This turned up yesterday–a shot of the 1952 intramural football champions, the Swivel Hip Six from Baker College:
The first thing I noticed was handsome Mike Kelley at top right.
The second thing I noticed was that there are seven of them.
And finally I noticed that the young man in jersey number 4 is Evans Attwell, ’53. I’d never seen a picture of him as a student before, had never even really thought of him as a student, but if you’d ever met him as a grown man you can see him in there.
Evans was a remarkable person and a lifelong Rice patriot who served on the board for fourteen years. Because I really want you to read it I’ve copied here the obituary written by my friend and colleague B.J. Almond when Evans died of cancer in October of 2007:
J. EVANS ATTWELL
“During his 14 years on the board, Evans Attwell helped Rice University choose a president, grapple with the impact of big-time athletics on campus,
develop our financial capability and steer a course for the 21st century,” said Jim Crownover, chair of the Rice Board of Trustees. “He was a very generous contributor to Rice, including support of scholarships and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, and we will be forever grateful for his service and dedication to Rice.”
Attwell served on Rice’s board from 1982 to 1996. He was a term governor from 1982 until 1987, when he was named a trustee. He was a member of the search committee to replace former Rice President George Rupp, and he also served on the Athletic Review Committee in 1991 that determined the cost of athletics to the university and reviewed the academics of student-athletes.
In 1997 Attwell received Rice’s Gold Medal for providing extraordinary service to the university and for promoting the ideals of its founder, William Marsh Rice.
In 1990 Attwell received the coveted Distinguished Owl Club Award, which honors outstanding leadership and meritorious service toward excellence in Rice athletics. The biennial black-tie ceremony at which this award is presented has raised more than $2 million for Rice athletics.
Rice’s J. Evans Attwell-Welch Postdoctoral Fellowships were established in honor of Attwell by the Welch Foundation in 1998. These two-year fellowships were created to attract the best doctoral recipients in nanoscience and nanoengineering to Rice.
Attwell was a member of the William Marsh Rice Society and a major individual donor during Rice’s record-breaking 1989-90 private-giving campaign. He served as vice-chair of the Baker Institute for Public Policy Leadership Committee, was a contributing life member of Rice Associates and served on the Rice University Fund Council.
“Evans had a big heart and was a great friend to many people,” said Rice trustee J.D. Bucky Allshouse ’71, who worked with Attwell on the board. “He took a personal interest in you, your family, your hobbies and interests. He was great at sending you articles he thought might be of interest, whether it be athletics, your daughter’s illness or something new in education, and he would underline the parts he wanted you to read. Evans was a wonderful human being who had a great love for Rice and will be greatly missed.”
Attwell, a native Houstonian who lived at Baker College during his undergraduate years, received a bachelor’s degree from Rice in 1953. He earned a law degree from the University of Texas Law School in 1956 and joined Vinson and Elkins, where he became managing partner in 1981 and helped the law firm increase its national and international presence.
After retiring in 1992, he was appointed by Commissioners Court to the Harris County Hospital District Board of Managers, serving from 1992 to 1998. He was reappointed in 2004 and was board chair at the time of his death.
Attwell is survived by his wife, Mary Petersen Attwell, five children and six grandchildren.
Bonus:
