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This is the transcript from the third of three interviews that Bruce Roche conducted with Dr. Flowers just prior to his retirement. Dr. Flowers (Class of 1913) was President of Southwest Texas State College from 1942-1964. In this interview, Dr. Flowers talks about the people who influenced his life and career, his relationship with his predecessor Dr. Evans, and various faculty, staff, and administrators at SWT who contributed to the success of the college. He talks about meeting Lady Bird Johnson in Washington in 1942 and how she helped get a resolution passed in Congress to give a part of Riverside (now Sewell Park) to the school. Flowers also talks about his pride in the institution and being able to work with faculty even when they disagreed. Interviewer Bruce Roche was director of the College News Service. This interview was the source material for his article “Goal: Excellence – Dr. Flowers’ Lifelong Watchword,” published in the Austin American-Statesmanon August 30, 1964.

In her second interview, Merry Kone Fitzpatrick talks about graduating from high school and attending college at SWTSTC. Along with describing her college and graduate courses and certain professors like Professor Green, Retta Murphy, James Taylor, Betty Jane Kissler, and Emmie Craddock, she discusses what the school, her first job during WWII, and her work supervising student teachers were like. She describes the then-social science division and its faculty, as well as campus buildings like Old Main and certain local characters. This interview covers the 1930s through the 1960s.

Clarence Schultz, sociology professor, shares his memories of coming to SWTSTC as an undergraduate student in the post-WWII era. Along with describing married student housing and the college's home economics program, he talks about the City of San Marcos and its businesses. He explains the class registration process and how he came to work in the university's Department of Economics and Sociology, which he joined in 1965. Mr. Schultz outlines how the Department of Sociology has evolved throughout the decades. He spends time reflecting on the university's presidents, the university's past as a teacher's college, Sewell Park's water pageants, certain faculty members like Prof. Green , Dr. James Taylor, and Dr. John Flowers, assorted student societies, and the men's faculty club.

Dr. Juel discusses the similarities and differences of the Texas State campus, the student body, and the curriculum over the 31-year span of his career at Texas State. He shares the different responsibilities he had as the school's health coordinator, dean of students, professor in the education department, and essentially disciplinarian from the 1950s through the 1980s. Dr. Juel mentions the San Marcos Ten, certain recollections of disciplinary problems, changing campus extracurricular activities, and the declining quality of education and teachers over time.