The First Lady of Aggieland with the "Level One Plus" friends.
“Level One Plus” Friendship
Julie Stillwagon Renken ’92, Jennifer Spears Lewis ’91, Amy Malone Crowell ’92 and Rhonda Brewer Brock ’91
There’s a popular book called “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” but you could write a similar tale about the sisterhood of the traveling doodie. Now that’s a story. The main characters are four friends who met at Texas A&M in the late ’80s: Julie Stillwagon Renken ’92, Jennifer Spears Lewis ’91, Amy Malone Crowell ’92 and Rhonda Brewer Brock ’91. They came from different parts of the state, brought together mainly through the college life ministry Aggies for Christ.
In their senior year, they decided to room together. “Unbeknownst to us, people had placed bets on how long we’d last because we all had strong personalities,” Brock said.
“Can you believe I chose to live with three psychology majors,” quipped Renken, herself a political science major.
But alchemy happened in that small house that bonded these four together for life. And it’s where the “doodie” happened. The doodie is the name they gave to an ornate plastic curtain hook that Lewis especially hated. “I yanked it off the wall and said, ‘We’ve got to get these out of here,’” she cried. But far from getting out of their life, the doodie has become a symbol of all they cherish about each other—starting with laughter.
(From left) Rhonda Brewer Brock ’91, Julie Stillwagon Renken ’92, Jennifer Spears Lewis ’91 and Amy Malone Crowell ’92 embracing a true Aggie tradition: ring dunks at the Dixie Chicken.
Whenever the friends get together, one of them will end up finding the doodie hidden among their things. The next time they get together, it will be her turn to slip the doodie into a suitcase or their host’s laundry basket or under a child’s bed. “We think it’s hilarious every single time,” Crowell said. “It’s been in gift bags at our kids’ weddings. It’s been in husbands’ offices. It’s been mailed.”
Once it’s found, the finder will text the others with a photo of where it was discovered. “It’s the element of surprise we love,” Crowell added. “It brings such joy and laughter.”
After 30 years, the doodie has become a bit fragile. It’s been super-glued and is now in a frame for its own protection. But the friendship it represents has become even stronger as they’ve gone through the ups and downs of adulthood together.
The four women call themselves “Level One Plus” friends, a term they conceived based on the idea of four levels of friendship, with level one being the closest. The plus signifies the extra intimacy they share. “These are my go-to people,” Brock said. “We have no judgment. We’re vulnerable and honest with each other. We want to help each other.” And slip one another the doodie from time to time.
The four college friends, all grown up (from left): Amy Malone Crowell ’92, Julie Stillwagon Renken ’92, Jennifer Spears Lewis ’91 and Rhonda Brewer Brock ’91.
First a Boycott, Then a Marriage
Lois “Johnette” ’70 and Jon Jarvis ’68
Their relationship didn’t begin on promising footing. Hoping to become a veterinarian, Lois “Johnette” Jarvis ’70 attended Texas A&M in one of the first classes to admit women. In an agriculture economics class in spring 1968, she was the sole female, and the other students expressed their displeasure by moving to the other side of the room. Among those on the male divide was Jon Jarvis ’68.
“It was awkward,” remembered Johnette, “but I wasn’t going to let them get me down. I wanted to get my degree, so I just kept on.”
The separation between the sexes lasted until the first test. “She ruined the curve, so I finally got acquainted with her,” remembered Jon, who realized he could use her help to pass the class.
“The first thing he said to me was, ‘Can I borrow your notes?’” Johnette said.
Lois “Johnette” ’70 and Jon Jarvis ’68 during their college years.
Not the most romantic opening, but it worked. Even though neither remembers an official first date, soon they were inseparable. In fall 1968, they were married on an Aggie football weekend.
Their marriage has stood the test of time, lasting 56 years and counting. Johnette didn’t become a veterinarian, but on their ranch in the Texas Panhandle, she has often doctored cows with Jon. She’s put her accounting degree to use on the ranch and at home, where the couple raised two kids who both became Aggies: Shanna ’98 and Scott ’00. Their children nominated them for Texas A&M Parents of the Year, which they won in 2000. The award recognized their generosity to the Aggie Ring Scholarship Program as well as their big-hearted Aggie hospitality, as they often held cookouts for Aggies whose parents couldn’t be in town for game day weekends and holidays.
