Adieu, Eleanor

By Tim Taliaferro in Letters, Letters to the Editor on March 1, 2011 at 5:24 pm | No Comments

Adieu, Eleanor

It was with selfish sadness, but with great appreciation for her tremendous service to so many, that I read about Eleanor Moore’s retirement from the Ex-Students’ Association in the January|February 2011 issue of The Alcalde. Here I was thinking that I was special because of the extraordinary care and attention that Eleanor gave so freely to me and my circle of friends during our undergrad years in the late ’80s, only to learn that she gave the same care and attention to more than 14,000 other students! Along with former ESA executive staff members Susan Kessler and Roy Vaughan, Eleanor will be missed, but somehow I’d bet that she will still be around the Alumni Center and that her positive impact will be felt for generations to come. Know that you remain in my heart, Eleanor, and thank you for being who you are.

Paul Schweizer, BA ’89, JD ’94

Life Member, Dallas

Eleanor Moore, director of scholarships and donor relations—everyone who knows her loves her. She may be out of her office, but she will not be out of our hearts and minds. What makes her special? Everyone who knows her thinks they are her best friend. This is how she makes each of us feel. No one on campus has befriended more students, helped them with every kind of difficulty, or been their stand-in mom more than Eleanor. I have never dashed into her office that I was not greeted with a smile and hug, no matter how busy she was. So let me say—for all of us who love her—thanks, Eleanor, for being such a special person and Longhorn. Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School says the metric by which God will assess our life isn’t dollars but the individuals whose lives we have touched. No one can score higher than our precious Eleanor.

Marilyn White, BA ’59

Life Member, Plano

Let’s Pick a Fight

I’ll be glad to pick a fight with Jeff Cohen. Since he came to the Houston Chronicle in 2002, he has taken what was once a paper that could look at an issue from both sides to one that only panders to the liberal left. His editorial board does not have a conservative on it, and he does not employ one local conservative writer. The city of Houston, however, remains basically conservative. The last election’s results prove that very fact. The Chronicle may back a few Republicans in bullet-proof districts, but in the ones that could go either way, it recommends the Democratic candidate every time. A case in point being my district, the 134th. Mr. Cohen points out his paper supported the first Democratic presidential nominee since LBJ. What he failed to point out was that so did every other Hearst newspaper. You do know Hearst, don’t you, Mr. Cohen? That’s the corporation that signs your paycheck.

Jeff Burkett

Bellaire

As a bright-eyed Houston 16-year-old entering UT in 1947, I was proud of everything “Texas,” especially the way the campus rejected its only avowed Socialist, Wendell Addington. Since then I have watched in sadness the tone of the campus slide left. This latest Alcalde completes the slide, lionizing a graduate who is pulling the only newspaper in my hometown and the nation’s fourth-largest city steadily left. All while the state and the nation are recovering from the malaise. How sad.

Gene K. Bruce, BA ’52

Life Member, San Mateo, Calif.

Getting The Alcalde Means You’ve Made It

During the spring of 2004 I was a junior at UT babysitting for some Texas Exes. While the kids were napping I started browsing The Alcalde they left on their living room table. These alumni I babysat for were so successful, and The Alcalde seemed so much a part of the alumni experience that I thought to myself, “The day I get my first issue, I’ll know I’ve made it!” While my success wasn’t as instantaneous as I thought it would be, my issue of The Alcalde arriving in the mail is always a nice reminder of what I will be able to achieve.

Lauren Acerra, BS ’05

Life Member, Cedar Park

Miffed in the Metroplex

Texas Motor Speedway is in Fort Worth, not Dallas, as misreported in the photo cutline on page 91 of the January|February issue of The Alcalde. On behalf of the 727,575 residents of Fort Worth, which is fully 35 miles to the left of Big D, thanks.

John R. Kent, BJ ’78

Fort Worth

On page 91 of the January|February issue, the location of Texas Motor Speedway is misspelled. The proper spelling is FORT WORTH. The Speedway not only isn’t in Dallas, it isn’t even in Dallas County. The title of the piece (“From the File Files”) suggests it was provided by an interested Ex. Perhaps she was so awed by the experience she forgot where she was.

Also, I was pleased to note a more commodious venue was acquired by the popular and long-lived musical revue, Pflugerville City Limits.

Franklin Moore, BA ’58, LLB ’59

Life Member, Fort Worth

Corrections

In the January|February Editor’s Note, we erroneously stated that the new Engineering Education and Research Center will replace Taylor Hall, when in fact it will be a new structure in the Engineering complex. Taylor Hall is being replaced with the Bill & Melinda Gates Computer Science Complex and the Dell Computer Science Hall.

Tags: eleanor moore, jeff cohen, texas motor speedway