Texas in the rear-view mirror

After living and working as a geologist in Corpus Christi, Texas, for several years, we moved back to El Dorado in 1975, bought a small house in Goodwin Heights, and began construction on our current home on Calion Road. The first order of business was to remove the run-down Palace Beer Joint and associated farmhouse and barn.

We knew a few couples from high school and college, and a friend of Vertis’ invited us to a grand-opening party of an antique store owned by a prominent individual.

We were met at the door by her husband. His first words were, “So you’re the SOB who took down the Palace.” It had been turned into a convenient shell for some of the wellto-do in town to drink beer and play shuffleboard.

I laughed and said, “Well, you should have bought it.” A bumpy start to a social life.

In early 1975 I took an office in the downtown Lion Oil Building. After a couple of years there, I bought and renovated the old (1919) Bank of Commerce building up the street.

I was still working as an oil and gas exploration geologist, doing all my work in northeast Mississippi and just across the line in Alabama with my friend and partner Joe Baria. Our method of oil exploration was to arrange for financial partners, drill, find oil or gas production, then sell it. We had made a significant sale when a couple of things happened to change my focus in life.

In 1978, the buildings in downtown El Dorado were a near slum, with an occupancy rate of 15-20 percent. A failed 1960s attempt to create an enclosed shopping area around the courthouse was a failure, and when the city and Chamber of Commerce decided to open the area back to two-way traffic, I purchased three empty buildings on Main Street and renovated them. They leased immediately.

A few years later a local company applied to the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission for a permit to incinerate toxic PCBs. I took the lead in organizing a protest to oppose the permit, and the state agreed to a meeting in the El Dorado municipal auditorium to answer our concerns.

We were going to boo, and boo we did. The meeting turned out to be a disaster, because every time a company representative stood up to speak, we booed as long as he testified.

The meeting got chaotic and was canceled, and the next day the leaders of the protest were gathered in my office when then Gov. Bill Clinton called. We had supported him from the time he ran for Arkansas’ attorney general, and were on a first-name basis with him. Vertis answered the phone, and the governor asked, “Vertis, what happened last night?”

She answered, “All hell broke loose, Bill.”

He answered: “I’m going to appoint Richard to the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission.”

The next day, the Arkansas Wildlife Federation had a fit: Appointing an oilman to the Commission’s environmental chair? I met with the the federation’s executive director and said, “Give me one year, and if you are not satisfied with me, I’ll resign.”

He grudgingly agreed, and the year passed. Then, at its awards ceremony, I was named the 1989 Conservationist of the Year. I served six years on the Commission, including one year as chairman, and during that time I was elected president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation three times.

After our three buildings leased so quickly, we decided to continue buying downtown property. These solid brick buildings had been neglected by their owners; when we renovated them, they were leased immediately. Our focus was on Main and Jefferson streets, which became the core of our property holdings.

During that time, I took over what was left of the entity that constructed the downtown pedestrian mall, which by then consisted of a pay-for-parking lot behind First Baptist Church. The lot brought in around $10,000 a year. I took the funds, worked with matching programs from the Arkansas Forestry Commission, then over the next 10 years as the city cut its sidewalk planting locations we planted over 1,000 downtown trees.

Vertis led the way in recruiting new and existing businesses to move downtown. She started El Dorado’s Main Street program, and in 2009 our downtown work was recognized in Chicago by Main Street America at as America’s Best Main Street.

During that same period, I was active in environmental issues such as leading a winning fight to keep a landfill from being put on the National Buffalo River’s watershed and picketing the Crater of Diamonds State Park to oppose it being changed to a commercial venture.

My support of Governor Clinton took me to New Hampshire where I campaigned as his environmental representative to counter a hit by Gov. Jerry Brown from California. Many of the issues I supported weren’t popular with some Arkansawyers, and although I made lasting friends, my opposition created significant resistance.

When my PC&E re-appointment came up, Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who had become a good friend, commented, “Richard, you have made so many enemies I couldn’t get your reappointment approved.”

When I was in the Libyan Sahara Desert working for Exxon, to break the boredom I started writing my first novel. Later, after putting down writing for 20 years, I wrote a Christmas novel, and worked hard to promote it. It sold over 6,000 copies.

But promoting books takes time, and I made the same decision I had made when I turned down running for the Texas State Senate. I couldn’t afford to spend the amount of time it would take to properly promote a new book with my oil and gas activities plus the downtown renovations. So the next 29 books are all self-published. They are fiction and non-fiction, and they are available on Amazon.

I feel as if I’m living an old Chinese proverb: “May you live in interesting times.”