Ron and Joy spent their senior year as married apartment managers, in Denton. Joy applied for jobs teaching home economics, in the Dallas area, and Ron was accepted to graduate school at UTD. There, he continued his Physics studies in Atmospheric Physics and Space Science, while Joy taught at Irving Nimitz High School.

"I began to realize, due to the winding down of Viet Nam war, the end of the Apollo Lunar landings, and the increase in social programs spending, that funds for paying guys in the field of Physics was going to dry up. I had also noticed that the field of Physics either attracted weird people, or made them weird after they got deep into it, and that didn't look so fun anymore! It became apparent that making a living in that field was going to be very difficult and unstable."

So, Ron looked at several things, decided on Dentistry, and spent the summer of 1972 commuting to NTSU from Dallas for 16 hours of organic chemistry, and microbiology courses, to get the basics in for applying to dental school. At the same time that summer, he also worked on his Masters thesis and wrote it, and worked 20 hours a week doing research at UTD.

Ron graduated from UTD in 1973, their first Masters candidate, and started to Baylor Dental school in July, and did it in three years. "After graduation from Baylor, in 1976, we tried every way we could to get to the mountains and pine trees, but were a few years too late. The demographics were terrible at the time. So we settled on a one-year associateship in Lubbock where we intended to launch from, and that was over 30 years ago.

It was so good here for the practice that we stayed. It's not a real glamorous town, but a great place to raise kids, and closer to the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico, etc. I was blessed enough to build a great and profitable practice that has allowed us to travel the world, build our dream home, raise two sons and send them to private colleges. Our oldest son is a graduate of St Edwards in Austin. Our youngest son graduates from Baylor Dental School in Dallas and will be married to his classmate Misty in May, 2007. We count ourselves truly blessed!

As founder of the dental practice, and with the help of some great business mentors, Ron and his partners have grown it to a five doctor group practice with two offices, a staff of 24 or so. It's a high tech, all digital practice. Ron works 3 days a week. "Before anyone gets jealous, it took 20 years get it to this point, so I have paid my dues!"

Ron really enjoys doing smile makeovers, smile lifts, mini implants, locked in dentures, etc. When you get to our KHS66 class's age, some things need some updating! (To see what is possible with dentistry today, go to www.abbevilledentistry.com, and click on the photo gallery.)

Ron and Joy have been active in their church where Ron has served as a deacon, committee chairman, Department Directors for Sunday School etc. They enjoy the lake, fishing and skiing, snow skiing, snowmobiling, and really love to travel to just about anywhere. One of Ron's hobbies is radio controlled airplanes. "I've built, flown and crashed several!"

Ron's newest hobby is classic cars. The first is a 1957 Red and White Chevy Bel Air convertible (see below). It is a far cry from the 57 Green Bomb I had in high school! We have enjoyed entering it in parades and car shows all over the South Plains of Texas.

"Got to see many classmates at the 40th reunion. Hope more of us make it to the 45th!"

"It would be great to hear from any of you , just email me at ronahawk@aol.com. My hope for each of you is that life has been good, and getting better, and that it turns out for you the way you choose!"