Giving back
Volunteerism helps Anderson fulfill need to serve town
By Bobbye Alexander Behlau Special Correspondent

Ever since we moved back to Lampasas, I have considered Jim Anderson a Remarkable Lampasan. Others have confirmed that thought and suggested I write about him.

I have seen him to be the first to volunteer for difficult jobs in the church and community, then in completing the tasks he did more than was required. I was curious to see what motivated him to be so active in retirement and was pleased when he agreed to let me interview him for this column.

When I arrived at his home, we sat at the kitchen table where I had a delightful time learning about the Andersons. Jim filled me in on his youth; Pat helped with the years after 1950, when she entered his life.

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Jim Anderson was born in Rochester, Minn., home of the Mayo Clinic, and stayed there through high school graduation in 1944. His grandparents were prominent members of the Rochester community and lived on Pill Hill where the Mayo doctors lived.

Retired Shell Oil executive Jim Anderson is glad to call Lampasas home.

His father was a veterinarian and his mother a nurse, but Jim remembers times being tough during the Great Depression when people couldn't afford to take their animals to a vet and nurses were poorly paid.

Jim started working when he was 10 years old delivering newspapers, mowing lawns, caddying, bagging groceries, serving as a page in the library and as an orderly at the hospital. His most unusual job was being used as a guinea pig for Mayo Clinic medical research.

At one point in his young life, Jim said he realized his friends were mostly kids without ambition, and he was wise enough to become involved with Scouting and church activities. He credits the Boy Scouts of America and the Episcopal Church for helping him to get back on track. That has been his motivation for involvement with the two organizations in Lampasas.

Jim never expected to be able to go to college, but World War II came along with its V5 program for high school graduates, and he went directly into naval pilot training.

Pat and Jim Anderson have restored their 1880-era home on West Third Street.

The war ended before his training was complete, but he attended college through the Navy ROTC program and the GI Bill. Jim graduated in 1948 with degrees in mining engineering and naval science.

Immediately upon graduation, he went to work for Shell Oil and remained with the company until his retirement in 1986. He started as a roughneck in the oil fields of Texas and moved through various jobs in production management. Jim considers the high point of his career to be his work with the Eskimos and the Alaska state government to secure drilling permits for wells in offshore Alaska and overseeing compliance with the many environmental regulations involved.

His job required frequent moves, mostly in Texas -- to Eagle Lake, Corpus Christi, Midland, Abilene and often to Houston. It was at his first assignment at Eagle Lake that he met Pat, who was visiting a friend. Pat had requested that her blind date be tall, and Jim filled the bill. That first evening together led to a correspondence after she went home to Houston. Pat even saved Jim's letters. Jim said it was not from lack of sentimentality that he didn't; it was because he moved around so much that he couldn't afford to collect excess belongings.

The couple were married at Pat's home, and the reception followed at the same location. She said that suited her just fine because she likes to keep things simple.

Daughter Susan was born in 1953; Mary Grace, in 1957. At both births, Jim's grandmother came from Illinois to stay six months to help with the babies.

After their daughters started school in Midland, moving around became less desirable so Jim turned down assignments to Borneo and Costa Rica.

In the 1960s, the Anderson family discovered Central Texas and bought a place at Bend when the girls were 7 and 10. They spent many vacations there, and the girls were involved in all improvement projects. Jim remembers the tree house they built as having special significance. Jim and Pat are pleased that one daughter recently bought a vacation home on the Colorado River near Lometa so her three children could have some of the same experiences she had.

In 1987 after Jim retired, the couple settled in Lampasas and started remodeling the Manual home on Third Street that was built in 1883, around the same time the courthouse was constructed.

The house, with its 13-foot ceilings, is just right for Jim and Pat. It features a living room, dining room and kitchen on one side, and across the wide hallway are the master bedroom, a study and bathroom.

The guest room in the turret at the end of the tall stairway includes a bath and an entrance to the upstairs porch. The Andersons also have a carriage house in back that can be used for guests. That's where the couple lived for several years while remodeling the main house.

In all Jim's years of moving around, he hadn't had much time for community or church involvement. He has really made up for his lost time, though, serving as senior warden and in many other positions at St. Mary's Episcopal Church; working with the Boy Scouts, where he received the Silver Beaver Award, the highest that can be given locally; as a member of the Lions Club in Lometa and in helping start one in Lampasas; as a charter member of the Oak Hill Cemetery Association; a member of the Lampasas County Historical Commission; chairman of the United Fund and Red Cross; and serving on the City Council for five years.

Jim says his best achievement is his long marriage to Pat and the successes their daughters have seen in their personal lives and careers. One daughter works as a manager for Shell International, stationed in the Netherlands; the other is a surgical technician in Minnesota.

When asked if he had any advice for parents, Jim said he and Pat had tried to give their girls responsibilities at an early age and then released them to make their own decisions.

The Andersons have traveled extensively since moving here, although they say they're always happy to return home.

Jim thanked the community for its acceptance of his family. He especially remembers the interest residents showed when their house was remodeled, and how friendly John Kyle and Betsy Oliver were when the Andersons first moved here. He appreciates the way the town has given him a chance to "pay back" for his many blessings.

Bobbye Alexander Behlau was born in Lampasas and graduated from LHS in 1946. After living in San Antonio for 50 years where she was an elementary school principal, she and her husband, Joe, have retired in Lampasas.

Mrs. Behlau is a descendent of the Alexanders and the Davises who settled here in the 1800s. She can be contacted at 556-4076 or at bbehlau@earthcomm. com.