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                                                                                                                                 Who is your favorite TCU football player?
                                                                                                                                 Davey O’Brien who won the Heisman Trophy way “back when” would certainly be considered one of TCU’s best. Davey was
                                                                                                                                 also a class act as a gentleman and “great guy.” Davey was a geology major and student of my father’s, and would sometimes
        Third Generation                                                                                                         come over to the Hewatt house on Lowden and sit on the porch swing to visit with the family. That was when I was a baby.


                                                                                                                                 Of course, TCU basketball I can speak about with more first-hand knowledge. My favorite player in that sport would have to
        Horned Frog:                                                                                                             be Johnny Swaim, whom I married and who was starting guard on three consecutive Southwest Conference championship
                                                                                                                                 teams and later, as Head Coach (1970-1977) led his charges to two Southwest Conference titles in the early 1970s.

        Joan Swaim                                                                                                               Do you have a favorite book?
                                                                                                                                 I don’t like to play the favorite game, but some of my favorite authors have been and are Shakespeare, Thomas Mann, William
                                                                                                                                 Faulkner, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck, Rachel Carson, William Least Heat-Moon, John Graves, Winston Churchill, Barbara
                                                                                                                                 Kingsolver, and many others.

     Some of the best times of Joan Swaim’s life have been spent in   What is the highlight of your time working at the library?  What do you enjoy doing these days?
     the company of Horned Frogs. Her love for Texas Christian   The highlight of my time at the library was when we brought     I enjoy reading, writing, genealogical research, crafts, including weaving, dyeing, sewing, jewelry making, painting, and observing
     University can be traced directly back to her grandparents,   up the first integrated on-line catalog, giving justification   wildlife, especially birds from my lakeside porch. Travel used to be a favorite thing, but I don’t do much of that anymore.
     Frank and Georgia Harris, who arrived at TCU in 1921 to be   and validation to the long years of hard, dedicated work by
     the stewards of the first TCU cafeteria, and her parents who   the library staff in building a computerized database of the   For more personal recollections, visit JoanHewattSwaim.com
     were TCU graduates, faculty and staff Dr. Willis G. Hewatt   library’s holdings upon which the online system was based.
     and Elizabeth Harris Hewatt. Dr. Hewatt was a member of
     the biology/geology faculty for 41 years and her mother was   Were your parents married in the Mary Couts Burnett
     secretary in the department for most of those years. Joan literally   Library?
     grew up on campus, is a TCU graduate who married Johnny     They were one of two couples to marry there, the other being        Ask Them Anything At Anytime
     Swaim, also a TCU graduate, basketball player and later, head   that of Jerome and Ruby Moore; Moore later became the
     basketball coach.                                           Dean of AddRan College of Arts and Sciences, and my father
                                                                 started his 41-year career as biology professor at TCU the year
     The third generation of her family to be on the university staff,   I was born. These weddings took place in the MCLB because
     Joan retired in 1995 as coordinator of bibliographic control for   the denomination to which the couples belonged was the
     the Mary Couts Burnett Library after 18 years. She is also the   Disciples of Christ (Christian Church), which did not have a
     author of Walking TCU: A Historical Perspective, a book filled   church building on the TCU hill in 1931 when my Mother and
     with fond memories of TCU.                                  Daddy married. Church services were held in the auditorium
                                                                 of the Ad Building, the ambiance of which did not lend itself
     Any favorite TCU memories?                                  to festive occasions. The main room of the library, however,
     My memories of TCU begin at about age 3 and continue to     was very beautiful, somewhat as it is now (this is the Gearhart
     now. That includes childhood memories, teenage memories, my   Reading Room today). The room seemed ideal, and as the
     student days memories, memories of being a faculty daughter   bride and groom were a part of the TCU family, and most
     and a TCU coach’s wife, TCU students’ mom, a library staff   of the guests would be TCU folk, it made sense to hold the
     member and a TCU alumna and retiree. My personal journey    wedding on the TCU campus. The officiating minister was the
     through TCU history for the last 80 plus years has been     President of the University, E. M. Waits (affectionately known
     wonderful.                                                  as “Prexy).

     What is the biggest change at TCU you have seen?            Any known history or TCU stories you find interesting?
     That would have to do with size. My earliest recollection of the   I think the story of Mary Couts Burnett is one of the most
     TCU campus -- about the late 1930s -- is of the seven buildings   interesting and important stories in the history of TCU.
     that occupied the “west” campus: Jarvis, the Administration   Two other stories of people whom I looked up to in my
     Building (now Reed Hall), Clark Hall (where Sadler now stands),   childhood and early teens and who are generally regarded as
     Goode Hall (where Clark now stands), the gym (now the Lowe   TCU heroes are those of L. C. Wright (“Mr. Pete”) and E. M.
     ballet building), Brite College of the Bible (now the Bailey   Waits (“Prexy”).  Mr. Pete’s personal sacrifices to bolster the
     Building), and the football stadium. And on the “east” campus   institution during financial crises were well-known, working
     was the original Mary Couts Burnett Library, built in 1925.    one year without benefit of salary and, along with his president
     After World War II, additional land was acquired and buildings   E. M. Waits, “walking the streets to meet the TCU payroll.”
     began popping up all over, which continues to this day with more   E.M. Waits led the school through the Depression years
     to come.                                                    between 1929 and mid-‘30s.

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