Students

Boyce 'Sonny' Lee Thomas

Boyce ‘Sonny’ Lee Thomas, Hayward, Calif., and Joyce Lee Thomas Hawthorne (’59, ’68 M.M.Ed.), Arlington, Va. :: The twins studied music at North Texas and taught in Fort Worth before relocating to California in 1969. Sonny served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and played saxophone in the 6th Army Band. He also performed with the Warlocks, a San Mateo, Calif.-based band. Joyce was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and Jack and Jill. Sonny retired from East Palo Alto ISD, and Joyce retired from the San Francisco Unified School District. They died eight months apart.

Robert Adams

Robert Sexton Adams (’58, ’61 M.B.A.), Georgetown, professor of management who taught at UNT from 1968 to 2001, died Oct. 11. After earning his B.B.A. and M.B.A. from North Texas, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in business administration from Louisiana State University in 1965. Prior to joining the North Texas faculty, he taught as an associate professor in the Department of Management at Texas Tech University. His academic specialization was strategic management and policy. During his teaching career, he published a number of books and articles on business management and conducted numerous management development programs and workshops.

Emerson Kenney ‘Pete’ Blewett

Emerson Kenney ‘Pete’ Blewett, Austin :: He attended North Texas from 1931 to 1934 and was a yell leader and a member of the Masters Chemical Society. He later graduated from the University of Texas medical school in Galveston and served as a physician in the Pacific during World War II. He was one of the founders of the Austin Blood Bank, now the Blood Center of Central Texas, and delivered more than 5,000 babies during his long medical practice as an obstetrician/gynecologist in Austin. After he retired from medicine, he and his wife operated Westlake Architectural Antiques, collecting their inventory from around the world.

Harriet Magruder Newgent

Harriet Magruder Newgent, Live Oak :: She worked on her doctorate in music education at UNT from 1978 to 1988. She sang with the Dallas, New Orleans and Houston operas and taught voice at Southern Methodist University, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Xavier University and Southwestern Assembly of God University. She earned a master’s from SMU and was an active member of the San Antonio Choral Society.

Pages