Today's Featured Biography

 
Claude Hargrave

From the 1997 Rebel Roundup Revue . . .
CLAUDE HARGRAVE
SPOUSE: Jacque McKinney (McCallum '59)
ADDRESS: 413 Ridgewood, Austin, Texas 78746
TELEPHONE: HM 512/327-2775, WK 512/454-7171
MOTHER: Velma (Travis Cafeteria '56-'57)
CHILDREN: Kelley (34), Jay (32)
GRANDCHILDREN: Berlin (7), One approaching at any moment
BEST TEACHERS: Miss Randerson, Mr. Guffin, Coach Allison
MOST INFLUENTIAL CLASSMATES: Tommy Davidson & David Huff
ENJOYED MOST THERE: Football games, watching & hearing the band on the field. The music and dances.
AFTER HIGH SCHOOL:
Westinghouse Engineering
Manned Spacecraft Center, Clear Lake
Tracor
Boat Rental Business-South shore of Town Lake
Owner Sailboat Shop
"LICENSES:
Registered Professional Engineer
After graduating from Travis, Elwood, James Irby and I hopped into my 57 Ford Fairlane and saw the Eastern United States; all states East of the Mississippi, except for West
Virginia, in 22 days. High points along the way were the French Quarter, D.C., NY City, Quebec, and 1/2 of the colleges, 1/4 of
the churches, and all the cemetaries (at Elwood's request) between here and there.
After a fun road trip with those wild and crazy guys, I settled in to 4 years of mechanical engineering at UT. Charles
Moritz and I had several classes together and spent many late hours cramming for finals. During college, I continued working at the Texaco and dating Jacque McKinney from McCallum. We were married in February of 61, my senior year; and she supported us until graduation in June.
June of 61 saw me headed East again with Westinghouse Engineering Training. After 6 months of "Yankee Land", we decided it was time to head South.

Back in Austin, I ran into Wil Ellis who helped me get on at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Clear Lake. While working for
Wil, I became involved with computer modeling of thermal systems on the Gemini and Apollo.
Since we were spending most of our weekends in Austin, we decided to move back. I continued on in aerospace with Tracor, a
company founded by a good old South Austin boy, Frank McBee, Jr.
It was while I was working at Tracor that we started a little boat rental business on the shore of Town Lake -South shore, of course. Jacque and the kids ran the business while I worked at Tracor and, later UT. The business grew, I went full time and we built a new retail store -Sailboat Shop at Highland Mall. Later we built stores in San Antonio and Houston. Business boomed in the 80's, but has since slowed down, just as I have.
Shortly after returning to Austin, in 1967, Jacque and I built a house -in South Austin naturally -at the end of roller coaster hill in Rollingwood. We have remained in the same
location, but the house went away and came back 5 years later completely remodeled. Our son, Jay, redesigned and rebuilt our
home as a graduation (from UT architecture) gift to his parents.
Our daughter, Kelley, (Masters Degree in Spanish Lit-teaches and writes in Austin) has a few paintings throughout the house to go
with those of our youngest artist, her daughter Berlin. My mother, Velma, who you may remember from Travis H.S. lunchroom,
is also an artistic contributor and frequent guest. Our youngest grandchild- Jay and Janell are expecting their first child May
10th -will live in Travis Heights and may be the first of our family to carry on the Travis H.S. tradition.
Life has smiled on me with more than my share of Health, a little bit of Wealth, a bunch of Happiness, and a whole lot of Memories. Some of the best of those Memories are of Travis and the friends and teachers who influenced my life in later years.

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