,” but was left in the oven too long. That claim hasn’t been widely held, but it has set me to thinking. If “too much oven” is responsible for the color purple, the loosely referenced theory might explain a long-held, deep-seated suspicion. Why in the world does there seem to be a tinge of purple on the faces of blushing folks who seem to have majored in bungling? (Thus it may be more understandable why we “doofuses” have reasons to blush so many times. Our pendulums often swing wildly toward “goofiness,” 180 degrees away from prior well-earned “half-baked” accusations rightly hurled our way.)…
DR. DON NEWBURY
Uncle Mort, age 108, said he was ‘locked and loaded’ to give me an earful when he called recently.
Reflecting on our lengthy conversation later, I decided he had unloaded at least two “earfuls,” rapidity at 250 words per minute, with gusts to 300.
He had Olympic Games on his mind, but managed to include multiple topics during our “pow wow.”…
I never dreamed that my old uncle down in the thicket would ever become sensitive about his age, but he apparently has.
“Since I reached three digits nearly a decade ago, it seems to me column references could be to your ‘aged uncle’,” he suggested. “I never tell folks you are 83 and still trying to string words together for a column each week.”
DR. DON NEWBURY
I have never read columns as entertaining as those penned by the late Erma Bombeck, who survived by cancer surgery, only to be claimed by kidney disease at age 69. Her battle was valiant as she underwent five years of dialysis before ultimately failing to survive transplant surgery that came too late. (Never mind she refused to be moved up on the list, instead insisting on waiting her turn.)
She was magical in finding “household humor” despite dealing daily with realities that were decidedly “unfunny.” Here’s one example: Chances of inheriting polycystic kidney disease one that she dealt with for 50 years is 50%. Two of her three children have it, too, and have been beneficiaries of advanced treatment options to lead productive lives.