04 Feb 2007 #0705.html

Alf Klaviness

. . .

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to this week's "Thoughtlet."

These words are my personal diary and a weekly review of ideas, beliefs, thoughts, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you: my children, my family, and my friends.

"Several months ago I attempted to take my friend Alf Klaviness to lunch (see #0627.html and #0703.html). He had to cancel at he last minute because his son Ken came into town from Dallas. This week I finally got around to following up on my good intentions, only to find out Alf doesn't eat much lunch. He ate a crab cake appetizer and drank some water. No bread, no soup, no main meal. I ate some lobster bisque, a smoked salmon salad, bread and butter, and water. Guess it is obvious why Alf is thin, and I'm not!

On looking back over the week, my visit with Alf stands out. I have not previously dedicated a Thoughtlet to Alf, and so this seems appropriate. After all, Alf is almost 93. When he turned 88 he told me he just finished his 20 year plan, and he was looking forward to when he completed this plan so he could do his next 10 year plan (see #0238.html). This week he told me he has cut back on his planning, and he only works on 1 year plans now. He still does his push-ups and deep knee bends every morning, and enjoys doing them. And it was obvious the years are taking their toll. So let me start by telling you why Alf is important to me.

First a review of searches through the Thoughtlets. In #0010.html I mention a meeting with Alf and say I will write a couple of Thoughtlets about Alf in the future. I guess this is one of those, and it is seven years later. A few weeks later, #0013.html, I mentioned seeing the latest results of his downhole pulsar test, and how the data look like he is going to change drilling all over the world. In #0035.html and #0036.html I mentioned Alf bought my lunch at a H.E.S.S. [Houston Engineers & Scientific Society] Lifetime Members luncheon, giving me my first opportunity to listen to John Lienhard in person, the creator of 'The Engines of Our Ingenuity.' In #0045.html I refer to giving Alf a copy of W3D Journal Edition 13. In #0046.html I refer to taking a copy of The Dynamic Oil & Gas Prospectus to Alf, and how some folks from GSH (The Geophysical Society of Houston) doing an oral history were talking to him. In #0101.html I refer to a famous old Mexican Restraurant which Alf Klaviness attempted to buy for the GSH a few years ago. Alf was involved in the Walden 3-D planning meeting at Greenway Plaza back around 1988 with Bill Bavinger, Ray Gardner, Rick Duran, Chris Schmidt, and others, which I referred to with a little more detail in #0111.html and #0424.html. Alf took me to look a this property once, with, as I recall, one of the ideas being it could be a basis for my Walden 3-D new community experiment. It is now an apartment complex.

In #0112.html I refer to taking Alf and his friend Joe Watson to lunch at A Taste of Texas. I was attempting to get Joe to let me take over his oil company, which was a series of pipelines gathering systems in the counties west of Houston (see also #0151.html and #0206.html). In #0119.html I refer to being a room monitor at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), at Alf's request. It turns out Alf was the individual that started the OTC (see #0338.html), and he has had several awards because of the impact the OTC has had on the oil industry. In #0207.html I refer to spending a day with Alf in Brookshire. I still recall the day Joe Roberts told me about this old guy that went out to Brookshire, told them where to drill, and opened up a large new extension to the Brookshire oil field. This was Alf, and he showed me the discoveries, as well as the prototype of his downhole pulsar. To highlight what a small world it is, our neighbor on the South, where the Lozier's live now, was the engineer responsible for ongoing production at the Brookshire oil field before his heart attack.

I introduced Alf to Horace Snyder and Johnny Kopecky when we were talking about working with their new oil company #0212.html. I've worried about Alf (see #0426.html) when he has not been at a POPS (Pioneer Oil Producers) Meeting I've attended (he recruited me to join POPS), and it is a highlight when he is there (see #0604.html). At the most recent SEG, when Robert Winsloe came up looking for data offshore Alaska, I thought of Alf, called him on my cell phone, and handed the phone to Robert (#0641.html).

