J.B. Parker with some of his work

July 4, 2007

         I was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and have continued to live here my whole life. In 1956 I married Carolyn and we have 3 children and 4 grandchildren. In my working days I owned an office supply and furniture store. When I retired in 1996 I purchased a Shopsmith, some woodturning books, and sought help from a woodturner in my area. I began to try to turn some wood for myself. Needless to say some was pretty crude. Later I moved to a Jet lathe. In 2000 I went to the AAW convention in Minneapolis and there met Gary Roberts, a very good turner from Austin, Texas. He encouraged me to form a chapter in the coastal bend and with the help of Mary Lacer at AAW I invited a list of turners from the surrounding area. We held an organizational meeting on June 12, 2001. As I recall we had about 10 people that were interested in starting a club. Chapter members that are still in the club are Butch Barnett, Stan Pence, Beau Hydrick, Larry Wilk, John Wylie, and I.  We now have about 30 members. I’ve had many hobbies in my lifetime and none have shone the sharing and helping that woodturners in our club have. With this type of camaraderie the club will grow and thrive for many years. God Bless.

 J.B. Parker

Stan Pence

THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE COASTAL BEND WOODTURNERS

 I was born in Missouri Valley, Iowa.  Very soon after my birth my parents moved to Colorado, and I grew up in Denver.  This probably accounts for the first two of my three favorite hobbies, camping and hiking. Like many young men of that era, right after high-school I spent three proud years with the USMC where I was trained as a fire control technician on anti-aircraft guns.

 This experience was followed by my graduation in 1960 from Colorado State University with a BS in electrical engineering. Even better than earning my new degree was meeting my wife Carolyn and convincing her to marry me in 1958.  I took my new bride and my new degree to Borger, Texas for the next five years to work as a process design engineer.

Carolyn and I have two surviving children and four grandchildren.

 Beginning in 1965 I spent the next 32 years working with a national company and becoming a registered Professional Engineer in Texas and Louisiana.  I worked in various fields for more than 40 years. I became a senior member of the Instrument Society of America and presented papers in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

 In 1973, when I bought my first lathe, I discovered my third favorite hobby.  Woodturning.  I feel I am still enjoying the learning process as much as the final results. I attended the first meeting of the Coastal Bend Woodturners at JB Parker’s shop and became a charter member.  I am also a charter member of the AAW, member #370.

The Coastal Bend Woodturners Chapter has given me many new friends as well as a chance to learn and improve my work.  Turning small items gives me the most satisfaction.  During the past 30 years I have sold and given away more than 75 clocks, hundreds of whistles, tops and chain pulls. It is interesting that even though woodturning takes concentration, it is a very special way to relax and be creative.

 This is my forty-third year as an active adult leader in the Boy Scouts.  I had had the joy of attending three World Jamborees and seven National Jamborees.  I was a Southwest football official for thirty-nine years.  I’m still alive to say I had the serious, but fun responsibility of calling fifty games a year from 1968 until 2000.

 I have been asked to include the following.  For the past seven years I have served on an advisory board at Del Mar College for students in service to their community.  In 2004 I received a Disciple Award from the Corpus Christi District, United Methodist Church.  In 2007 I was presented “A Community Builders Award” by the Masonic Lodge of Corpus Christi.

 Editor’s Note:  Stand Pence and the above two paragraphs provide a good example of the young and not-so young members of CBWT.  Each individual is unique and each individual adds to the club.  Both the club and the member benefit.

Jan Rehler working on a woodturning piece
 

My younger brother and I were raised in San Antonio where my father was an independent oil operator and my mother was a full-time housewife. Dad died in a plane crash in 1979 and Mother, at age 90, still lived in San Antonio. After graduating form Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio in 1957, I entered the University of Texas at Austin and graduated with petroleum land management degree in 1962. During my fourth year at the university (after changing my major from and electrical engineering program), I was married and our first son was born in January of 1963. Later, two girls joined the family.

After graduation, I worked for two major oil companies doing oil and gas exploration work as a landman and we lived in five Texas cities during a seven year period.

In 1969, I decided to return to law school and moved the family to Austin to again enroll at the University of Texas. With three very young children, my wife at home and I attended school straight through for 27 months working part-time during afternoons and evenings and finally graduated with a law degree in 1971. I then joined the law firm of Branscomb, Gray, Thomasson & Hall in Corpus Christi, Texas (now Gray, Thomasson, Hall and Marks) and have continuously specialized real estate and oil, gas and energy law to date.

About six years ago I became interested in woodworking and started to accumulate the usual power tools and put together a shop in two bays of a three bay garage. My interest in woodworking evolved from watching Norm Abrams and The New Yankee Workshop on PBS and one of the first projects was the workbench, drawers and shelves for a garage shop which was featured on one of Norm's shows. A couple of years later, I noticed an advertisement in a Woodcraft advertising brochure from San Antonio store offering a one day course in woodturning. I traveled to San Antonio on a Saturday and turned a six inch mahogany bowl on a mini lathe along with four other students. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Shortly thereafter, I discovered and joined the Coastal Bend Woodturners and purchased a Jet 1236 lathe from Dave Lauffenburger. Recently, I upgraded to a Powermatic 3520 lathe. To celebrate the increased capacity of the Powermatic, the first piece turned was a eighteen inch (18") platter from a piece of spalted pecan harvested by the club on a ranch near Beeville.

