Recital performed at UNT College of Music Recital Hall on February 25, 2004 at 8:00 pm.

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Winspear Hall.

There are few things that are purely American. On that short list are baseball and the two-year community college. Bill Jason Priest possessed skill and acumen for both. The better part of his life was spent developing and defining the junior college into the comprehensive community college. His contributions earned him a prestigious place in the annals of higher education, but his personality was not one of a stereotypical stodgy educator, nor is the story of his life a dry read. After working his way through college, Priest played professional baseball before serving in Naval Intelligence during World War II. His varied experiences helped shape his leadership style, often labeled as autocratic and sometimes truculent in conservative convictions. The same relentless drive that brought him criticism also brought him success and praise. Forthright honesty and risk-taking determination combined with vision brought about many positive results. Priest’s career in higher education began with the two-year college system in California before he was lured to Texas in 1965 to head the Dallas County Junior College District. Over the next fifteen years Priest transformed the junior college program into the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) and built it up to seven colleges. …

Book describing the history of the Big Thicket region in southeast Texas and discussing the struggles during the 1960s and 1970s between conservationists and timber companies, which led to the establishment of the Texas Big Thicket National Preserve in 1974.

Based on documents from the Laredo Archives, Life in Laredo shows the evolution and development of daily life in a town under the flags of Spain, Mexico, and the United States. Isolated on the northern frontier of New Spain and often forgotten by authorities far away, the people of Laredo became as grand as the river that flowed by their town and left an enduring legacy in a world of challenges and changes. Because of its documentary nature, Life in Laredo offers in sights into the nitty-gritty of the comings and goings of its early citizens not to be found elsewhere. Robert D. Wood, S.M., presents the first one hundred years of history and culture in Laredo up to the mid-nineteenth century, illuminating--with primary source evidence--the citizens' beliefs, cultural values, efforts to make a living, political seesawing, petty quarreling, and constant struggles against local Indians. He also details rebellious military and invading foreigners among the early settlers and later townspeople. Scholars and students of Texas and Mexican American history, as well as the Laredoans celebrating the 250th anniversary (in 2005) of Laredo's founding, will welcome this volume. "Although there have been a number of books on the history of Laredo, …

From one o’clock on the afternoon of July 24, 1974, until shortly before ten o’clock the night of August 3, eleven days later, one of the longest hostage-taking sieges in the history of the United States took place in Texas’s Huntsville State Prison. The ringleader, Federico (Fred) Gomez Carrasco, the former boss of the largest drug-running operation in south Texas, was serving life for assault with intent to commit murder on a police officer. Using his connections to smuggle guns and ammunition into the prison, and employing the aid of two other inmates, he took eleven prison workers and four inmates hostage in the prison library. Demanding bulletproof helmets and vests, he planned to use the hostages as shields for his escape. Negotiations began immediately with prison warden H. H. Husbands and W. J. Estelle, Jr., Director of the Texas Department of Corrections. The Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety, and the FBI arrived to assist as the media descended on Huntsville. When one of the hostages suggested a moving structure of chalkboards padded with law books to absorb bullets, Carrasco agreed to the plan. The captors entered their escape pod with four hostages and secured eight others to …

The story of the five Marlow brothers and their tribulations in late nineteenth-century Texas is the stuff of Old West legend (and served to inspire the John Wayne movie, The Sons of Katie Elder). Violent, full of intrigue, with characters of amazing heroism and deplorable cowardice, their story was first related by William Rathmell in Life of the Marlows, a little book published in 1892, shortly after the events it described in Young County, Texas. It told how Boone, the most reckless of the brothers, shot and killed a popular sheriff and escaped, only to be murdered later by bounty hunters. The other four brothers, arrested as accessories and jailed, made a daring break from confinement but were recaptured. Once back in their cells, they were forced to fight off a mob intent on lynching them. Later, shackled together, the Marlows were placed on wagons by officers late at night, bound for another town, but they were ambushed by angry citizens. In the resulting battle two of the brothers were shot and killed, the other two severely wounded, and three mob members died. The surviving brothers eventually were exonerated, but members of the mob that had attacked them were prosecuted …

Interview with Norbert N. Gebhard. The interview includes Gebhard's personal experiences about employment by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

Interview with Norman Mailer, novelist and Army veteran. The interview includes Mailer's personal experiences about World War II in the Philippines, Army life, jungle patrols, and the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. Mailer talks about the role of his wartime experiences in his novel, The Naked and the Dead.

Interview with Air Force veteran General Russell E. Dougherty, former commander-in-chief of Strategic Air Command. The interview includes Dougherty's personal experiences with General Curtis LeMay. Dougherty speaks about LeMay's uncanny judgment, organizational talents, and penchant for discipline, as well as his handling of people in his command, and the Soviet military's assessment of LeMay. The interview includes an appendix with "A General's Perspective: Leadership in the Cold War," written by General Russell E. Dougherty.

Interview with Allen H. Benton, World War II-era veteran of the 112th Cavalry, Texas National Guard. The interview includes Benton's personal experiences about childhood in upstate New York and the Depression-era economy, education at Cornell University, drafting into the U.S. Army Infantry and service at several stateside bases, transferring to Cavalry and combat in the Pacific Theater, and having a career as an author of biological field guides. The interview also includes Benton's memories of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay as well as his opinions on war in general.