It is amazing how after 11 years of writing these words, certain themes seem to emerge. Alf Klaviness is definitely one of those themes. He, like each of you, has brought pure joy into my life. Now that I have collated and summarized when I have referred to Alf in previous Thoughtlets, let me write a little bit about some of the things I know about Alf. Alf's family is the famous Klaviness Norwegian shipping line. When John D. Rockefeller got started in the oil business, he hired the Klaviness family to build and run his tankers. This was Alf's grandfather. Alf was born in Galveston, and because the shipping business grew so fast, his family ended up moving to New Orleans when he was very young. Mostly he was raised in New Orleans. He graduated from LSU (Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge). His University class mates have had a major impact on his life. He went to work for Texaco, and they sent him to Columbia, where he worked for 3 years before coming back to the states to get married. He says it was hard working in the jungles of Columbia, and it was better than working in the swamps of Louisiana. When he got engaged to his first class wife Lee, he had a little bit of money saved up from his time in Columbia. They decided to invest in land, and identified 40 acres in far west Houston in back of a little red brick store. They put down a deposit on this land, and went to Huntsville for the weekend to celebrate their engagement with Lee's parents. This Sunday was December 7th, 1941 - Pearl Harbor Day. Alf was already in the Navy, and knew he would be called up. So he and Lee went back to the man they had paid the deposit to, and talked him into giving them back their deposit. The little red brick store was at the corner of Westheimer and South Post Oak, and the 40 acres was where the Galleria now stands.

Alf quickly rose through the ranks, and became a ship commander (I don't know what class). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halsey%27s_Typhoon says that "On December 17 [1944], Task Force 38 (TF38) [of the 3rd fleet] was operating about 300 miles east of Luzon in the Philippines Sea. TF38 consisted of seven fleet carriers, six light carriers, eight battleships, 15 cruisers, and about 50 destroyers." This article refers to three of the destroyers being sunk, and Alf has told me that his ship should have sunk, like other similar ships. The article also says "Some ships experienced rolls up to 70 degrees and damage suffered by the fleet was severe." During February and March of 1944 Alf's ship was supporting soldiers in the battle of Iwo Jima. He saw the flag raised on Mount Suribachi. Reed Peterson, Alan and Brent Peterson's dad (all of whom are in the Nottingham Country Ward) also saw this same event. Alf's ship was the lead ship going into Tokyo Bay for the formal surrender on September 2nd, 1945. He told me they did not know if the Japanese were serious. They had been told to lower their guns, and some were not lowered, because they were damaged, and Alf led the way for the occupation. Because I knew all of this, I apologized when I drove him to lunch in our Toyota Prius. He was very philosophical in his response.

Alf retired from Texaco. He went to work for another company and retired from it. Then he started Klaviness Research. I first met Alf when he showed up at the University of Houston and donated a 7 computer cabinet system called Geoline. Geoline was the first seismic waveform filtering / deconvolution tool. It was made of vacuum tubes, and you could twist the dials and filter a single seismic trace in real time. Through Klaviness Research, Alf has won several patents. These include his pulsar, which is a downhole tool which thumps the bottom hole and gives a seismic signal which can see ahead of the drill bit. Once Alf was responsible for a drilling rig that hit shallow gas and went down in the Gulf of Mexico killing several people on the rig. The pulsar is one of several projects he has worked very hard on to keep this from ever happening again. One of his ideas is that everyone who has a swimming pool should purchase a mud pump, like is used at drilling rigs, so they can use it to put out a fire if their house ever catches on fire. I've wanted to do this ever since he told me about it, and we have never had the money. Alf also has a patent for a marsh buggy, that allows easier movement in the Louisiana marshes. One of the most interesting things he is still working on is a counter-rotating propeller, like is used on a torpedo to balance out the effects of torque. To prototype the invention, he has put little rockets on bicycle tires, with fins so the device flies up like a helicopter. I could go on, and I'll save a few comments about Alf Klaviness, for when I describe our Thursday lunch below.

After Sharing Time (0704.html), Sunday was quiet. I started in earnest on preparing notes for the meeting Bowen has set up on Galveston Futures on March 2nd (0709.html). I have put a lot of time in on this project this week, and I'm pleased with how it is coming together. You can check it out at http://www.walden3d.com/Galveston.

Monday I learned Lee Bell is going to have an angiogram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiogram). It is possible they will have to put one or more devices to open up some of the arteries in his heart. Sounds dangerous to me, and he is pretty calm about the process. His Doctor has done over 600 of these operations, and it is now quite routine.

