Henry Atchison

Arlington, TX

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Hello there,

Well it has been a long time since graduation in May 1958. After graduation I had enough money to attend Texas Tech for a year.  So in the spring of ‘59 I started to work for Cabot in the drafting department (Wayne Harrison was there also).   Wanting to go back to school, I moved to Lubbock in the fall of 1960, working in a fabricating steel company again on the drafting board.  I registered at Tech again for the spring semester in 1961. At the end of the semester, I discovered that working to make enough money to live on and take enough hours in school to stay out of the draft was just not working, so in August of ’61 I enlisted in the Air Force. 

While in tech school in Denver, I met Karlyne Banister whom I married in October ’62. We lived in El Paso where I was stationed for 3 plus years.  Our first son, James, was born in Nov of  ’63, and our second son, Art, was born in Mar of ’65.  My daughter, Paula, was born in May of ’73. 

Discharged from the service in July ’65, we moved to Dallas and then to Arlington where I attended UTA.  I worked several jobs and ended up at LTV in the computer department and have been in the computer business ever since.  From LTV I went to work at the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas and later at Frito Lay.  I finally graduated from UTA in ’76 with a bachelor’s degree in business.  I got within 20 hours of an electrical engineering degree and then changed majors … a decision which proved to be among my best since engineers were a dime a dozen here when Lyndon Johnson went out of office. 

In ’78 we moved to Amarillo where I installed a computer center at the Amarillo National Bank, working with both Don Babcock and Robert Green.  While in Amarillo Karlyne decided I was not fit to live with so she kicked me out.  I married a lady by the name of Janice Westbrook a year or so later, very happy this time.  In ’82 the bank sold the computer center so I was out of a job.  I worked on Pantex and Western Data in Amarillo for short periods of time. 

In ’84 I moved to Midland to install a computer center for another bank.  Janice did not want to move to Midland so we split up.  In ’86 the bank sold the computer center, so I was out of a job again.  Realizing that I couldn’t keep a job in west Texas, I moved back to the Dallas area where I worked as a contract programmer for about 6 years.  In ’87 I married Wilma Spaulding where things went from bad to worse, so I left her somewhere about ’94. 

I finally ended up working at a company called Systemware, a small computer software development company of 73 employees.  This is where I still work.  On 9/9/99 I married Deana Curry, whom you will meet at the reunion … very happy once again!!!!  I will probably retire from Systemware in two or three years, but I don’t know about this retirement.  Everybody I have talked to has started having health problems when they retire.  What I would really like to do is semi-retire, i.e., work two or three months and take off two or three months.  According to my boss we may just be able to do that. 

To sum up 45 years, I have been married four times and worked many jobs, but life has been good.  I can’t complain.  I have gone a lot of places, seen a lot of things, and I am in about as good of health as anyone could ask for.  And with all three grandchildren in the DFW area, there is plenty of entertainment around here.  I have been working with Mike on the website.  He has done a lot of work on the yearbook and the website. I hope everyone enjoys it