Jim Pendergrass

Amarillo, TX

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After reading some of the biographies, I’m afraid my life won’t sound very interesting.  I guess I’ll just have to be satisfied with the knowledge that I must be a lot younger than the rest of you guys since I don’t have any grandchildren, and I’m not retired!  We do have two wonderful boys and one of them is married to a precious girl.  Ty, our eldest son, is a dentist here in Amarillo and still single.  Tim, our youngest, is in Physical Therapy School and is married to a terrific girl named Rebecca.  They will be moving here in August for him to be on the Amarillo Campus for Texas Tech, and she is presently looking for a job as an RN. 

After graduation from high school, I jumped in my car and headed to Freer, Texas to work in the oil fields as a roustabout and make money for college. The next fall I attended West Texas State University where I was a member of Kappa Alpha Order. In 1962 I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and began my career working for the Railroad Commission in Pampa, Texas.  After a while in that job, I took a job as a pumper for Shamrock Oil and Gas out of Perryton, TX.  Due to the boredom of my life at that time, I made frequent trips to Amarillo over the weekends and usually stayed with my old college roommate and his wife.  It was through them that I was introduced to Judy Tyler who was a music teacher for the AISD. 

The rest is history, as they say, and we were married in June of 1968 and moved to a new job in Brownfield, TX..  The title of Administrative Assistant in Pan American Petroleum Company’s office didn’t thrill me, so I made a casual comment to my new bride that if she’d get a job in El Paso, I’d go back to school and get an Engineering Degree (never dreaming she’d actually take me seriously).  The next day when I came home for lunch, she had an interview set up and we were off to the University of Texas at El Paso where she became my scholarship for the next three years, and I became a student once again. 

In 1971, I graduated from UTEP with an Engineering degree, and we moved to New Orleans, LA to work for Conoco.  I worked on the Gulf Coast for the next three years, and we started our family.  I was transferred to Farmington, N.M. and later that year took a job with Colorado Interstate Gas Corp, and still later I went to work for Amarillo Oil Company.  We had another son and made Amarillo our permanent home. 

In 1981, I suffered a heart attack and had a double by-pass surgery, which lasted until this past January 15^th when I had to undergo another procedure, which needed five by-passes.  In 1986, I lost my job when Pioneer Production Corp. (formerly Amarillo Oil) sold out to Mesa Petroleum.  I was over 40 and didn’t make the Mesa team … thankfully. 

That began my 20-month career as Mr. Mom and Chief tutor for our two sons that were in Junior High at the time.  Judy and I had seen this coming, and she had returned to her teaching career the year before.  Looking back on that time in our life, we can see that good things did come out of it.  Our two sons have strong ability in math and science as a result of the consistent encouragement and tutoring during their middle school years that I was able to perform.  We ate a lot of hot dogs, but I had my routine down to a perfect week of house cleaning, golfing, tutoring, etc. … when I got a job as Drilling Superintendent for Cabot Oil and Gas in Amarillo. 

I worked for them through a transfer to the Oklahoma City office and later a forced retirement at the age of 55.  That’s when I began Pendergrass Consulting Services, and that’s been my occupation up to the present.  I worked for Cabot exclusively until this summer when I made a change.  I now work for Gunnison Energy Corporation in Carbondale, Colorado.  I am presently spending my last ”hoorah” in Colorado drilling coal-seam methane gas wells.  I should hang it up in September for good.  

50th Reunion Update - August 2008

The last five years have been as exciting as the first 40. My wife and I have been enjoying the perks of being fully retired and celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in June of this year.

Our oldest son, Ty, is still practicing dentistry and is very active in the state of Texas Dental Association. He was chairman of the 2008 Convention in San Antonio this year. He and his wife, Dina, have blessed us with two beautiful and healthy granddaughters, Makenna and Bentley Dior. Dina has recently joined the Junior League in Amarillo and is busy getting Makenna settled in her first year of school.

Our youngest son, Tim, finished Physical Therapy School and is now working in Amarillo at the BSA Out Patient Facility. He and his wife, Rebecca, have blessed us with two wonderful children as well. First came Joshua James and then Madeline Grace. Tim is working on a Doctorate of Science at Texas Tech, and Rebecca is a nurse at BSA’s Surgical Center.

As for Judy and me, we have graduated to official baby sitters for any or all of our grandchildren at various times during the week. Our favorite high tech equipment is not the computer but the digital camera we bought for taking pictures of our grandchildren. It’s quite an improvement over the old Kodak Brownies we had in the 50’s.

We have been on several short trips and just generally, do whatever we want to. We usually start the day exercising at the Amarillo Town Club and from there on just “play it by ear!” Jim does manage to get in at least one round of golf per week, and Judy is busy playing the organ for the Sunday services at our church, Paramount Baptist. Actually, we’re not really sure what we do on a daily basis, but it does take us all day to do it!

We are both looking forward to the Pampa, Class of 1958, High School Reunion and are anxious to read the updates on each of you.