The secret to their long-lasting union? “We both like to do the same things. We both like to rodeo, and we love to travel,” Johnette said. And they both love Texas A&M for imparting the values at the foundation of their marriage and for bringing them together—even so improbably—all those years ago.
From Italy—and Beyond—With Love
Lauren ’90 and Eric Fisher ’90
At her father’s encouragement to study abroad, Lauren Fisher ’90 signed up for a semester in England during her junior year. But when she heard about Texas A&M’s new center in Castiglion Fiorentino, a medieval town outside of Florence, Italy, she changed her destination and her destiny at the last minute.
That’s where she met her future husband, Eric Fisher ’90. Though she’d initially promised herself to only date Italian men, a home-grown option became more attractive as the study abroad group of some 25 students spent more time together. “Our group became tight knit really fast,” Eric said. “We had classes three days a week in this old monastery, and then our professor took us on personal tours in Florence once a week to all these magnificent places.”
“We went out to lunch one day,” Lauren remembered, “and then took a romantic walk around the edge of this old walled city. It wasn’t meant to be a romantic walk…”
“Oh yes, it was,” interrupted Eric, with a grin.
Lauren ’90 and Eric Fisher ’90 on their study abroad trip to Italy and today.
They began dating after that day, and their international college experience laid the groundwork for a globe-trotting future. “We were only in Italy for a semester, but it changed my life and the way I looked at things. The world became so much bigger,” recalled Lauren, who joined Eric when he studied abroad during law school. As part of Eric’s longtime job at Valero, the couple and their children later lived in London for three and a half years.
Now based in San Antonio, the couple has two Aggie sons. Andrew ’26 is a sophomore. Jack ’21, who served as a Texas A&M Foundation Maroon Coat, started a small scholarship program while on campus. And of course he studied abroad—in Barcelona. “We planted a little seed about that big world out there,” Lauren said. “We’re so glad to pass that on.”
Being Each Other’s Most Expensive Friends
Gerald Ray ’54 and Donald Zale ’55
It usually starts out with a phone call and the statement, “I have an idea.” It might be Gerald Ray ’54 calling his friend Donald Zale ’55, or vice versa. But the result is the same: The two lifelong friends—Ray is 91 and Zale is 90—make gifts to Texas A&M to improve some aspect of student or campus life.
“That’s why you’re my most expensive friend,” Zale said over lunch in a high-rise restaurant in Dallas, where they grew up and both now live. “Because his ideas end up costing.”
“But it’s something we’ve got to do,” replied Ray, “when the university needs help.”
Even though he had to leave Texas A&M after two years when his mother became ill, Zale, part of the Zale Jewelry family, considers himself 100% Aggie and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in 2003. While in College Station, Zale said he was protected from hazing by Ray, who was one year older. Their friendship was further cemented years after graduation when Ray, a finance major, started working for Zale Corp.
The first program they funded at Texas A&M was a guest lecture series at Mays Business School honoring their mutual friend and third musketeer Harold Kupfer ’54, who died young from renal cancer. Other projects they’ve supported together include gifts for the Corps of Cadets and a scholarship for cadets honoring Kupfer, an executive professorship in the Department of Finance and the Aggies on Wall Street program, in which Mays students spend a couple of weeks with key executives in New York City financial firms. In addition, Zale Corp. made a grant in 1980 that jumpstarted the Center for Retailing Studies at Mays.
Gerald Ray ’54 and Donald Zale ’55 have enjoyed supporting Aggieland together for many years as an expression of their longstanding friendship.
Often the pair speak together at the university. “Invariably, a student asks: ‘How have you stayed such good friends all these years?’ I tell them, ‘It’s easy. I just do what he tells me to,’” Zale said. “Those young Aggies probably think we’re a Vaudeville act that got lost somewhere around College Station.”
The two men shared a laugh, but then grew serious. “I think we both recognize that the product, which is all of these outstanding students, is a rarity in today’s world,” Ray said. “I’d say love and respect for the university is the glue of our friendship.”
