You don’t want to miss this presentation Wednesday the 10th at 11:30 at the Saltgrass Steak House (private room). Our speaker, Frank Denius, has been a major player in shaping Austin’s history since the 1950s and Mayor Tom Miller, Ben White, Mopac, etc., on up to the present with all that new construction at UT. And feel free to ask him about the Frank Denius Fields where UT’s Football team practices.
In WWII he went from Normandy to the Elb River in 11 months as a 19-year-old PFC and member of an FO team of a 105 How Btry earning 4 Silver Stars, 2 Purple Hearts, a Presidential Unit Citation, five battle stars, and promotion to E-6 and Chief of Detail. He graduated UT with a BBA and law degree, joined a small firm with prominent clients and was instrumental among other accomplishments in:
• Bringing the first Cable Company to Austin.
• Getting women admitted to Texas A&M.
• Integrating the dorms at UT and getting UT started on an integration program prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
• Managing UT’s eastward expansion from the “40 acres.”
• Managing a charitable institution dispensing some $120mm in philanthropic contributions, through which he channeled many of his own.
• Being a UT football institution in his own right, personal friends with coaches from Darrell Royal forward w/the possible exception of John Mackovic. Mack Brown said Frank had attended more practices than he had.
See http://www.purpleheartaustin.org/denius.htm and http://www.texassports.com/news/2010/7/20/072010aaa_162.aspx.