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Truly Significant Texans in Agriculture honors Bob Flowers, 54 years of service with Texas Department of Ag · GO TEXAN THE Truly Significant

• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Truly Significant Texans in Agriculture. I'm Rick
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Tocchini with the one and only Bob Flowers.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: We have been wanting to honor you for the longest
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: time from the lips of Sid Miller and Todd Smith
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: to getting to broadcast with you at the pavilion, the pavilion.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: The pavilion. Home away from home. Crazy.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: How many years have you been with the Texas Department
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: of Agriculture?
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: I'll have 54 years. It's coming November. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: How many commissioners is that?
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  Speaker 3: Well, Sid Miller's number seven.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Lucky seven.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Lucky seven.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: You worked for the Aggie, Rick Perry.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, I did. All eight years. I sure did.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Who else did you get to serve with?
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  Speaker 3: Well, first it was John C. White. And he was
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: appointed the chairman of the National Democratic Committee, so he
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: stepped down. governor appointed, I can't remember, Dolph Briscoe appointed
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Reagan Brown. Okay. And he served a term and a half,
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: and then Jim Hightower beat him in 1982. Yep. And
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: then after that, eight years there, and Rick Perry beat
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  Speaker 3: Jim Hightower in 1990, I believe, in the eight years. Okay.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: He stepped down to run for lieutenant governor, and... Susan Combs,
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  Speaker 3: she came in and won the election. And she, by
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: the way, is the one that started our Go Texans program.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: I got a neat little story I'll tell you in
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: a second. And then she stepped down after eight years.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: Eight years seems to be the magic number, except for
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Sid Miller. But after eight years, then Todd Staples came in.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: And he stepped down to run for lieutenant governor. And
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Sid Miller stepped in.
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  Speaker 2: There's a pattern there of everybody in the office using
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: it almost as a stepping stone to something supposedly greater.
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  Speaker 3: Yep. Well, Senator Miller, he said, when he first came in,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: he had a meeting with staff downtown in Austin. He said,
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  Speaker 3: I am not using this agency as a stepping stone.
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to be here. And he's been true to
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  Speaker 3: his word.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Isn't that nice?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: It's about time. Okay. So the, The year you started was?
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  Speaker 3: 1972.
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  Speaker 2: A different age and world.
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  Speaker 3: Very different. Very different.
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  Speaker 2: What was day?
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  Speaker 3: A different pavilion.
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  Speaker 2: A different pavilion. What was day one like or the
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  Speaker 2: first year for you? Describe all the happy, funny. Not
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: all the funny things, but.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and probably going to be a few things I
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: can't talk about.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: But.
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  Speaker 3: I understand. My very first. duty or job was to
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: drive a van. We had an old three speed on
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: the column van. And I had to drive up to Waxahachie.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: I was in marketing. I was in marketing. And we
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: were feeding about 300 or 200 Japanese businessmen at a
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: venue in Waxahachie. I have no idea where it was.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: We served them shish kebabs. But it was to interview
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: them to Texas Beef. Of course. Yeah, and that was
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: my very first thing, and I didn't know what in
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: the world I was supposed to do except help set
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: up tables and stuff like that. It was a lot
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: of fun. I thought, well, this is kind of a
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  Speaker 3: fun job, but then it got serious after that, of course.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: I was actually, it was between my graduating high school
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: and then shortly thereafter, I went part-time and worked, going
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  Speaker 3: to school and got my bachelor's science in the, 76
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: but up until that point it was it was part-time
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: and then uh came on full-time and and did a
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: few things different divisions and uh well here i am today.
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  Speaker 2: It's a great journey and 54 years is almost unfathomable
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: from a career perspective today because people are going here
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: and there and too busy and they don't have any
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  Speaker 2: stickiness so to.
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  Speaker 3: Speak any stickiness yeah i've got Five kids and four
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: grandkids sticking us. I remember times- Congratulations. Great kids. I
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: remember in this pavilion, we had a pay phone down
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: at that end, a pay phone down at that end
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  Speaker 3: when my wife was pregnant, going into childbirth. Anytime I'd
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: hear the phone ring, I'd just think, which one is it,
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  Speaker 3: this one or this one? Make a bad dad. She
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  Speaker 3: had the decency to wake about three days after I
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  Speaker 3: got home.
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  Speaker 2: Where was, and home was Austin.
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  Speaker 3: Austin.
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  Speaker 2: So you were three, good three hours away from Exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Which baby was that?
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  Speaker 3: That was my number two baby.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Number two baby.
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  Speaker 3: I've got a boy, three girls, and a boy. We
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: call the boys the bookends. That's cool. So this is
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: the Go Texan Pavilion. And if I may just tell
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: you a real quick side story. Back in 2001, Susan
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Combs came in. She was elected. And she and our
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  Speaker 3: marketing director, they started the Go Texan program. We had
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: a big. opening down in the Capitol, in the basement annex.
