UT Austin Gang

This photo was taken at the last gathering of this group earlier this month.  These are my closest friends from my UT student days,  and their spouses. 

Front row left-to-right are Laurie Mahaffey,  my wife Ellen,  myself,  Janie Caldwell,  and Mike Caldwell.  Back row left-to-right are Mike Mahaffey,  Jesse Boultinghouse,  Dinah Boultinghouse,  Sissy Moore,  Jack Moore,  and (one behind the other) Susan and Mike Brands.

I met Mike and Laurie Mahaffey as a UT freshman.  They were together even then.  Mike and I were in aerospace engineering,  Mike in the avionics specialty,  and me in aerothermodynamics and propulsion.  Mike has yet to retire from a long career flight testing equipment.  I left aerospace upon plant closure,  after a long career doing mostly rocket and ramjet development work.  After that,  I did mostly teaching.  It was Mike who set his phone camera to take this picture all by itself.  

Jesse Boultinghouse was in chemistry.  He and Dinah got together long after we all finished school.  Jesse works for the state in water quality.  Jack Moore was a physics major.  He and Sissy met long after we finished school.  Jack had a career in nuclear weapons work,  among other things.

Mike Brands was in mechanical engineering and naval ROTC.  He knew Susan back then,  but it was only in recent years that they got together.  Mike had a long career in the navy,  then some civilian things.  Susan was the sister of another good friend Terry Forman,  also a physics major,  who lives on the east coast. 

Mike Caldwell was a business major at UT,  and was in army ROTC.  He and Janie got together about the time I finished graduate school,  I think it was.  Mike had a long career in logistics in the army,  and consulted for the army in it,  for some time after he retired from the army.

All these men were dormitory and later apartment mates with me,  during my undergraduate and graduate years at UT,  except Mike Mahaffey.  Mike was in a lot of the same classes with me,  especially in undergraduate school. 

Two other good friends from UT are not pictured here,  because they are deceased.  They are Roger Prior and Terry Boone,  both dorm mates.  May they rest in peace. 

Anyhow,  this group as pictured gets together every several months,  for good food and chat.