“We’ve had a great time,” Zale added. “We’ve done some really goofy things, but also really fun, helpful stuff.”
“If I had a brother,” Ray said over dessert, “I truly could look you square in the eye, Donnie, and tell you that I would not love him any more than I love you.”
“And,” Zale concluded, “that’s mutual.”
Brad Reuther ’81 and John Sawyer ’81 are hunting buddies dating back to their years at Texas A&M.
On the Hunt for Fun and Laughter
John Sawyer ’81 and Brad Reuther ’81
“We’ve probably laughed more today together than we did all the last month combined,” reported John Sawyer ’81, referring to his friend Brad Reuther ’81, who was visiting him to help around Sawyer’s family farm near Hillsboro, Texas. “It’s a big stress reliever. My wife is glad he’s here to take my mind off the stress of planting corn, which is a really important time.”
Laughing is one of the things Sawyer and Reuther, who first met freshman year living in Dunn Hall, have always enjoyed doing together. Another thing is hunting, which they’ve been doing since Reuther first invited Sawyer to shoot dove in fall 1979 at his ranch in Lampasas, Texas. Together with an assortment of friends, the pair have been on annual hunting expeditions throughout the U.S. and once in Argentina ever since.
“There was a time when we weren’t seeing each other enough,” Sawyer said, “because life was busy with family and building careers. So, we made a deal that we’d spend three days hunting together every year, minimal.” Reuther recently retired from a 40-year banking career in Williamson County. Sawyer’s farm is the sole grain supplier to TX Whiskey, the official whiskey of Texas A&M Athletics this year.
The two friends’ lives are so intertwined that Sawyer’s kids call him “Uncle Brad,” and Reuther reported, “both of John’s children killed their first deer on my ranch.” Nothing is more important, they agreed, than sharing common values and a solid history. “Heck, we’ve been around each other forever,” Sawyer said. “We know pretty much everything about each other that needs knowing.” Including how to make the other laugh.
From Fish Camp to Happily Ever After
Sara ’00 and David Schmidt ’00
Back before cell phones and texting, couples had a harder time meeting up. Sara ’00 and David Schmidt ’00 are proof of that. They had first seen each other at Fish Camp in summer 1996. “We were both in the same discussion group, and I thought he was cute,” Sara said. “We danced on the last night of Fish Camp.” But the initial spark of interest didn’t lead anywhere. David had given her a phone number, but it was to his family’s home in Victoria, which wasn’t helpful once school started.
“I thought I’d never see him again,” she said, but one day during sorority rush, she ran into him in Southside Commons.
“I called her name and did that thing where I wrote her number on my hand,” said David, now a product development executive at Dell Technologies.
“But I still never expected to hear from him,” Sara said.
After meeting at Fish Camp, Sara ’00 and David Schmidt ’00 eventually married and had three kids together.
However, Fish Camp’s purpose—making connections—was fulfilled in this instance. David did call; Sara answered. There was a date, a courtship, years as Fish Camp counselors and then co-chairs, followed by marriage and three kids. “For us, Fish Camp fostered the biggest relationship you can have in life,” Sara said. To honor their experience in Aggieland, the couple has made a scholarship gift that will rotate between students in the College of Engineering and the College of Education & Human Development.
Now the couple’s oldest child, Annie ’28, left their Round Rock, Texas, home to begin at Texas A&M this fall, where she experienced Fish Camp for herself. “She knows our stories,” Sara said, “and we’re looking forward to seeing how Fish Camp will lead to some important connections of her own.”
Longtime skiing buddies Thad Sandford ’62 and Tommy Paul ’62 have skied in 50 different places together through the years.
50 Ski Areas and Counting
Thad Sandford ’62 and Tommy Paul ’62
Thad Sandford ’62 and Tommy Paul ’62 follow two rules for their regular skiing get-togethers every year. “In December or early January, we start looking where the snow is falling to select where we’re going, but it has to be somewhere we’ve never skied together before. No repeats,” explained Paul. Rule No. 2 is that they only take their wives—Ann Sandford and Janet Paul—when they’re going someplace really expensive, like Lake Louise, Canada, or the Swiss Alps.
