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Wednesday, July 24, 2019 • PAGE
Historical commission set for pioneer presentation From Staff Reports
History buffs in Fort Bend County will get a taste of life in the old days next month. A direct descendant of “Old 300” Texian colonist Dr. Johnson Calhoun Hunter will present a program on pioneer life in early Fort Bend County at
★ DUPRE, FROM PAGE 1 making $10,000 per year. Accountants were making about $25,000,” Dupre said. “As an orphan, I had no family system to rely on.” Following graduation, Dupre began a career with Arthur Andersen Accounting and worked as an accountant in the energy industry. Though accounting was financially fruitful, he yearned to work in education. Dupre scratched that itch by teaching Sunday school and working with the community’s younger generation. Then in the late 1980s, he went to graduate school to obtain a master’s degree in education at the Univer-
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the Aug. 20 meeting of the Fort Bend County Historical Commission. The meeting, which is free and open to the public, will start at 3 p.m. in the main meeting room of the Gus George Law Enforcement Academy at 1521 Eugene Heiman Circle in Richmond. Colonizer Stephen F. Austin in 1824 granted
Hunter a league of land on Galveston Bay at what became Morgan‘s Point. By 1829 the Calhoun family had relocated to Oyster Creek north of present-day Richmond and there developed a plantation. The Hunters’ experiences, including their flight from the advancing Mexican Army during the
Texas Revolution, form the content for the program. Presenter Robert Frost is a direct descendant of Hunter and a member of the Sons of the Republic of Texas and the Descendants of Austin’s Old 300. He is an experienced member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Speaker’s Committee.
sity of Houston. But after a year and half there, his first child was born. “I realized it was going to be difficult to reboot, so I decided to stay in accounting,” he said. Little did he know that his journey was just beginning. Opportunity knocks Dupre got his introduction to Fort Bend ISD while working for an energy company in 1995. The district needed CPAs, which paved the way for Dupre’s education journey to take flight. Later that year he began work that would take him through superintendents Don Hooper (1995-2002) and Betty Baitland (200207). In 2003, at Baitland’s urging, Dupre completed
his master’s degree nearly 15 years after he started. “She approached me and said I needed to pursue the thought of being a superintendent,” Dupre said. “She knew I had the desire, but I didn’t know how to do that.” Dupre said he needed a waiver from the Texas Education Agency to pursue that dream, because he was not a former teacher or principal. Dupre then secured a deputy superintendent spot in Pflugerville ISD in 2006. Following the superintendent’s departure four months later, he served as interim superintendent before landing the job in a full-time capacity through 2013. But Fort Bend was always in his heart.
“Fort Bend has always been a family,” Dupre said. “I was here when the district had about 35,000 students – now we have more than twice that. I knew all the families, all the principals and teachers. “When the opportunity arose and the recruiter called me – then called me a second time – my wife said, ‘You need to apply and see what God has to say about it.’” Since 2013, Dupre has taken the opportunity and run with it, using his experiences to mold young minds. In Dupre’s mind, this is where he's meant to be. “I feel as though I’m picking up where I left off in many ways,” he said.
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George Ranch hires new staffers From Staff Reports
George Ranch is welcoming three new employees to the fold. Tempestt Bui joined as Program Assistant within the Grants Department. Bui will be responsible for the management of the department’s data and grant application portal. She relocated to Fort Bend County from Rhode Island, where she previously worked at a college access nonprofit, moving the needle toward increased high school graduation rates and post-secondary success. She has also served as a board member of a community development nonprofit and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Bui earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration from St. John’s University in New York. She currently resides in Sugar Land with her husband and two- year-old son. Marla Doehring is the new Receptionist/Office Administrator, taking on
the role recently vacated by Susan Koen, who retired after 11 years of service to the Foundation. Doehring is responsible for handling front office reception and administration duties. Her professional background includes banking, office administration and retail management. She has a Bachelor of Business Administration, Management from Texas A&M University, and lives in Katy along with her daughter, son, daughter-inlaw and grandson. Donna Neuman also recently joined the Foundation as Executive Administrator, providing administrative support to the CEO and the Board of Trustees. Neuman brings more than 20 years of administrative experience in the nonprofit sector previously serving as executive director, consultant, and board member. She moved to Fort Bend County in 2012 with her husband Michael Andrepont, an oil and gas corporate attorney, along with their three children, and currently lives in Katy..
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