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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1985)
Friday, February 1, 1985/The Battalion/Page 5 TATE AND LOCAL rs Calling it quifs after 37 years 1 Manager set to retire By BELINDA HOOD Reporter Not many people can boast of over half a century of employment with the same company at the time they retire. But Pete L. Rodriguez in. Rodriguez, operations manager of the chemistry department, has been employed at Texas A&M since 1933 ana is retiring after 52 years of service. Rodriguez said he began his asso ciation with A&M as an attendant at the old Aggieland Inn in 1933. At the time the Aggieland Inn was part of Texas A&M and was located on to play fcampus near Sbisa Dining Hall. “I was lucky to land a job,” Rodri- :guez said. “I was right out of high ° eeri school and earning $30 a month plus eals, and glad to get that.” Rodriguez said he went on to be- "w be : ome desk clerk and finally book- 30 a.m, keeper at the Aggieland Inn, before **P m |fc)r. C.C. Hedges, then head of the peAlle- :hemistry department, offered him , I ajobasa lab assistant in 1940. J mam | Except for two years of military alapeno | service, Rodriguez has been with the chemistry department ever since, ountry- | Rodriguez’s office is filled with ac- 'iH pfr- tivity — phone calls coming in every 10 p.m. few minutes and secretaries con- vill play stantly adding to the stack of papers lusic. [ already piled nigh on his desk — but 'eaks,a Rodriguez still has time for a warm best-fit- I will bt > will be vith the Center nty Fair ored All dll par- by the irowing 'S, mice e throw n at the can be i- Up to nety -“True smile and a friendly word for any one who ventures in. As operations manager, Rodri guez said he is responsible for inven tory, purchasing and upkeep of sup plies, planning and budgeting. Rodriguez also said he has learned many things about chemis try by auditing several classes through the years. “I wanted to do my job better and I felt I had to learn the terms that are used around here everyday,” he said. Rodriguez said one of his first re sponsibilities was the running of the storerooms and stockrooms. He said he learned to make up all the chemi cals for distribution to students and research personnel. Rodriguez said he has seen many interesting things over the years at A&M, but he said one of his most ex citing memories is President Frank lin D. Roosevelt’s visit to the Univer sity. “A lot of people don’t know it, but Roosevelt’s son Elliott was on the Board of Regents,” Rodriguez said. “People think I’m crazy when I tell them that, but it’s true.” Rodriguez has an old A&M year book, which was once called The Longhorn, with Elliott Roosevelt’s picture in it to prove his point. In 1980 Rodriguez received the Association of Former Students Dis- Pete Rodriquez tinguished Achievement staff award. He also has received many awards for his work in the community. Rodriguez said once he retires he plans to help out some in the chemis try department. He said he is also on the building committee of the new Chemistry Building, and will be interested in the progress on the building. A dinner will be given in his honor on Feb. 7 at the Brazos Cen ter. eludes a , and a 5 to 30 d. for the aid the ig MSC ting or- of what er cent to pay tertain- Construction to begin soon on new sports events center By KIRSTEN DIETZ Staff Writer oduced y could e strin- >ney to vmaker ced by Corpus g bingo [roller's ords of erator’s ced by r critnf lan un- Texas A&M’s new track and field events center will be one of the best in the United States, say Fed Nelson and Bill Nix, men’s and women’s track coaches respectively. Construction on the center will gin in mid-February and phase one will be completed in about nine ■months. The center will be west of Olsen Field at Jersey and Beef Cattle oads. | Physical education and intramural 1 fields also are being built west of the new center. Permanent stands will be built in | phase two. Meanwhile, temporary oleachers will seat 4,000. While the center has not been of ficially named by the Texas A&M Board of Regents, Wally Groff, assis tant athletic director for finance, [ said he is almost positive it will be named for Frank G. Anderson. An derson is a former track coach who came to Texas A&M in 1920. He also was an assistant Olympic track coach. Nix and Nelson said the center has been needed for a long time. “We feel we need to promote track and field at Texas A&M, and it’s hard to do that with bad facili ties,” Nix said. Because Kyle Field has artificial turf, the field events must be held behind the scoreboard south of Kyle Field. Field events can be held inside the new stadium. Kyle Field’s