So far, the friends have skied in 50 different places, with Taos Ski Valley and Santa Fe Ski Basin being this year’s destinations. The two couples have also expanded their travel destinations to non-ski sites as well to explore cultures around the world.
Sandford and Paul met while studying mechanical engineering at Texas A&M, and after military service took them in different directions—Sandford was in the Air Force and Paul in the Army—they reconnected at a 1983 Aggie Muster near Boston when they both lived in the area. After discovering that they’d both learned to ski in the convening years, their families joined up for a ski trip in the Northeast. “We had a wonderful time,” reported Sandford, “and we thought we ought to do it again. And we did.”
The pair met while studying mechanical engineering at Texas A&M and reconnected in the 1980s in Boston, learning then that they had both learned to ski.
With their shared background—in engineering, at Texas A&M, in the military, at executive positions in aerospace companies, as donors to programs in the College of Engineering and the Corps of Cadets, as skiers, fishermen and generally curious travelers—they reported that they have much to discuss whenever they’re together.
“We talk about all kinds of things going on in the world. But particularly technology,” Paul said. “We always eat out on these trips, and Thad and I have continuous conversation until the meal comes. And then we always have the same dessert: one scoop of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and a cup of black coffee. Just like any other Aggie, we create traditions.”
Coming Full Circle in AGEC 340
Ellen ’03 and Jarrod Snider ’99
For a class about the business of food production and distribution, Agricultural Economics 340 stirs up a lot of romantic memories for Ellen ’03 and Jarrod Snider ’99. In 2000, the two were working together at H-E-B and “kind of crushing on each other,” Ellen said, “but I didn’t realize we were in the same class. And then I saw him, and I found myself going to class early, trying to intersect with him.”
Her machinations paid off. The couple—both from small Texas towns—began dating, and that class underscored their commonalities, they reported. “Literally everything foundational to our relationship was about ag development and the classes and our teachers,” Ellen recalled. “We just kind of compared our ideas and our interests, and that’s when we knew we had the same vision.”
Ellen ’03 and Jarrod Snider ’99 met in an agricultural economics class at Texas A&M and are still regularly involved with the department.
Through the years—as Jarrod climbed the corporate ladder at Del Monte Fresh Produce and then as a partner in a produce distribution company, and as they ran Ellen’s family ranch and raised two sons—the pair stayed in close contact with their AGEC 340 professor, Dr. John Siebert, and one or the other would regularly speak to his class about real-world agribusiness issues. The couple has also created a scholarship for agricultural economics students.
Just recently, Jarrod told AGEC 340 students that he’d met his wife in that very class. “It was a full circle kind of thing,” he said. “I could see that some of the students were like, ‘Whoa!’”
“I’m going to go with you next time you speak,” Ellen said to her husband, which made him smile. “Just to heckle you from the audience.” Ah, sweet love.
Friends for more than 50 years, the group first met in Krueger Hall during their days at Texas A&M.
The Four Roomies and Their “Roomie Kinder”
Riki Pipes Drury ’77, Sue Ellen Metcalfe Davis ’77, Myra Krause Waters ’76 and Toni Stellbauer Baxter ’15
On their umpteenth reunion since they met in Krueger Hall 50 years ago, four former roommates were time traveling. They may have physically been in a rented cabin in Wimberley, Texas, getting ready for a game of mahjong, but emotionally they were elsewhere.
“Give us five minutes together and we’re 18 again,” said Riki Pipes Drury ’77. “We’re chatting, quipping and finishing each other’s sentences, just like we did then.”
Each woman offered ideas on what has sustained their youthful vibe and deep connection over the years. “We have chemistry, and we have a magic that is wrapped up in a lot of laughter,” said Sue Ellen Metcalfe Davis ’77, a former lecturer in Texas A&M’s English Language Institute who has given a study abroad scholarship. She currently serves on the Dean’s Development Council for the College of Education and Human Development.
“I’ve always told my children that you go to college to meet your best friends—the people who share your heart,” said Myra Krause Waters ’76. “I managed to find three others who grew up just like me and felt a lot of similar things.”
From left: Myra Krause Waters ’76, Toni Stellbauer Baxter ’15, Sue Ellen Metcalfe Davis ’77 and Riki Pipes Drury ’77.
“Here we are, four retired teachers,” added Toni Stellbauer Baxter ’15. “We still have the same likes, dislikes, and love of family and Texas A&M. And we’re just the same kind of people we were when we went to school as small-town girls. We’ve bonded through all seasons of life.”
Those seasons included children and now 18 grandchildren, many of them Aggies. They even have a name for their nine offspring, all of whom know each other: Roomie Kinder. In addition to their regular reunions—which started off as annual but now happen up to four times a year—they’ve thrown each other baby showers, attended their children’s weddings, traveled together, and in some cases, helped each other through divorces. They also celebrated Baxter’s graduate degree with a belated ring dunk ceremony, using wine rather than beer, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
And they’re looking forward to more seasons. When they leave one reunion, they’re already planning the next. “We’re not crying,” Davis said. “We’re going, ‘Okay, we’ll see you soon.’”
Kate Bradley Byars ’05 and Abigail Wilder Boatwright ’06 started the Freelance Remuda, a podcast, online community and mentorship program that serves equine media professionals.
Galloping Ahead in Their Careers—Together
Kate Bradley Byars ’05 and Abigail Wilder Boatwright ’06
When Kate Bradley Byars ’05 moved to Fort Worth to work for Western Horseman magazine in 2010, she was relieved she had what she called a “built-in friend” in Abigail Wilder Boatwright ’06, also based in Fort Worth. At Texas A&M, their orbits had overlapped but they weren’t close. They were both on the equestrian team, though Kate was one year ahead. They had similar professors and some of the same friends. But it turned out that following graduation, they’d both pursued the same niche in the media industry: Boatwright worked for Paint Horse Journal, another equine publication.
“When you go to Texas A&M, it’s a small world,” Byars said. “You can find an Aggie anywhere.”
The friends have bonded over a mutual love for horses.
Connecting on a deeper level, the two spent time together “doing things that related back to our equestrian days,” Boatwright remembered, such as going to horse shows at Fort Worth’s Will Rogers Coliseum and talking about how their formative classes helped their careers. After a few years, they both attended the American Horse Publication conference in Virginia. “We roomed together, and I would say that bonded us,” Boatwright said.
The two found that their energy levels and travel style were perfectly matched, and from then on, they traveled together frequently on work-related trips. They also discovered that their ideas about how to conduct themselves professionally were in sync. “We both have the same views on how to tell stories and how to do the actual work,” Byars reported. “I think it’s because we were molded by the same great advisors and professors.”
Eventually, after each had become freelance writers and editors in different parts of Texas, they decided to start their own side business together. The Freelance Remuda is a podcast, online community and mentorship program that serves equine media professionals and those aspiring to be in the horse publishing industry.
The two are dedicated to helping others achieve success in the field. To that end, they even lead seminars at conventions these days. The highlight of their careers so far, however, is when they were asked to speak at a Texas A&M agricultural communications and journalism class for the first time in 2017. “It was great to return to our old stomping grounds,” Boatwright said. “It was such a cool feeling to give back to the classes where we learned so much. It felt like a full-circle moment.”
After graduation, Abigail Wilder Boatwright ’06 (left) worked for Paint Horse Journal in Fort Worth, while Kate Bradley Byars ’05 (right) worked for Western Horseman magazine.
Life Is Short and the World Is Wide
Paul Brown ’86 and Randy Pierce ’86
Geography has been good to the long friendship shared by Paul Brown ’86 and Randy Pierce ’86. The two civil engineering students met at a rush party in 1983 and became great buddies even though they ended up at different fraternities. But what truly cemented their connection was when they both spent time in Dallas following graduation. Brown and Pierce call it the Golden Era.
“It was only two years, but it felt like five or seven,” Brown said. “We packed a lot in.”
“We were part of a group of single Texas A&M guys, and we were going out, living on our own and getting experience in the professional world,” Pierce said. “Paul lived next to a beer joint with a shuffleboard table. We’d win the table and keep it all night. That was our thing.”