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  Speaker 3: Nolan Rye was there, George W. Bush, Rick Perry, Lieutenant
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  Speaker 3: Governor Vim. It was a big deal. But we started
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  Speaker 3: our GoTexan store, first GoTexan store, like up front there.
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  Speaker 3: It was right against this back wall. It was a
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  Speaker 3: little 36 by 36. And I said, this is not
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  Speaker 3: going to work. People are not going to want to
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  Speaker 3: come to the State Fair of Texas, buy a bag
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  Speaker 3: of groceries and carry them around on. That first year
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  Speaker 3: we sold $ 120, 000 worth of merchandise out of the store.
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  Speaker 3: We had people running the store and everything. And Susan
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  Speaker 3: Combs and our marketing director, Delane Sayers, wrote me a
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  Speaker 3: handwritten note, said, Bob, if you build it, they will come.
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  Speaker 3: Filled a dream. And they've been coming more and more
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  Speaker 3: every year.
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  Speaker 2: And it means so much. I'm a native Texan from Sherman.
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  Speaker 2: It means personally so much because it's about us and it's,
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  Speaker 2: we're farmers and what do we grow and what do
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  Speaker 2: we produce? And I wonder where you, where do you
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  Speaker 2: think the brand is with today with the next generation?
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  Speaker 2: What does it mean to them?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I hope it means something very significant.
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  Speaker 2: Me too.
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  Speaker 3: Things have changed over the years. Getting out of the,
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  Speaker 3: the family farm, And back in the big industry, which
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: is not a bad thing, but I think the family farm,
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  Speaker 3: family ranches, it meant a whole lot to people, to
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  Speaker 3: young people. Not necessarily involved them, but just hearing about
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  Speaker 3: the stories and things like that. In my experience, I
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: could be wrong, but that's just kind of diminished somewhat
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  Speaker 3: throughout the years.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so too. I wonder if people, a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the people moving into the state, if they
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  Speaker 2: have any idea about what goes into the name Go Texan.
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  Speaker 2: And you were raised in Texas, right? All my life. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: so 1961, 62, first grade. We learned, this was public schools,
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  Speaker 2: we did a Pledge of Allegiance, the Lord's Prayer, Texas,
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: our Texas. First class of the day was Texas history.
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  Speaker 2: I think I went six months before I knew that
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  Speaker 2: George Washington existed because it was all Sam Houston. Davy Crockett,
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  Speaker 2: all Texas history. That's all that mattered to our teacher.
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  Speaker 2: And so we were just leading Texas with the history.
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  Speaker 2: Was that your experience?
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  Speaker 3: My experience was more on a national basis, George Washington,
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  Speaker 3: the national history. Of course, we had a lot of
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  Speaker 3: Texas history involved in that. But our heritage, I'm sixth
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: generation Texan. Are you really?
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. I'm only four.
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  Speaker 3: My father, he died in 2003, and he was a
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  Speaker 3: big attorney here in Texas. He was executive director of
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: the Commission on Judicial Conduct. Go out and investigate by
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  Speaker 3: a judge, and I had the pleasure of flying, and
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: we had a small plane, and I'm a pilot. I
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: got to fly them all over the state for many years.
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  Speaker 3: For 17 years, while I was working for the department here,
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  Speaker 3: and I saw a lot of interesting things from him.
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  Speaker 3: Prior to that, he was with the Attorney General's Office.
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  Speaker 3: He's the one that went up and argued Roe v. Wade.
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  Speaker 3: From the state of Texas. Good, great. Went up against
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Sarah Weddington. That was October 11th, 1972. I was going
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: to Blinn College. He called me and said, hey, you
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: want to go to Washington, D.C.? See your old man
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: argue in Springport? And my wife and I, we weren't married,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: We just met and everything. I didn't want to leave. And, uh, well,
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  Speaker 3: I think I'll just stay here. I regret that decision
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  Speaker 3: ever since. Could have been sitting right there. Oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 2: So I got to ask you as a pilot, this is,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: this is somewhat of a twisted question, but can you
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  Speaker 2: share a with the people that'll be listening, what it's
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: like to be a pilot, to fly over something and
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  Speaker 2: to have this bigger hawk's view or eagle's view of
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  Speaker 2: the world.
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  Speaker 3: There's nothing like it. There's nothing like it. You got
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  Speaker 3: a front row seat and experience. Of course, as a pilot,
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: you're busy handling the aircraft, all the avionics, navigation, everything.
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  Speaker 3: But it is just such an experience. Better person to
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: ask That would be my youngest son. He's 31 years old.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: His name is Josh. And he's an aviation filmmaker. And
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: he has become pretty famous now. As a matter of fact,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: they did a feature on him a while back. And
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  Speaker 3: I guess he.
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  Speaker 2: Got his influence from you because you took him up
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  Speaker 2: first time. He did.
