Special Collections Division the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Vol. XV * No. 2 * Fall  2001

Seek and Ye Shall Find an Aid
By Shirley R. Rodnitzky

The culmination of several months of processing by archival students has resulted in descriptive finding aids for four diverse collections preserved in Special Collections: the personal papers of Robert Hanks Brister and C. A. (Ce Estus Adam) Sharp; the legislative papers of state representative Ed Watson; and the records of the University of Texas at Arlington, Office of the President, during the terms of Dr. Jack Woolf and Dr. Frank Harrison. Information about each collection was compiled from a variety of sources, and a summary of the content and organizational structure is provided in each guide. Completion of the processing of our collections makes them easier to use and provides the staff with a valuable resource for assisting users. Unprocessed collections, however, are almost always available for research. Exceptions include materials restricted by the donor, items that require preservation treatment, and extremely large collections for which there is no comprehensive inventory.

If any of the following collections are of interest to you, please request the finding aid by name and number when you visit the library. The finding aids for the collections described here and in all future articles will be available on the Internet linked to the Web version of The Compass Rose from the Special Collections homepage at http://libraries.uta.edu/SpecColl/.

For those without internet access, a photocopy of any finding aid in Special Collections may be requested by mail or telephone for a small photocopy and mailing fee. Please contact:

Shirley Rodnitzky, Archivist
University Libraries, Special Collections
University of Texas at Arlington
Box 19497, Arlington, TX 76019-0497
Metro: 817-272-3393; Fax 817-272-7512
E-mail: rodnitzky@uta.edu

Robert Hanks Brister, 1890-1965, son of a pioneer Burleson, Texas, farm family, was a World War I army baker, math teacher, public school superintendent, Baptist deacon, and businessman. A graduate of Decatur Baptist College in 1912, he then attended Baylor College where he received a bachelor's degree in 1917, and later earned a masters degree from the University of Texas in 1928. He was principal of Ennis High School, 1914-1917, and school superintendent in Taylor, Texas, 1922-1935, and Waco, Texas, 1935-1944. He was elected president of the Texas State Teachers Association in 1938. A recognized leader in Texas education, Brister was described by the Houston Post, in 1939, as a pioneer in public school vocational and health education. He instituted off-campus tutoring for the handicapped and brought health professionals into schools to screen students for tuberculosis, poor vision, and dental decay. Brister lobbied for teacher pay raises and endorsed free school lunch programs in an era when most Texans resisted federal aid. In 1944-1947, he worked as an occupational specialist at the Veterans Administration's Vocational Rehabilitation Service in Waco and in 1950 became an insurance underwriter for Fidelity Union Life Insurance Company.

Brister married Ruby Irene Neal, of Weatherford, Texas, in 1921. The Bristers had two children, Robert Andrew Brister, who married Mary Ann Mullen, and Katharine Brister (Mrs. Shirley Maurice) Lockhart.

The Robert Hanks Brister Papers, 1786-1996 (bulk 1911-1965), document his life as a college student, math teacher, soldier, school administrator, civic leader, and Waco businessman. Correspondence, photographs, family histories and genealogies, financial records, speeches, school annuals, books, certificates, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, artifacts, and ephemera contain a wealth of information about Texas life in the first half of the twentieth century. Correspondence received during his years as a student and soldier describe farm life and contain social banter from classmates and girlfriends. Materials that document his years as an educator include speeches, reports to school boards, correspondence with colleagues, and his efforts to obtain employment upon resignation as Waco superintendent. Among Brister's World War I keepsakes are two patriotically designed handkerchiefs, an army spyglass, and a signaling mirror. An avid photographer, he illustrated his life and times with six captioned photo albums, ca. 1900-1920s. His Eastman-Kodak camera is included in the collection as well as additional family photographs that date from the 1880s. Brister advocated expanding facilities at African American schools in Waco, and he saved yearbooks from segregated Moore High School. The extensive family histories and genealogies include ties to the Eddleman, Neal, and Clark family trees.

