0.27 Robert morris, b. 1933

Discharged…and hired

I had just gotten out of the army, and I was stationed at Fort Hood of all places. And I thought about where I should go after I was discharged and said, well, I’m pretty close to Houston and it sounds like an interesting town. At that point I didn’t feel like going back to New York or New England because I had been there and done that, to a certain extent. So I drove down to Houston and—this is kind of weird—I thought I could find a job teaching. I went to the University of Houston because that was the place I had heard about, and I asked where the chairman of the art department’s office was. I went there and I walked in and Bernie Lemmell was sitting behind his desk, and his wife was there—Gladys—and I told him who I was and said, “Can I have a teaching job here with you?” I mean, I presumed that’s the way things were done. I had no clue. And Bernie turned to his wife and said, “See, Gladys—I told you somebody would show up.”

They were looking for somebody to teach design…I believe it was color and painting. And so I started teaching and I did pretty well. I did that for a year and a half or two—I can’t remember the exact time frame—and then someone asked me if I would—this is really bizarre because I just kind of fell into these things—be interested in [being director of the Contemporary Arts Alliance]. I think it was Polly Marsters. I got to know her because I had showed her my work…and she was on the board of the CAA. She said, “We’re looking for a director because Jerry MacAgy has quit and would you be interested in that?” I said, “Well, okay.” And so I was interviewed and they asked for my transcripts and a whole bunch of other stuff and recommendations from the University [of Houston]. And they hired me. Those two jobs just seemed to unfold.

At the caa

Bruce Monical [had been a] student of mine [at the University of Houston]and I hired him to work at CAA to do the installations there. I guess I started in ’58 at the CAA. It was a lot of fun, actually. I mean, it was like a little family. Everybody knew each other and I had Bruce working for me. I hired a secretary who had just gotten out of Radcliffe as an art history major and [like me] had come to Houston because she thought it might be an interesting place to be. My wife would come in and do publicity for us because she had been a reporter and I remember our first child was born at that time and so this little infant would be in the office.

Putting the shows together was a little tough because I had to sort of scramble to catch up. I hadn’t done this before and they didn’t have any plans for any shows. I had to come up with the plans and I knew Don Barthelme because I had met him at the University of Houston. We just became friends, so I think Don and I sort of brainstormed ideas for shows and came up with a quick repertoire of stuff to do and we just started doing it. And everybody sort of pitched in. It was very congenial.