Monday at work was spent picking velocity data. Joe Roberts called me in the evening to talk about his investor in my Colorado County project. Joe is like John Benard, all talk and no delivery. Oh well! Monday evening I spent time reading the Time magazine that is about the brain. Still haven't finished it, as there is a lot of very interesting articles. I also worked on the Galveston presentation and watched '24' with Andrea. Melanie called with five stories about Colby:

  1. Trying to wake Colby up he said, 'Do I have to? I really like my dream! I'm making new friends.' Melanie asked, 'What are their names?' Colby responded, 'I'll ask them when they come back.'
  2. Melanie had been ignoring the kids because she was working very hard on a nice New Beginnings for her Young Women (and having to work with an insecure out of control mother of one of her Young Women). She hugged Colby and said, 'You're so amazing!' He replied, 'And smart.' Then he looked at her and said, 'And handsome.' So Melanie asked, 'What did I miss?' And Colby said, 'Super Cool!'
  3. Colby's favorite relative is Poppy, whose native language is Spanish. Colby had something he wanted to remember, and following Melanie's example he said, 'You have to write it down?' Poppy explained he can not write in English, just Spanish. Colby said, 'Write it down. If you can write it down you can read it.'
  4. Colby had a red container that goes over a night light, and he excitedly called to Melanie and asked her to come in the bathroom. He placed the red container in the sink and turned on the water and said, 'The night light cover is like a body, and the water is like a spirit, and when they get together they move.'
  5. Colby said, 'Dad! I have a really good idea on how we can make a lot of money and not have to work very hard for it. All we have to do is cut out paper in the shape of money and then - draw our own money!!' And so, Jared taught Colby how to copy a $20 bill on the copy machine - which actually turns out very realistic - and then had a talk about how this was only play money and it was against the law to use this kind of money in a store.
I love these stories, and hopefully you will also. I expect each of you have similar stories going on in your lives, or for those with children, in the lives of your children. Maybe you don't share them because you don't want me to write about them? If you don't mind my sharing them, maybe this is a way the Thoughtlets could meet the original goal of being bidirectional.

Tuesday I received two copies of the following e-mail from the Department of Energy, one for Leon Thomsen's submittal, and one for the pdf file I sent because all of the formatting was lost in Leon's submission:

'Hello, The Department of Energy's Office of Oil and Natural Gas received your resume for nomination to the Unconventional Resources TechnologyAdvisory Committee on 01/26/07. Thank you for applying to serve as a member on this Committee. Have a good day. Natenna Dobson Physical Scientist Office of Oil & Natural Gas 202-586-8020'

I was pleased to have made it this far in the selection process. Time will tell. Melanie sent several e-mails Wednesday morning. One included a link to http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/stories/fit.htm, which was the following article about her:

'January 22, 2007 By Becky Bowman The Enterprise Modest attire for local women frustrated with limited choices Fareedah Abdul-Jabbar, a 51-year-old realtor from Beaumont, has been frustrated with a lack of modest offerings when it comes to clothing. Abdul-Jabbar's Muslim faith dictates that her arms, legs and head should be covered, and that she should not wear form-fitting attire. But Abdul-Jabbar said that's often a difficult task and was especially hard when her daughters, now adults, were growing up. The married mother said she often bought her daughters' clothing one size bigger so it would fit more loosely. "I was more or less forced to buy larger clothing," she said. "I never really bought their actual size, just so that the clothing would not fit them form-fitting." In Southeast Texas, Abdul-Jabbar isn't the only woman looking for a more modest fit. And though local women say the situation is improving, the search for nonrevealing attire, be it for religious or simply personal standards, has often been a frustrating one. Melissa Moore, 35, of Vidor, is a parent who's concerned about how she dresses, for her own sake and for the example it sets for her 7-year-old daughter. "I don't think it's important to show as much skin as some people feel inclined to show," said Moore, a stay-at-home mom. "I don't want to dress that way, and I don't want to encourage that for my daughter." "People take me more seriously when I'm better dressed," she added. That trend toward modesty, however, isn't taking the nation by storm, however, said Howard Davidowitz, a retail analyst based in New York. "I don't think there's a massive trend or any trend in retailing for more conservative, that I can see," said Davidowitz, chairman of the national retail consulting and investment banking firm Davidowitz & Associates Inc. What retailers seem to be discussing instead, he said, are embellished jeans and color palettes. For women here, though, the need sometimes is for a suitable fit as much as it is for more cover. As a first-time mom, 25-year-old Ashley Behn found many of her shirts were taking a hit. Her newborn son was constantly pulling on them, and the stretched-out tops too often revealed her back and bra straps. "I just felt like a slob," Behn said. In Beaumont, Behn found a solace in Shade Clothing, a company started in 2004 in Utah by a woman who was frustrated with a lack of clothing items that were both modest and stylish, according to Shade's Web site. Shade's product line offers shirts that are a little longer, to cover midriffs and backs, as well as not-too-wide necklines, so the shirts don't slide around, said Melanie Wright, 27, who works as a personal shopper for the company from her home in Vidor. Behn now owns 26 of Shade's shirts, which she wears either alone or under sleeveless shirts to prevent showing skin or undergarments, she said. "I wear 'em almost every day," she said. The price for the shirts is affordable even for a young mother, said Behn, who now carries Shade's maternity line at Belle Maman, a maternity shop she manages in Beaumont. "They're all around $20, which is not bad for a shirt that you wear every day," she said. The Utah-based owner of Shade, Chelsea Rippy, is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Wright said - and so is Wright. But Wright said she sells the clothing to both Mormons and non-Mormons - to women who want to cover up. Clothing, mostly t-shirts and hats, only makes up about 1 to 2 percent of the merchandise at Lifeway Christian Store on Dowlen Road in Beaumont, manager James Peterson said. The apparel, he said, usually consists of baseball caps or t-shirts - typical American apparel, but with a Christian message. While Peterson said the clothing isn't risky or flashy, it also doesn't appear made to be specifically "modest" or "conservative." Nonetheless, he said he receives positive feedback from customers. "Most parents do appreciate the clothing we have," Peterson said. They say, he added, "'This is better than what I see at the mall,' or, 'This is better than what she's wearing now.'" Like Behn, Moore now shops at Shade - but she also said department stores, such as Macy's and Kohl's, seem to be carrying more modest apparel these days. The one area where she still has trouble, she said, is in formal attire, relating a recent frustrating experience with finding a dinner party dress. "They're absolutely immodest," Moore said of formal and semi-formal selections. "They're either sleeveless or they're strapless." Aside from being revealing, that also makes the dresses difficult to wear, she said. "To me, it's just more comfortable to wear them without trying to hold them on all night," Moore said. Abdul-Jabbar also said she's noticed a trend toward more modest clothing, including longer, beautiful skirts, at department stores. She wasn't sure why that might be. "I think to myself, 'Whatever it is, I'm grateful,'" Abdul-Jabbar said. "It would have made life so much easier for me had my daughters been able to have more of a selection," she said. bbowman@beaumontenterprise.com.'

Thursday was my long awaited lunch with Alf Klaviness. As I attempted to describe above, everyone needs a 93 year old friend. Especially when they are as much of a jewel as Alf is. I guess I named this week's Thoughtlet after my friend because I realize he will not live forever. I turned the lunch into more than a lunch. It was an introduction of Alf to Geokinetics, with the idea being Geokinetics could use his Alaska spec seismic data as a way to get into the spec seismic sales business. Lee was not able to be at the lunch, because he was having his operation. However, he arranged for Jim White to come. This was my first time to talk to Jim at any length. It turns out Alf got lost in the parking lot, and was a half-hour late, which gave me a little time to talk to Jim about my seismic acquisition best practice work (http://www.walden3d.com/og2). I had sent an e-mail to Jim, at Dave Johnson's suggestion, several months ago. Jim said he did not remember seeing it. However, he seemed interested in what I told him. He was about to leave when Alf arrived. I had Alf come in and tell Jim about the property he purchased and gave back, while I recorded it for this Thoughtlet (see http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Friends/070201_Alf_Klaviness/mov08094.mpg). Alf is a little quiet in the movie, but it is absolutely wonderful. Especially when he realizes he is looking down at South Post Oak and Westheimer where the little red brick store was.

Alf is somewhat of a ham, and having started with this story, he proceeded to tell us another one. He described how after the war he was picking seismic gathers for Texaco, and decided it would be better if he taped them together to make a section. According to him these were the first seismic sections ever made, and when the President of Texaco saw them, he sent a memo out telling all geophysicists to do this. I also captured this story as a movie (see http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Friends/070201_Alf_Klaviness/mov08101.mpg). Jim White was suitably impressed. Even more so when Alf said he only had one copy of his location map, and I used my little camera to capture the map so I could send it to Jim. Then Alf and I went to our lunch. Alf is a big fan of Andrea, and a highlight of our conversations was his desire for him and Lee and Andrea and I to go out to dinner some time together. I look forward to this, as I expect anyone who has read this Thoughtlet can see.