C. A. Sharp, 1868-1954, an accountant, businessman, and farmer, grew up and worked all his life in and around Waxahachie, Texas. His primary income came from the cotton farm that he operated with his sons in Ellis County. He also had land holdings in Electra and Dimmitt counties. During his lifetime, Sharp was an accountant with the Anchor Insurance Corporation and later with the New Amsterdam Company, president of the Farmers Gin Company, and a cashier and stockholder of the Boyce State Bank. He and Mary Lucinda Morrison married in 1892 and had five children. Sharp was a respected member of the community and a guiding figure for the Sharp extended family. When he died in 1954, he left behind a large family whose roots spread from Kentucky to Texas.

C. A. Sharp's personal, farm, and business papers, 1871-1976, document his life and family in Ellis County. The collection contains personal and business correspondence, financial documents, legal documents, stock certificates, photographs, printed material, family genealogy, and artifacts. Business documents, 1891-1952, are related to his work as an accountant and bank cashier, as an officer of the Farmers Gin Company, and as a farmer and land investor. Wills and financial statements of family members, graduation certificates, a genealogy, and photographs document his position as financial advisor in the Sharp family. The C. A. Sharp Papers provide insights into the life of an ambitious businessman and farmer in small town Texas in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Dr. Jack R. Woolf, Dean of Engineering, became president of Arlington State College in February 1960, after serving as acting president from November 1958, when President Ernest H. Hereford died suddenly. Woolf’s administration ushered in the institution's transition from a two-year college to a four-year college in 1959, and the university’s change in affiliation from the Texas A&M System to the University of Texas System in 1965. Dr. Frank Harrison, associate dean of graduate studies at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, was appointed acting president after Woolf's resignation on August 31, 1968, and served as president from November 1968 until October 1972. Harrison directed the university's transition from a four-year school to a graduate university. During his tenure, twenty-two master's degree programs were instituted, and the engineering and psychology doctoral programs were approved. Harrison's term was marked by student unrest generated by objections to the school's spirit theme, "Rebels." After a close campus election in April 1971, Harrison recommended to the University of Texas System's Board of Regents that "Rebels" be replaced by "Mavericks."

The records, 1957-1973, were produced primarily during the presidential administrations of Dr. Jack R. Woolf and Dr. Frank Harrison, and include correspondence, memoranda, agendas, minutes, resumés, degree proposals, and printed materials. Although much of the collection documents the presidents’ membership on the Inter-University Council of the Dallas and Fort Worth metropolitan area, the general work of a university president especially during the 1960s and early 1970s when counter cultural and civil rights movements were active on campus is of special interest. This small collection fills the gaps in two larger collections of the above administrations' records preserved in Special Collections: AR297, 30 boxes (12.9 linear ft.), 1954-1972; and AR298, 12 boxes (4.8 linear ft.), 1965-1975.

Ed R.Watson was born in 1920, in Wallisville, Texas, and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the Korean War. In 1947, he joined the Shell Oil Company as an oil field operator and worked there until his retirement in 1984. He married Susan Geraldine Eaves in 1948. Watson was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1972, and served eight two-year terms representing District 17, Deer Park, near Houston. His particular interest in union activities and issues led him to serve on the Labor Committee, the Environmental Affairs Committee, and the Committee on Employment Practices. He was a delegate to the unsuccessful Texas Constitutional Convention of 1974, which attempted to modernize and revise the Texas state constitution. A long-time member of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers International, Local 3-467, he served as its vice president and president. In addition, Watson was on the executive board of the Harris County chapter of the AFL-CIO, and was involved in many civic and charitable organizations. He currently lives in Houston where he serves as liaison to Congressman Ken Bentsen.

The Ed Watson Papers, 1966-2001, document his sixteen years in the Texas Legislature. They include correspondence, proposed bills, news releases, reports, speeches, maps, newspaper clippings, petitions, pamphlets, certificates, questionnaires, photographs, and a scrapbook. The bulk of the collection is constituent correspondence, 1973-1979. Correspondence and newsletters regarding the failed Texas Constitutional Convention are included. The newspaper clippings reveal Watson's legislative activities and describe issues before the legislature. Photographs of Watson show him with Governor Ann Richards, Congressman Jim Wright, Senator Edward Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Geraldine Ferraro other prominent Texas and nationally recognized Democratic leaders. The scrapbook, 1986-1988, contains letters, snapshots, memorabilia, and printed materials from his last term in office. Personal papers and family correspondence comprise a small part of the collection.

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