track also is in bad need of repair. The new polyurethane track will have longer wearability and a faster surface. “It will really give a big boost to both the men’s and the women’s pro grams,” Nix said. Nelson said the College Station Governor questions Texans 7 role in exercise penalty from a lableby demea- ally of mid be demea- idles of ed that taking • them- that as a spon- F Associated Press AUSTIN — Before 450 members of the Texas Army National Guard I are sent to Central America for a training exercise this spring, defense offi cials should provide assurances about their safety, Gov. Mark White said Thursday. The troops are scheduled to go to Honduras, which is located in a much-troubled region of Central America, to play the role of opposition forces in exercises involving regular troops from the Honduran and U.S. armies. Honduras borders Nicaragua, where the Sandinista government has been battling anti-communist insurgents, and El Salvador, where the Amer ican-backed government is at war with communist guerillas. White said he would be “trying to get absolute assurance to the extent possible that those troops will be safe in their training mission, that there will be no opportunity for hostile action and also that they’ll be valuable to \ the national security and defense.” ‘ According to David Gottorn, public affairs officer for the Texas Guard, the exercises are part of an annual training exercise called Big Pine 3. The soldiers involved are members of battalion headquarters of the 3rd Battalion, 141st Infantry from McAllen; Company C, 3rd Battalion, 141st Infantry from Edinburg, and Company B, 6th Battalion, 112th Armor from Edna, Cottom said. In addition, support personnel from Austin and throughout Texas, all from the 49th Armored Division, will go to Honduras. He said that for secu rity reasons, the number and identity of individuals cannot be publicized. The Texas units will begin field exercises April 8, Cottom said. Relays and the Texas A&M Relays used to be held in Kyle Field until the track deteriorated. Last year it was Texas A&M’s turn to host the Southwest Conference Championship, but, because of the track conditions, the University had to decline its turn. Because the meet rotates between the conference schools, Texas A&M will not be eligible to host it again until 1990. Nix said the last major women’s meet held at Texas A&M was the 1982 women’s national championship. C.E. “Pat” Olsen, Class of’23, do nated $95,000 toward the center’s construction. He said he greatly re spects Anderson and wanted the for mer coach to see the center com pleted. Construction costs for both the track and field events center are more than $2.8 million. Man hired for Capitol restoration Associated Press AUSTIN — An architect who has worked for the Colonial Williams burg Foundation in Virginia was named Thursday to draw up a mas ter plan for restoration of the cen tury-old Texas Capitol. “I can’t say it’s desperate but it’s in bad shape,” architect Roy Graham said of the building that was finished in 1888. “It is a building everybody in Texas should be very proud of be cause it is a textbook example of the Renaissance revival of the 1880s. It is probably second to none certainly in the state, in the South — and probably very close to the top exam ple of its type in the United States.” Graham was named to the $58,000 job by the Capitol Preserva tion Board, which includes Gov. Mark White. In announcing the appointment, White said all Texans should help E reserve the building that once oused all of Texas government and today is home to the Legislature, the governor’s office and some other of fices. White and Graham, who said it will take some 2'A years to assess the building and develop the master plan, encouraged citizens to contrib ute old photographs of the Capitol, old furnishings, personal recollec tions and other information that will help with restoration. The governor said he expected restoration costs to be paid by pri vate contributions. “Obviously, we don’t have any money for this project in the state budget,” White said. “I do think there is a feeling among the people of our state that they want this Capi tol maintained and restored, and I think we’ll find private resources that will be adequate to meet the task.” For the past four years, Graham has served as director of the historic preservation program at the Univer sity of Virginia. He spent nine years as resident architect of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and was a consultant for the Historic Annapo lis, Md., project. ou Can • 99M9 99M. n Eat •Dai 4-10 p.m. Offer expires Feb. 28, 1985 Sunday Pancakes Mon. 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