James Blair 1960
I said “whether thou goest, I will go” and life as Liz Deputy began. I married Bob Deputy (USNA ’62) just after he got his pilot wings and I graduated (Bucknell U ’64.) While he flew over North Viet Nam, I taught 3rd and 6th grade in Jacksonville, Florida. When our third child arrived we decided the Navy wasn’t going to be our permanent (separated!) lifestyle so Bob studied Petroleum Engineering (Texas A&M’78) and we launched plan B career in the Oil Business with Atlantic Richfield ( ARCO). Bob and I dragged our kids to some strange places to live…. (unfortunately, there isn’t much drilling in Paris, France!) We’ve set up home in humid Houston, TX., Jakarta(the tropics) Indonesia, Sanaa (desert canyon lands) Yemen; then with more drilling in Trinidad and Algeria, I stayed in Texas with the high school age kids as both latter assignments are too scary for family life.
I learned to navigate the languages, markets and cultures along the way. Can trap a rat, live with lizards in the kitchen, run a staff of household help (tricky in a foreign language), bargain with the best of ‘em in the open markets, and understand much about female life in the Middle East.
My post “corporate wife” careers besides teaching include being a travel agent in Florida (with great side trips!); on to Dallas and Fashion Wholesale Markets, and Retail Sales. I spent enough time in the Boutique to earn a lifetime discount at Stein Mart stores everywhere. Woo-Hoo!
All three of our kids live in Dallas, with four grandkids nearby…It’s HOME. Our only son, Steve, a reserve naval officer and father of the four g-kids, safely returned from a year of duty in Afghanistan…..so, full circle, we are still very much a patriotic family.
The class at James Blair welcomed me in my Senior Year of High School…a hard transition after 3 years of high school in Germany….and my JB time created some of the fondest memories of my youth! I well remember the Midnight Riders, New York Trip!, MacBeth; Blair’s newspaper, JayBee football (go Manny!), Larry driving the big school bus, fund raising for Louise as Queen (Red Cross? Leon was King,) night trips along Colonial Parkway…et al! It was a short but glorious run for me at JB……Look forward to visiting with everyone FIFTY years later!
ELIZABETH (LIZ) ATKINSON DEPUTY