The two were in touch sporadically for a while after Brown left Dallas to attend Georgetown University, where he earned his MBA and then began a career at a Wall Street investment firm. Meanwhile, Pierce moved to Boston for his work as an executive at Jacobs Engineering and has since given back to the College of Engineering through a scholarship. Mostly, if they saw each other, it was with groups of friends at Aggie football games. Or in airports. “I’d run into Randy sometimes. I was flying one direction, and he’d be going the other way,” recounted Brown. “It was uncanny.”
Paul Brown ’86 and Randy Pierce ’86 are longtime friends whose families regularly get together on the East Coast and overseas.
But not as uncanny as a meeting in 2005 in a grocery store on the small island of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts.
“All of a sudden I hear, ‘Randy?’ But I ignored it at first,” Pierce recounted. “I’m a fifth-generation Texas boy. I thought, ‘Nobody knows me up here.’ But then I hear my name a second time and I turn around, and it’s Paul.”
Pierce had a house in Nantucket and immediately invited Brown and his family over, which is when their annual summer tradition of grilling lobster on the barbecue pit began. Ever since then, the two Texans and their families regularly get together on the island. They also often spend Thanksgiving at Brown’s house in Connecticut or at a family vacation home in Italy.
“Our wives have very similar personalities, and they’re very good friends too,” Pierce said. “And my daughter looks up to his daughter as a big sister.”
Indeed, the two men think of each other as extended family. “When you’re this far away from Texas, you’re eager to build your extended family,” Brown added. “It makes sense to choose people with similar values. Texas A&M is our foundation.” And that holds true no matter where they find themselves.
The Fire Still Burns
Capt. Dave “Duke” Meadows ’96, Michael “Mike” Nance ’96 and Zachary Huyge ’97
When Capt. Dave “Duke” Meadows ’96, Michael “Mike” Nance ’96 and Zachary Huyge ’97 were deciding on a name for their winery based near Johnson City, Texas, the number 12 kept bubbling up.
“We bought 12 acres for the winery, there’s 12 bottles of wine in a case and there’s the 12th Man,” Meadows said. But most importantly for the three friends who bonded while working on the Aggie Bonfire in the 1990s, the number refers to the 12 people who died in the 1999 bonfire collapse—one of them Meadows’ former roommate. “It’s an ode to the 12 souls who sacrificed their lives,” Meadows continued, “to build something bigger than themselves.”
The name the trio decided on was 12 FIRES Winery & Vineyard. Fire was chosen as another tribute to the bonfire victims and to represent “our passion for making wine with 100% Texas grapes,” reported Nance, a wildlife and fisheries science major who is the winemaker for 12 FIRES.
Redpot buddies Capt. Dave “Duke” Meadows ’96, Michael “Mike” Nance ’96 and Zachary Huyge ’97 started 12 FIRES Winery & Vineyard together.
For the three Aggies, it was an easy decision to go into business together because each of them had seen what the other was made of during their days as redpots on the bonfire, where they were responsible for constructing the stack. “Once you endure that, nothing breaks that bond. Working with Mike back then, I saw his tough-as-nails attitude,” said Meadows, a political science major who handles the business side of the operation. “There was zero tolerance in the world for not getting something accomplished.”
“The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life was building bonfire,” Nance added. “If there’s anybody I could trust to have my back in a business, it would be one of my redpot buddies.”
The idea for a winery developed after Meadows—wanting to escape from a corporate job—reconnected with Nance, who was working as a winemaker for another Texas operation. Huyge runs marketing, social media and IT for 12 FIRES. Currently, the winery sells 13 varieties of wine and prides itself on being a rustic but sophisticated place in the Hill Country for people (many of them Aggies) to gather.
“The wine business is capital intensive, and you don’t get paid back for a very long time, sometimes 10 years or more,” Meadows explained. “If it wasn’t for the Aggie Network, I’m not sure we would’ve made it through the beginning, as we were only selling for a few months before the pandemic hit. We’ve seen that Aggies literally go out of their way to help other Aggies.” Now that’s something all Aggies can toast to.
Send Message to Dunae
Thank you for submitting a contact form!
Contact form was unable to submit.