Meeting 9/27/18 with Tim Dent

Mike McGuire was our Rotarian of the Week and his guest speaker was Tim Dent.

 

Michael L. McGuire was raised in College Station and spent the majority of his business
career in Houston. Mike received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Texas
A&M University and graduated from Princeton University with a PhD in Chemical Engineering.
His work career included a stint as a professor of Chemical Engineering at the
University of Oklahoma prior to co-founding his engineering software company in 1969.
Mike is an active volunteer at Texas A&M University. He was a founding member of the
Mary K. O’Connor Process Safety Center and has been on the Steering Committee
since 1997. In 1992, Mike co-founded the Partners in Education (PIE) coalition in Calhoun
County (Port Lavaca). Mike received the "Hero for Children" award by the Texas
State Board of Education for his volunteer efforts for kids in Calhoun County and Texas.
He also received the Mary K. O’Connor Process Safety Service award for his support
of the Center and received the Outstanding Engineering Alumnus award from the
Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M. He received the TBEC Distinguished
Achievement Award in 2007. He is also actively involved at his church including teaching
a teen age Bible class. Mike was appointed to the City of Port Lavaca Port Commission
in 2017. Marilyn and I were married in 1959 while still attending A&M. Our three
sons and their spouses live and work in Houston. Three of our six grandchildren (ages
19 – 35) live in Houston with one living in Chicago, one at Tulane in New Orleans, and
one at Ole Miss University. We are partners in a small engineering software company
that is in Sugar Land and is being run by our oldest son. Our interests revolve around
travel and music (primarily classical, but also are great fans of Celtic music as well as
rock from the early days). We spend three weeks in the summer at Tanglewood
(summer home of the Boston Symphony) and two weeks in the fall in Cape Breton attending
the Celtic Colours festival. We are also season subscribers of the Houston
Symphony classical season and the Victoria Symphony.

Guest Speaker
Tim Dent
Tim graduated from University of Missouri-Rolla with a B.S. In Chemical Engineering.
He joined Union Carbide in 1985 starting in the Engineering Dept. as a process
control engineer doing design and construct and then troubleshooting mainly in polyethylene
and polypropylene plants. Tim had opportunity to go on five international PE and
PP plant startups, three as Chief Commissioning Engineer, and on two domestic
startups. When Dow Chemical purchased Union Carbide he was able to obtain a Black
Belt in Six Sigma methodology. On a personal side, he married Theresa Mabry, a native
Port Lavacan, also holding a B.S. in ChE (from Texas A&M) and they moved to
Port Lavaca in 1998. After the birth of their first daughter, Theresa was called to the
church, becoming Principle of the Catholic School in Port Lavaca, and Tim followed a
year later as Business Manager of Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church and her 3 mission
churches - where he is currently working. They have two daughters, one at Texas
A&M and one attending St. Joseph High School. Tim is on his second term as a City
Councilman, is an officer of Catholic Life Insurance, and is Board President of Calhoun
County Community Ministries (aka Food Pantry).