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Region 12

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Meet the Regional Director — Paul M. Smith

Regional News — March 20-May 24, 2010

The Hill Country Archeological Association met in Kerrville, Texas on March 20 with Ron Ralph speaking on “Fort Jefferson-The Gulf Gibralter.”

The Southern Texas Archaeological Association had its quarterly meeting in San Antonio, Texas on April 10 with Dr. Ann Scott and Martha Doty Freeman speaking on “San Antonio Drainage Systems: Upper Leon Creek and Salado Creek-Historical and Archeological.”  The new officers were recognized with Cathy McCool as Chairman, Wilson McKinney as Vice Chairman, Candy Smith as Secretary, and Bruce Moses as Program Chairman.

The Nueces-Frio Archeological Society met in Uvalde, Texas on May 8 with Dr. Tom Hester speaking on “An Invitation to the TAS 2010 Field School in June and its Site Significance.”  The post-talk artifact identification went on for another hour afterwards.

The HCAA met in Kerrville, Texas on May 15 with Kristi Miller Ulrich from UTSA’s Center for Archeological Research speaking “Ceramics from the Perez Ranch, the First Spanish Ranch in Bexar County.  The HCAA is planning to start a web site with Dr. John Benedict, Al Luther, and Kay Woodward as the initial committee members.

Of special note is the coming 95th birthday party for Tom Miller, a noted avocational archeologist, at the Woodwards’ house on May 29 in Kerrville.

Marybeth Tomka – Footnote to Paul’s report:

Antonio Figueroa, of the CAR staff and a PhD. student in Anthropology at UTSA, spoke on the Salado drainage; Scott and Freeman spoke about Leon Creek.

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Paul M. Smith     E-mail: region12@txarch.org

Paul Smith was born in Fort Worth and lived in Uvalde, Texas from the second grade, and graduating from high school in 1959.  He grew up surface hunting artifacts with his family.  He attended Texas A&M College during 1959-63.  Paul was in the Aggie Band and graduated with a History degree.  Upon graduation he was commissioned into the Air Force and stationed in Abilene, Texas.  While in Abilene, he met and married his wife, Gwen, in 1967.  He was later stationed in Thailand, Spain (where he completed a Secondary Education Masters degree from the University of Southern California), and Italy.  Upon leaving Air Force active duty, Paul attended the University of Texas taking three years of graduate anthropology and education, later receiving his doctorate in Science Education in 1981.  After working at San Antonio’s Witte Museum in several positions, including Curator of Natural Science, he joined the civil service and was employed by the Air Force at Tinker AFB, OK and Kelly AFB, TX until his retirement in 2001.  He retired from the Air Force reserves as a Colonel in 1993, receiving the Legion of Merit.

Paul and his wife live close to Welfare, Texas (near Boerne) where their sons and wives bring their new grandchildren for visits.  Active in Boy Scouts for over 25 years at several levels and receiving recognition with the Silver Beaver and Distinguished Commissioner, he continues his involvement as an assistant scoutmaster.  Using his archeology studies, his experience at the Koster complex in 1975, and his TAS membership participation since 1964, he has led Kerrville’s Hill Country Archeological Association as president from 2004 to 2006.

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