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Retiring professor to miss
his only hobby: students
by Mary Laura McNair
Battalion Reporter
Charles Walden Plum says it
will be harder for him to retire
from his teaching career of five
years at Texas A&M than it was
01 him to retire from Standard
Oil Company of Ohio after
more than 30 years.
The 69-year-old accounting
irofessor said it will be difficult
ecause of the students.
“That’s the only thing that
has kept us here,” Plum said.
‘We’ve had many opportunities
to leave since we came; we’ve
gone and visited; but
there’s a different quality here. I
could make speeches on that.”
Citing Texas A&M students’
courteousness and sincerity,
Plum has nothing but praise for
Aggies.
I’ve been on the accredita
tion of 18 business schools all
over the country and part of that
you sit down and talk to the stu
dents,” he said. “And I’ll tell you
case, itofts this is one fantastic place.”
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Plum said that while he was at
the oil company, Texas A&M
asked him to teach. However,
the company was not ready to let
him go. He was asked to come to
the University for four months,
teach and then decide what to
do.
“That’s all it took,” he said. “I
fell in love with the place.”
Plum said he doesn’t like to
hunt, read or play golf — his
hobby is working with students.
“Everyone feels so sorry for
me that I don’t have a hobby,” he
said. “I have never had a hobby.
I’ve never had the time or the
desire. There’s nobody happier
than I am.”
Plum and his wife Margaret
attend all the football games, all
MSG OPAS programs, and all
the MSC Town Hall concerts —
including Joan Jett and Adam
Ant.
“We like music that has a
beat,” he said. “I love jazz.”
Plum also is involved with the
Athletic Department. It’s a great
experience talking to the foot
ball recruits, he said.
“I am a graduate from Ohio
State and if I can get up and say
good things about A&M...well,
an Aggie can say good things ab
out Aggies but for a Buckeye to
say A&M’s a great place, well
that’s something,” he said.
Plum said he thinks Texas
A&M is unique because of the
students’ loyalty to the Univer
sity.
“One of the most interesting
things I’ve done at A&M was a
study of financial resources,” he
said. “It was amazing for me to
find out that unlike most
schools, the number of former
female students who contri
buted to the school was equal to
the number of male students,
percentage-wise. This does not
happen in other schools.”
Females defintely add some
thing to the University, he said.
“I can’t imagine this blasted
place before females,” Plum
said. “There is no question in my
mind that females spruced this
place up.”
Plum, who was awarded a Dis
tinguished Teacher certificate
last May, said his experience at
Texas A&M has gone well be
cause of Margaret’s support.
“The students come first and
Margaret always puts herself
second,” he said.
Plum’s door is open 24 hours
for students, he said.
“He’s a workaholic,” Mar
garet said. “He spends 98 per
cent of his time with students.”
Plum considers himself some
what of a liberal when it comes to
students. He said, he realizes the
pressures students face every
day.
“Most teachers don’t under
stand students’ personal prob
lems,” he said. “The pressure of
grades and the parental press
ure is just horrible.”
Plum, who is teaching
Accounting 210, said he will let
any student who is not prepared
for the regular test on Thurs
days to take a make-up on Mon
day nights.
One of the only complaints
Plum has received about his
accounting class, was that sever
al students in the 12:30 p.m. sec
tion said they don’t like the fact
that they had to miss “All My
Children.”
However, this semester may
be his last to teach. In the spring,
Plum will be 70 — the Universi
ty’s retirement age. However, he
still might be associated with the
College of Business Administra
tion. The dean has been talking
with him about doing some
counseling work.
He said he would enjoy doing
that because he likes to raise
questions in students’ minds.
“I like to make students think
about things they never thought
about before,” Plum said. “I ask
them about their future, their
goals and their home life.”
Plum takes pride in the fact
that students are not afraid of
talking to him. Some will come
to his office and use a half a box
of Kleenex telling him about
their boyfriends, he said.
Plum said that one day a
female student came in and said
that his name was on the girls’
washroom wall.
“I’ve been waiting for this all
my life,” Plum said. “Will you
pick up the phone and call my
wife and tell her so I can brag
about it when I get home?”