Interview with truck driver Robert Cassel. The interview includes Cassel's personal experiences about being employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

Interview with photojournalist and artist Joe Cole. The interview includes Cole's personal experiences about the Texas International Pop Festival. Cole talks about his parents' reaction to changes in the Sixties, his introduction to marijuana, his attraction to the music of the Beatles, his initial introduction to the Fort Worth hippie culture, his views towards the Vietnam war, obtaining an agricultural exemption from his local draft board, Sixties music and its message, his comments about the Chicago Transit Authority, Canned Heat, and Led Zeppelin, activities of the Hog Farm, drug usage at the festival, festival security personnel, "bad trip" tents, skinny-dipping in Lake Dallas, and the lasting influence of the festival on his life.

Interview with community activist Gloria Villanueva-Anderson. The interview includes Villanueva-Anderson's personal experiences about being an activist in the Mexican-American community of Denton, Texas, education in Denton schools, discrimination at the train station in Denison, Texas, being accepted to the work-scholarship program of the FBI in 1952, opening her telephone answering exchange business, turning toward Republican politics, and her activities with George H.W. Bush's Texas Statewide Hispanic Campaign. Additionally, Villanueva-Anderson discusses her family background, the lack of discrimination against Hispanics in Denton, her family's assimilation in the Anglo culture, early Hispanic families in Denton, her appointment to the North Texas Hispanic Advisory Board by Senator John Tower, as well as her appointments to the Texas Small Business Task Force by Governor William Clements, the White House Conference on Small Business by President Jimmy Carter, and as Regional Advocate for the Small Business Administration by Ronald Reagan.

Interview with printer Johnny Cox. The interview includes Cox's personal experiences about attending the Texas International Pop Festival in Lewisville, Texas, enrolling in Texas Tech University, and playing in bands while at Texas Tech. Cox talks about generational conflicts with his parents, taking guitar lessons as a teenager, the appeal of the Beatles and their music, his high school friends and activities, changing clothing styles in the Sixties, meeting his first wife, his opposition to the Vietnam War, his decision to attend the Texas International Pop Festival, drug use at the festival, his first personal use of LSD, how LSD put the music in a different perspective for him, the "free stage," and the Texas International Pop Festival as a turning point in his life. He also comments on Janis Joplin's performance, Canned Heat and B.B. King, the performances of Led Zeppelin and Spirit, and crowd behavior at the festival.

Interview with U.S. Army Air Forces and U.S. Air Force veteran P. K. Carlton. Carlton speaks about his association with General Curtis LeMay, bomber operations against Japan and Japanese occupied territory, his assignment with the Strategic Air Command Operations staff under LeMay, and the role of the SAC and the B-52 in relations with the Soviets. Additionally, Carlton speaks about LeMay's role in creating a safety program for the SAC and in building SAC's communications system, in the development of radar formation flying as well as in the development of Arctic bombing routes and in the USAF's acceptance of the B-52, LeMay's relationship with the press, his efforts to establish survival schools, his influence on USAF equipment decisions, operational contributions and emphasis on readiness, and his views on the use of airpower in Vietnam.

Interview with Air Force veteran John T. Chain. The interview includes Chain's perspectives as commander of the Strategic Air Command, his comments about leadership, and his personal relationships with General Curtis LeMay.

Interview with Dr. Gerard Roland Vela, UNT Professor Emeritus of Microbiology. The interview includes Vela's personal experiences about childhood and education, serving in World War II-era U.S. Navy, having a fellowship at Harvard University, and joining the North Texas faculty in 1965. Additionally, Vela discusses his family history, his love of chemistry, genetics, and microbiology, the growing pains involved with transitioning North Texas into a research university, the construction of a research program, his relationship with students, and his service on the Denton City Council. Photographs are included throughout the interview.

Interview with Army veteran Harlan W. Crouse, including personal experiences about combat in the Philippines during World War II, the Japanese surrender in Yokohama Harbor, and being present during the post-war U.S. occupation of Japan.

Interview with LeRoy Ellis Cox. The interview includes Cox's personal experiences about childhood and early adulthood in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, World War-II-era Army Air Corps training in armaments and electronics, stateside service in the 303rd Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, aviation cadet training, serving as a B-25 instructor pilot, and as a DC-3 tow pilot for the glider program.

Interview with Air Force veteran Douglas R. "Roy" Crawford. The interview includes Crawford's personal experiences about early family life, joining the U.S. Army Air Forces, training as a bulldozer operator, removing radioactive debris from Hiroshima, training as a radar operator at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and working as the radar tracker when Major Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 on October 19, 1947. Additionally, Crawford talks about his assignments to Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, and Korea, as a forward air observer, his role as an airborne radar operator during the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, his various activities with the NASA Space Program, and clandestine missions with the CIA and Air America over Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Recital performed at UNT College of Music Concert Hall on October 19, 2004 at 8:00 pm.

Recital performed at UNT College of Music Concert Hall on August 31, 2004 at 8:00 pm.

Recital performed at UNT College of Music Concert Hall on September 15, 2004 at 8:00 pm.