Friday I had lunch with another good friend, Gary Crouse. I could write similar stories about Gary. This is getting too long, so I'll only mention he was one of the marine guards for John F. Kennedy. When Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Gary was with the Presidential helicopter in Washington D.C. They did not know if the country was going to war, and it is quite a story. Later he was a courier in Washington D.C., and knew most of the characters in the Watergate break-in. He is working for a company that puts sensors on well heads to measure the gas flow, and had recontacted me to find out about gas hydrates and coal bed methane. We went to a sea food place and I had a bowl of gumbo and one of his crab cakes. It was so much fun telling each other stories. One that I forgot, and which has had a major impact on Gary, was a saying he learned from Bob Limbaugh in the early days of Landmark: "The difference of opinion is grounds for a bet." He has used this almost weekly since then when there is a serious disagreement. He only bets a single $1.00 bill. However, he has found this to defuse almost any major disagreement. Gary pointed out it is not the money, it is the principle. And he finds both sides work hard to show they are right, just to win the $2.00 bet. When I got back to the office, Dave Agarwal and Les Denham walked down the hall together to give me a check for II&T's usage of my Landmark license. The Nigerians finally paid, and the check was for $16,300, which definitely takes off some of the financial pressure I've been feeling and wrote about last week (0704.html). Friday evening I worked on Galveston Futures, then Andrea and I watched Numb3rs, then I kept working until about midnight.

Saturday I spent all available time working on Galveston Futures. I was going to trim the Crape Myrtles, and Andrea wants to hire someone to trim all of the oak trees, so I'm going to let them do the Crape Myrtles. We did go over to the church to one of my new Primary class member's baptism. Grace Harlin's baptism was perfect, like her family, as summarized by the program:

' Baptism of Grace Anne Harlan Saturday, February 3, 2007 Nottingham Country Ward Katy, Texas The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Presiding Bishop Harlan Conducting Member of Bishopric Opening Song "When I Am Baptized" Opening Prayer Dale Smith Talk "Baptism" Kay Harlan Baptism of Grace (by her Dad, William Harlan) Witnesses Paul Campbell John Campbell Talk "The Holy Ghost" Shirley Campbell Confirmation of Grace (by her Dad, William Harlan) Remarks Member of Bishopric Closing Song "Love One Another" Closing Prayer Jill Campbell Pianist Kelli Smith Chorister Paula Teague'

At 6:00 we went over to Pat and Jacque Heaney's for the first dinner group the ward has sponsored since I was the Activities Committee Chairman (../0203.html, ../0238.html, and ../0241.html). I really enjoyed it. I wore a short-sleeve shirt so folks would see all of the ant bites on my arms from helping Pat with his plumbing problem last week (0704.html). No one noticed, and it wasn't necessary to add to the conversations. Bishop and Ellen Camp, Matt and Tiffany Feil, the Heaney's and Andrea and I were there. The dinner was quite formal. The discussion was a lot of fun. Part of it reminded me of an e-mail Audrey forwarded to me Friday evening, which says (and a cartoon in today's Houston Chronicle):