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  Speaker 3: And my wife and I, for many, many years on
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  Speaker 3: the side, did wedding videography. And I did all the
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: editing and filming, editing and everything. And he kind of
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  Speaker 3: got that. He was a little bitty guy. And she
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: and I were still doing school plays where all our
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: kids went to school, their big drama department. But he
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: put the two together and skyrocketed. He's got a YouTube
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: channel called Aviation 101. And he's got north of 300,000
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: subscribers now. And Garmin's one of his big sponsors and
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: He and his fiance just built a brand new plane
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  Speaker 3: and went to South Africa for 23 days. He's just
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  Speaker 3: now releasing those films. And he and I- Congratulations, Daddy. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And he became an instrument instructor. He put me through
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  Speaker 3: my instrument training, which is harder than getting a license, actually.
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  Speaker 3: And because I never could afford it, never had time.
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  Speaker 3: I was having all these kids. Yeah. So he put
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  Speaker 3: me through that. But My oldest son, he does a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of writing. My three daughters, they're locally in Austin.
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  Speaker 3: I got four grandkids. People ask me something. Why did
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: you want five kids? I didn't know I wanted six.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: Shut it down somewhere. Cap it off.
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  Speaker 2: That's so funny. I love that. How you doing? This
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: is Bob Flowers. We're honoring him on a podcast called
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: That's it.
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  Speaker 3: Excellent.
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  Speaker 2: So back to you, 54 years is something that's, if
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: you were to write a book on all of that history,
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  Speaker 2: what title might you choose for that book?
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  Speaker 3: Well, are you talking about my connection with the department
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  Speaker 3: and this building?
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  Speaker 2: I was just, just, I would say, because if you
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: were writing a memoir, it would be obviously about this,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: but about being a pilot. What do you call your book?
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's a very good question. What would I call
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  Speaker 3: the book? I would have to say how my wife,
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: the wife that encouraged me and put me through it all.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, not financially or anything, but just anything I
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: want to do or my son flying everything, you know, well,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: let's do it. Go for it. Let's do it. And
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: she just, just, uh, go for it. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Hmm.
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  Speaker 3: That's beautiful. She, she was, you know, just the, the,
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: our rock. Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Um, and what is her name?
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Lydia. Lydia. Yeah. Is she going to be here? She
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: is not. She's, uh, taking care of grandkids in Austin. Uh, she's, she's,
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  Speaker 3: Counting the days when I'll get back, which will be tomorrow. Oh, excellent.
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  Speaker 3: And she's a beautiful lady. She was a beauty queen
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: back in high school, and she's still the prettiest woman
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: I ever see.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: What an honor and tribute to her.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: We'll send you the link to this show so she
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: can play it on her good and bad days.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd really love that. Yeah, that would be fun.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I'll get a big check out of that. When I
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: leave here and next week, a week from today, we're
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: loading up the car with her sister and husband, our
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: brother and sister-in-law, and going to Kentucky, where my youngest son,
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: the pilot, he and his fiance have a big cap
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: on 10 acres up in Kentucky. We're going to go
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: to the races up in Lexington. We went up there
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: back in May, the Kentucky Derby Turtel Downs. It was
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: my sister-in-law's bucket list. Oh, my. We all went up there.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: And I said, yeah. Horse race, well, I'll go for
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: the trip. I loved it. I had more fun than anybody.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: So we're going to go do that again before I
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: have to come back here.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: And tear down, yeah. There's a beginning and an end
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: to this.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: There is a beginning and an end.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: It's amazing. Okay, so now I know why you needed
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: to be, should be, and deserve to be honored, because
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: it is beyond comprehension about five decades. And I'll Go ahead.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: I just want to ask you a question. I've asked
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: many people. What sounds more dignified? 54 years, five decades plus,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: or a little over half a century?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: It's a good question. I would say, because I'm 70,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: I like the half a century.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: You're just a puppy. Thank you, Bob.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: That would be great. Okay, final question for you is this.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Our program is always about people becoming something. And I'd
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: love for you to say, share this with you. If
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: you were 90 years old and your grandchildren are at
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: your feet and they say, Grandpa, Papa, who did you become?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: How would you answer that?
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, gosh, I guess I'd have to say doing my
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: best to become a good father to the kids and
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: give them what they needed to go through life and
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: support my family the best I can. I think anything material,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: you can't ask for anything more than that, in my opinion.
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  Speaker 2: That's powerful.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: And I think I'm on my way there.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: I think you are well on your way. We want
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: to present you with this book, Fruly Significant. And I
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: wrote in here to TDA's very significant bar flowers. And
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: in the back is a A chapter on our friend
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Susan and his wife.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Little known story about his wife. And so it's mostly
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: about her. But thank you for everything that you've done.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: And it's an honor to have you.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Yes, sir.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Big hearted Texans found across our state. Pride is how
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: we're looking.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: Risk it is on our plate.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Boots, it's what we're wearing.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Horses, yeah, we may ride.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Farming is so rewarding.