Frank Barber
Frank David Barber – NHS to Ole Miss
My family moved to Loco Valley off Farm Road 343 on the way to Looneyville in 1969 around the time Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, my previous home state. I started Thomas J. Rusk in 7th grade and entered Nacogdoches High School in 1970 in 9th grade. I graduated in 1974 and left for Washington, D.C. that summer and college at University of Mississippi that fall.
While in high school, I balanced work, school and play. I enjoyed many good friends and times having worked at Sonic as carhop, bus/bell boy, dishwasher, cook at Holiday Inn and Fredonia Hotel and as waiter at Ale and Quail and Peacock Clubs. In school, I played trumpet in band and sang in the choir. My senior year I was in the regional all state choir. I sang in the Episcopal Church Choir and also acted in my mother’s theatre, the Lamplite Playhouse.
The most mischievous act my friends and I performed was to kill the grass in the brand new Lufkin football field in the shape of a very large N prior to the Dragon game with the Panthers. I loved the bus trips to the football games. Especially since the majorettes, cheerleaders and drill team traveled with us and not the football team. In one year the band traveled to Monterey, Mexico, quite a fun trip.
In school, my favorite teachers were Mrs. Barbara Reid, Mr. Troy Lilly and Mrs. Jaye Jean Stransky - all very devoted and patient with the welfare of their students at the forefront. As one grows older, it’s not hard to appreciate those few special people that positively influence the lives of youth.
After graduating in 1974, the choir took an extended trip to Florida visiting the beach in Pensacola, Florida State and University of Florida and most importantly the newly opened Disney World at Orlando. I’ll never forget seeing orange groves for the first time.
I then took a summer job in Washington, D.C., my birthplace, in Department of Justice, Office of Legislative Affairs. It was a menial job of messenger, but I ran messages between the Department, Capitol Hill and the White House as the Rodino Committee was investigating President Nixon’s Watergate involvement. I returned the next two summers but the work was more routine. These were very interesting times for a teenager in Washington, D.C.
At Ole Miss I joined a fraternity, studied for the first time in my life and really had a ball. It’s quite a southern place and I’m proud to have gone there. My daughter Caroline, our first of five children will be there in the fall. In the summer of my junior/senior year I moved to New Orleans where I waited tables at historic Antoine’s, quite an experience. After graduation from college I worked a summer in one of our family banks in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and headed back to Ole Miss for Law School.
In Law School, I befriended the author, John Grisham, Governor Ronnie Musgrove of Mississippi and a lot of other good friends. In the summers I worked in a political campaign of a man who was elected Lt. Governor of Mississippi and went to summer school. It was demanding but very rewarding. Upon gradation I was admitted to the Mississippi Bar and took a job in New Orleans with Shell Oil Company. While at Shell, I passed the Louisiana Bar. It was fun but two and a half years later I came to Taylor Energy Company where I am today Vice President/ Land/Legal and Acquisitions, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. It’s a great job.
In 1985, I married Colleen Reilly of Chicago, Daytona Beach, Florida and New Orleans and we live in the Garden District with our five children, two girls and three boys. They are repaying me for whatever trouble I caused adults throughout my childhood. This is especially true around Mardi Gras as the parades pass a half of a block from the house.
I am only connected with my high school friends through e-mail, which is truly a wonderful development. I enjoy keeping up with people from the past. I am impressed with the success of our classmates and their devotion to NHS and each other.
My family and friends make me happy and I enjoy my work. We are involved in oil and gas exploration and production in the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico and in deer/exotic animal ranching. My boss was very instrumental in providing the college opportunity to those without the financial means to pay. Our work is very rewarding.
For information on joining the NHSAA, please phone Jan Rhodes 936-560-0174 or Buck Fausett 936-560-2700
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