Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 118
is completed with this responsibility in mind. The challenge is to
produce pride-instilling places for people to live, work, and play in an
efficient and imaginative manner. Land users must consider the fact
that their actions today will affect living and transportation patterns
of generations to come, perhaps even for centuries, as we see in
Europe now.
In the summer of 1973, I came to Texas to consider a land acquisition either in Houston
or in the Bryan/College Station area, the home of Texas A&M. I was fairly familiar with
both of them. I selected a site in four weeks, during which I worked and slept in a bunk
bed at the very hot intramural gym then still standing from my college days (DeWare
Field House). Jean and Charles Szabuniewicz were students at TAMU and worked as
lifeguards at the university’s pool when I was there in 1971 and had become my friends
then. At that time they had also sold me a small fourplex in the “North Gate” area, which
they managed for me. They were now the night watchmen for the gym and had access
to a room in which they kindly let me stay. Jean and Charles had arrived in Texas in
their pre-teen years from what was then the Belgian Congo, now Zaire. They are two
remarkable persons about whom we will hear more later. With Charles’ help I selected a
75.87-acre tract on the south side of Bryan, west of the college, met with the realtors,
and submitted a contract to purchase it. I agreed to buy it for $110,000. I would pay
$51,000 in cash and assume a note for the remaining $59,000. Upon the offer’s
acceptance I returned to Bolivia to prepare for the move.
My family and I arrived at College Station on January 6, 1974. I had committed all our
money to the land purchase except for a couple of thousand dollars that would have to
be stretched until I could generate revenues from the project I had envisioned. I rented
an unfurnished place to live in and bought a used car for transportation. January, being
the height of winter, was a little cruel for us because, due to the uncertainty of my ability
to generate early funds, I didn’t hook up electricity or gas to our little apartment. My wife
and children valiantly stood by me until some thirty days later when I was able to
commit to such an obligation. Doing homework by candlelight and sleeping and eating
on the floor was an experience that I think helped form the enviable character all my
children display today.
On the appointed hour of the closing date, Jan 17 1974, I went to the title company to
pay for and to take possession of the land. All my liquidity was gone. In the intervening
days I had contacted my old classmate Lee Lowery, who after receiving his Ph. D.
degree in civil engineering, was now one of the shining young stars of the university’s
engineering faculty. After listening to my plan, he told me that so far his life’s savings
were $10,000 and that he would give them all to me if I could raise the rest of the
money. My plan was to form a Texas company to purchase the land I had just acquired
and use it to develop a housing subdivision to serve the growth I expected would occur
around the university. I envisioned this growth to occur as a result of the far-reaching
changes made by the college’s regents in the mid-sixties. Enlarging the mission of the
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