Freedom Rock

Members of Keep Howe Beautiful showcase the dessert table at Summit Gardens for the Keep Howe Beautiful fundraiser. Courtesy photo.

Keep Howe Beautiful held their silent auction for an attempt to raise money for the Freedom Rock they want to display at Memorial Park.

The Freedom Rock (established in 1999) is a large boulder, approximately 60 tons) where Iowa native Ray “Bubba” Sorenson II paints tributes to veterans on the rocks. He has handpainted several all over the country and only allots one per county. Grayson County’s rock will be the first in Texas.

Keep Howe Beautiful’s fundraiser will not only pay for the rock and painting, but also Sorenson’s travel expenses as he stays here throughout the duration of his work on the rock.

Janie Finney was the winner of the stained glass raffle. Courtesy photo.

A Freedom Rock located in Iowa. Photo by Donna Wormsbaker.

Grayson County Conservatives to welcome Jill Glover

Submitted—

Join Grayson County Conservatives on May 10 at 903 Brewers as they welcome RPT Legislative Committee Chairman Jill Glover. Glover will expose the truth inside and outside the classroom and how to protect our children from obscenities and the war on traditional families.

Also speaking is Jennifer Yoch who has a passion for prepping. She has amazing ideas for the newby or the veteran prepper.

6:30PM, Tuesday, May 10 at 903 Restaurant and Brewers in Sherman.

Jill Glover

Williams is a Howe High School graduate of the Class of 1977. The son of Leon and Linda Williams, the family lived in the north edge ofSherman for a specific reason so that their three boys and a daughter could attend Howe schools. Jeff Williams, the oldest of the four started school in Howe in the fifth grade in 1970.

Williams’ class of 1977 was the first to start the tradition of the ribbon-cutting ceremony which is still a part of outgoing senior activities and will be repeated in the coming weeks.

“Our class was really close,” said Williams in a 2015 Howe Enterprise interview. “We did a lot of good projects and actually helped start the fall festival. We also raised money to put a marquee sign infront of the high school. My dad was on the school board at that time and that was a special memory. We set records for the amount of money that a class would raise.” Four teachers at Howe High School stood out to Williams as being major influences at his time there. Janie Finney, Pat Stewart, Bettye Mullins, and Norman Bennett.

“Those are just some of the examples of the quality teachers that we had,” said Williams. “When I left Howe and went to Texas Tech, I didn’t know hardly anyone, but they had prepared me very well. That was a big step to go from 48 in our graduating class to go a university of 24,000.” Williams said that being in a small school meant that almost everyone was involved with a lot of projects and activities, which made everyone feel needed.

“I think that translated into our lives realizing that we needed to contribute to the community and the schools for our kids,” said Williams. “It taught us a lot of responsibility.” Williams went to state in UIL speech and served as class president for several years. Those leadership skills that would later make him mayor of a major city were being honed and developed in Howe. While at Howe High, he took a test that would tell a student what they might be suited for in a career field. Williams tested high for becoming an attorney. His score was so high in math, that the school counselor, Norman Dickey, told him to consider getting an engineering degree before law school.

Williams, with his family deeply trenched in the construction business, went on to get his civil engineering degree from Texas Tech and while there was elected vice president of student body.

“The reason I ran for that instead of president was because the vice president was the student lobbyist,” said Williams. “So, I spent my senior year in Austin and Washington D.C. a whole lot.”

Jeff Williams, HHS Class of 1977

the high-powered capital cities soured him in politics. But he wasn’t soured by a girl he metthat year that eventually became his wife.

Soon after college, he was recruited by several engineering firms and while wanting to get married, took a job and fell in love with engineering and the building communities.

Williams had his civil engineering fingerprints on projects such as The Ballpark in Arlington (now Choctaw Stadium) and Cowboys Stadium (now AT&T Stadium), Southlake Town Square, Park Central at US 75 and 635, Parks Mall in Arlington. He’s also done parks projects such as River LegacyParkinArlingtonandnumerous others. As mayor of Arlington, he was heavily involved in Globe Life Field, the new home to the Texas Rangers.

“I just really enjoyed it and enjoyed working with the communities and design things,” said Williams who decided not to go to law school and instead focus on his engineering career. That career began with the Arlington based company called Graham Associates in 1984, which he later purchased in 1988. Williams has expanded locations to Frisco and Fort Worth as wellas Arlington where he still gives strategic direction even while serving his term as mayor of Arlington.

It is most common for a mayor to be elsewhere employed while holding office. Former Mayor of Arlington, Richard Greene was the manager of Vandergriff Acura while serving as mayor from 1987-1997. It was Greene who reached out to Williams to recruit him along with dozen community leaders to provoke him to run for mayor of Arlington.

Williams took a few weeks tochew on the idea of whether or not it would affect his engineering firm. With the life expectancy now going up, it was a major consideration and factor of whether or not this would affect his life beyond the mayor’s office.

“I’m not interested in making a career out of being mayor,” Williams said in 2015. “I want to come in and help my community and get us moved to another level.” Upon taking the mayor position, Williams says that Arlington was not in bad shape, but was not to the prominent level that they need to be and (Continued on page 8)