'could these deaths all be true? Hillary for President? Just a quick refresher course lest we forget what has happened to many "friends"of the Clintons.
  1. 1-James McDougal - Clinton 's convicted Whitewater partner died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr's investigation.
  2. Mary Mahoney - A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown . The murder happened just after she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment in the White House.
  3. Vince Foster - Former White House counselor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock 's Rose Law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head. Found in FortMarcy Park, lying on his back, arms by his side, no bullet found, ruled a suicide.
  4. Ron Brown - Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown's skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors. The rest of the people on the plane also died. A few days later the air Traffic controller commited suicide.
  5. C. Victor Raiser II- Raiser, a major player in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.
  6. Paul Tulley - Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock , September 1992. Described by Clinton as a "Dear friend and trusted advisor".
  7. Ed Willey - Clinton fund raiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in VA. of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.
  8. Jerry Parks -Head of Clinton's gubernatorial security team in Little Rock . Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock . Park's son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton . He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.
  9. James Bunch - Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a "Black Book" of people which contained names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas .. 10-James Wilson - Was found dead in May 1993 from an apparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to Whitewater.
  10. Kathy Ferguson- Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson, was found dead in May 1994, in her living room with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she were going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.
  11. Bill Shelton - Arkansas State Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the grave site of his fiancee.
  12. Gandy Baugh - Attorney for Clinton's friend Dan Lassater, died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor.
  13. Florence Martin - Accountant & sub-contractor for the CIA, was related to the Barry Seal Mena Airport drug smuggling case. He died of three gunshot wounds.
  14. Suzanne Coleman - Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death.
  15. Paula Grober - Clinton's speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.
  16. Danny Casolaro - Investigative reporter. Investigating Mena Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparently, in the middle of his investigation.
  17. Paul Wilcher - Attorney investigating corruption at Mena Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 "October Surprise" was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993 in hisWashington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death.
  18. Jon Parnell Walker - Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington , Virginia apartment balcony August15, 1993. He was investigating the Morgan Guaranty scandal.
  19. Barbara Wise - Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised, nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.
  20. Charles Meissner -Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.
  21. Dr. Stanley Heard - Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton's advisory council personally treated Clinton's mother, stepfather and brother.
  22. Barry Seal -Drug running pilot out of Mena Arkansas , death was no accident.
  23. Johnny Lawhorn Jr. - Mechanic, found a check made out to Bill Clinton in the trunk of a car left at his repair shop. He was found dead after his car had hit a utility pole.
  24. Stanley Huggins - Investigated Madison Guaranty. His death was a purported suicide and his report was never released.
  25. Hershell Friday - Attorney and Clinton fund raiser died March 1, 1994 when his plane exploded.
  26. Kevin Ives & Don Henry - Known as "The boys on the track" case. Reports say the boys may have stumbled upon the Mena Arkansas airport drug operation. A controversial case, the initial report of death said, due to falling asleep on railroad tracks. Later reports claim the 2 boys had been slain before being placed on the tracks. Many linked to the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.

    THE FOLLOWING PERSONS HAD INFORMATION ON THE IVES/HENRY CASE:
  27. Keith Coney - Died when his motorcycle slammed into the back of a truck, 7/88.
  28. Keith McMaskle - Died stabbed 113 times, Nov, 1988.
  29. Gregory Collins - Died from a gunshot wound January 1989.
  30. Jeff Rhodes - He was shot, mutilated and found burned in a trash dump in April 1989.
  31. James Milan - Found decapitated. However, the Coroner ruled his death was due to "natural causes".
  32. Jordan Kettleson - Was found shot to death in the front seat of his pickup truck in June 1990.
  33. Richard Winters - A suspect in the Ives / Henry deaths. He was killed in a set-up robbery July 1989.


    34. THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE DEAD:
  34. Major William S. Barkley Jr.
  35. Captain Scott J . Reynolds
  36. Sgt. Brian Hanley
  37. Sgt. Tim Sabel
  39. Major General William Robertson
  40. Col. William Densberger
  42. Col. Robert Kelly
  43. Spec. Gary Rhodes
  44. Steve Willis
  45. Robert Williams
  47. Conway LeBleu
  48. Todd McKeehan
Quite an impressive list! Pass this on. Let the public become aware of what happens to friends of the Clinton's! HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT?'

When we first heard Hillary announced she is running for President, I turned to Andrea and said, 'This is enough to get me to become a political activist.' This e-mail starts to summarizes why. Oh that we lived in simpler times when good guys wore white hats and bad guys wore black hats and one could instantly and automatically recognize the really good folks, those like Alf Klaviness!'

Since the 38th week of 1996 I have written a weekly "Thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me). Until the 43rd week of 2004 I sent these out as an e-mail. They were intended to be big thoughts which mean a lot to me. Over time the process evolved into a personal diary. These notes were shared with my family because I know how important the written word can be. Concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life, I thought this was a good way to reach those I love. It no longer feels right to send out an e-mail and "force" my kids and my family to be aware of my life and struggles.

Everyone has their own life to lead, and their own struggles to work through. I will continue this effort, and will continue to make my notes publicly accessible (unless I learn of misuse by someone who finds out about them, and then will aggressively pursue a legal remedy to copyright infringement and I will put the Thoughtlets behind a password).

The index to download any of these Thoughtlets is at http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets, or you can e-mail me with questions or requests at rnelson@walden3d.com (note if you are not on my e-mail "whitelist" you must send 2 e-mails within 24 hours of each other in order for your e-mail to not be trashed).

With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)

. . .

Copyright © 2007 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.