My other two interests are ham radio and flying experimental aircraft. I received a ham license at age 14 in 1954 (W5KNZ) and have always maintained a ham radio station expert during college and law school. I obtained a private pilot's license in 1967 and built my first experimental airplane from a kit in 1985. After selling that plane I built a experimental gyrocopter. I now own and fly two place experimental RV-6A which is hangered in Bishop, Texas.

Dodee has retired as a the court manager for the 94th District Court and I am trying to semi-retire so we are traveling quite a bit more then in the past. We attended the national symposiums of AAW in both Lousiville, Ky and Portland, Or. Dodee and I have 6 children adn 9.5 grandchildren (the 10th grandchild in expected in February).

7" Big Leaf maple burl shallow bowl & 9" cedar fence post weed pot

Gary Bleasdell

I was born and raised in northeast Nebraska where my father owned a small dry cleaning business.  As a child I was fascinated by all the motors, pumps, boilers, etc. that were a part of the business and this developed a curiosity in me towards how things work which I still have today.  I attended Iowa State University where I studied Electronic Engineering and later joined the Army where I served as an electronics technician on missile systems.  In 1971 I began my career in the electronic components manufacturing industry.  Over the last 36 years I have held positions in maintenance, engineering, manufacturing and management with three different companies.  My wife and I moved to Corpus Christi in 1995 where I am currently the Business Unit Director for TTelectronics-IRC.  

I enjoy working with my hands and have woodworking, metalworking and electronics as my favorite hobbies.  I didn’t get really interested in furniture making until TV programs like The New Yankee Workshop and The American Woodshop came along.  They made it look so easy so after our three sons were off to college I began to make simple Shaker style furniture.  I became interested in woodturning as a way to broaden my woodworking skills.  I bought an inexpensive lathe in 2001 but soon realized that woodturning required much more skill than most other power tools used in woodworking.  I would need more than a few books to help me get started so I started searching the internet and found the AAW and the Coastal Bend Woodturners club.  I joined the club in 2002 where I received a lot of good pointers from the members and demonstrators.  I also took at Homestead Heritage in Waco.  That got me started and after I won a Jet mini at one of the SWAT symposiums I really started to enjoy woodturning and find it very relaxing.  I like to try new techniques and really have fun building jigs and fixtures to make turning easier.

I have served as club secretary-treasurer in 2004, president in 2005, and librarian in 2007.  I have attended the SWAT symposiums each of the last four years and was fortunate enough to win a Jet mini lathe in 2004 that I now do all my turning on.  I am looking forward to retirement when I hope to acquire a good full size lathe so I can do larger items and spend more time turning.

Gary Bleasdell     

ROLAND BLAIR

I was born in Fort Worth, TX and graduated high school in Abilene, TX.  It took three years to complete second grade because of rheumatic fever and polio.  Since I couldn’t do athletic activities I built wood models (no plastic models in the dark ages anyway).  My grandfather, though not a great woodworker, had a cabinet shop only two blocks from my house.  I had to pass the cabinet shop on my way home from school.  I would often stop at the shop, find a piece of wood in the scrap barrel, and that began my interest in woodworking.  Saturdays were often spent in grandfather’s shop also.

After high school I attended two years college in Arlington and Abilene.  I began working with data processing, beginning with punch cards.  I then worked thirteen years as a systems engineer and ten years as an information systems manager.  Since that time I have worked as an accountant.

I have stayed busy all my life.  I have served as a director of the Abilene Jaycees, first vice-president of the Abilene Civitan Club, two terms as a PTA president, Boy Scout director on the district level, Sunday school teacher for 7^th & 8^th grades and later adults, and served as a deacon of my church for many years.

I have been blessed with a wonderful, supportive, talented and creative wife.  I have three children who are also creative and talented and have given me six grandchildren.

A friend visited me several years ago and thought I would enjoy making wooden pens, so he sent me a Delta Midi Lathe.  I knew nothing about woodturning.  Stan Pence and I live one block apart and have the same street number.  For years we have received each other’s mail and returned it.  Once I received one of Stan’s woodturnig magazines and when I returned it Carolyn told me that Stan was a woodturner and was at a woorturning conference in Utah at that time.  Upon receiving the lathe I contacted Stan and told him I had a new woodturning lathe and needed help.  That was a good decision.  Stan helped me and introduced me to the Coastal Bend Woodturners.

I have turned many pens and other small pieces, but have slowed considerably since post-polio syndrome has reared its ugly head into my life.  I served as club president until forced to resign for reasons of health.  I enjoy the fellowship of the Coastal Bend Woodturners very much.  A lot has been learned, but the friendships have been just as important.

My local grandchildren and I have made pens for Christmas presents for their teachers.  The children have enjoyed making the pens and the teachers have been very appreciative.  One of my grandsons and I made an European antler pen for his family’s ranch manager.  It has been a great pleasure to have this sharing experience with my grandchildren.