“Cool it buddy,” the student
said. “All it says is ‘Take Charlie
Plum’s accounting class.’”
Watermelons by the ton
Former pipefitter
happy in new job
United Press International
Queen City — The fruit of
James Quinn’s labor can be
found on picnic tables all over
Texarkana and Dallas.
During the summer, Skaggs
Alpha Beta customers in those
cities can satisfy their traditional
summer hunger with one of
Quinn’s Queen City waterme
lons.
“These watermelons are as
good as any you’ll find,” Quinn
said.
Behind the 34-year-old grow
er, the remains of a mostly eaten
10 to 15-pound melons seem to
speak for themselves.
“The kids usually eat at least
two a day,” he said of his three
daughters.
With many of Quinn’s Cobb
Gem watermelons weighing
over 100 pounds, two would
probably be more than a single
family could finish in one sitting.
In his 70-acre melon patch
Quinn raises three varieties of
the hot-season fruit: the oblong,
striped Cobb Gem; the round,
dark green Black Diamond; and
the long, striped Jubilee.
Quinn emphasizes he is a
commercial grower and does
not try to raise champion-size
watermelons. Because he sells
his crop to Skaggs by the ton,
Quinn said he is more con
cerned about the overall weight
of his crop than with trying to
raise one melon big enough to
compete with giants from Hope,
Ark. and Bixby, Okla.
The Atlanta-Quinn City area
native said he got into the water
melon raising business three
years ago when he was laid off
from his job as a pipefitter.
“I just kind of had it in my
head that I could grow waterme
lons to support my family,”
Quinn said.
“So, I took out an FHA loan
and lost every dime of it in the
first year.”
Since 1980, however, Quinn
has learned a lot about waterme
lon farming and expects to pay
off the loan and make a modest
profit this year. He also was re
called to his pipefitting job.
“I wouldn’t recommend any
body grow watermelons. It’s a
trade, just like pipefitting, and
you have to sort of serve an
apprenticeship,” he said.
Quinn said he was tutored in
the finer points of melon grow
ing by Parker Johnson of Atlan
ta, who has grown watermelons
for many years.
Skaggs was also very suppor
tive, he said, since when you fin
ally succeed in raising a crop, it’s
often difficult to market
About 50 percent of the work
involved in growing a crop of
watermelons must be done by
hand, Quinn said.
Quinn, his wife, Mary, and
two of his daughters spend
many hours in the patch to en
sure a good crop.
County of‘Box 13’fame
involved in voting fraud
United Press International
Brownsville — It has been
nore than eight years since
[“Duke of Duval” George B. Parr
[shot himself to death near Be
navides, but the vote fraud
charges that followed the politic-
boss for decades are con-
Itinuing in Duval County.
Parr, who engineered the
[“Box 13” episode in which Lyn
don Johnson defeated Coke
Stevenson in the 1948 senatorial
election by 87 votes, shot himself
[to death on April 1, 1975, while
facing a federal income tax sent
ence of five years.
But allegations of vote thiev
ery among warring political fac
tions in the county have been
regular fare nearly every elec
tion since then, as they were dur
ing Parr’s lifetime.
Monday, the wife of current
Duval County Judge Gilberto
Uresti went on trial along with
County Commissioner Fidencio
Saenz and five other people on
charges they paid up to $50
1,
apiece for votes in the May
1982, Democratic primary.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack
Wolfe told the jury at the open
ing of the trial Monday after
noon that he would show that
the seven conspired to defraud
the voters of that county by
buying votes with county wel
fare vouchers.
On all Aggie home football game days
enjoy a
Roman Feast
Cenare presents a boutiful array of festive Italian cuisine for
vour pregame picnic, tailgate party or even post game feast!
Our feast is offered all day and will be served family style in
Cenare’s dining room. Orders for take-out taken starting eac
Tuesday before home games.
For more information or reservations
call 696-7311
Cenare • 404 University Dr. E. • College Station
ONE DAY
Wednesday, August 31st
2 and 3 Cubic Foot
REFRIGERATORS
WHY RENT WHEN IT’S SMARTER TO BUY?
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Compare at $119-$169!1
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