Mark Shepherd Jr. (January 18, 1923 – February 4, 2009) was the chairman and chief executive officer of Texas Instruments. He was in attendance at the demonstration of the integrated circuit by Jack Kilby on September 12, 1958.
Dan Collins Taylor (September 2, 1923 – November 3, 2010) was an American cowboy, rodeo performer, and promoter. In 2006, Taylor was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Taylor died on November 3, 2010, in Doole, Texas.
Adlene Harrison (November 19, 1923 – February 19, 2022) was an American politician who served on the Dallas City Council from 1973 to 1977, and was acting mayor of Dallas in 1976. She also served as regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency from 1977 to 1981 and as the first chair of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Board. She was the first Jewish woman to serve as Mayor of a major U.S. city. She was Dallas' first Jewish mayor and first female mayor; Annette Strauss would follow her in both categories. Harrison, a Democratic city councilwoman, succeeded Wes Wise as mayor when he resigned to run for the United States Congress. She served until the election of a new mayor, Robert Folsom, at the end of the year.
Harrison died on February 19, 2022, at the age of 98.
Damon Gus Tassos (December 5, 1923 – February 28, 2001) was a guard in the National Football League. He was drafted in the third round of the 1945 NFL Draft by The Yanks and played with the Detroit Lions that season. After another season with the Lions he went on to play three more with the Green Bay Packers.
Lewis C. Holder (October 10, 1923 – March 29, 2018) was an American football end who played one season with the Los Angeles Dons. He played college football at the University of Texas, having previously attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas.
Russell Errett Dickenson (April 12, 1923 – February 19, 2008) began his National Park Service (NPS) career as a ranger at Grand Canyon National Park in 1946 and served in a wide range of park and central office assignments — most prominently as head of National Capital Parks, deputy director, and Pacific Northwest regional director — before ascending to the directorship in May 1980. Having risen through the traditional ranks and enjoying the respect of his colleagues, Dickenson was enthusiastically welcomed to the job and supported in his effort to restore organizational stability after a succession of short-term directors. As when Walker's deputy, he preferred improving the service's stewardship of its existing parks to seeking new ones. The only Interior Department bureau chief to be retained by the Reagan administration in 1981, Dickenson obtained its support and that of Congress for the Park Restoration and Improvement Program, which devoted more than a billion dollars over five years to park resources and facilities. Dickenson retired in March 1985.
Dickenson was born in 1922. A Marine Corps veteran and graduate of Arizona State College (now Arizona State University), Dickenson worked his way up through the NPS ranks. A native of Melissa, Texas, he began his career in 1947 as a park ranger at Grand Canyon National Park and held field assignments in several other western parks. He also served as chief, Division of Resource Management in the Midwest Regional and in 1967, transferred to WASO as Chief of New Area Studies and Master Planning. He was Regional Director of the National Capital Regional from 1969 to 1973 and served as Deputy NPS Director from 1973 to 1975. Before becoming Director in 1980, Dickenson served as Pacific Northwest Regional Director for 4 ½ years. Dickenson has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Service Award in 1972, for his work in urban park management.
Richard S. "Cactus" Pryor (January 7, 1923 – August 30, 2011) was an American broadcaster and humorist. He received his nickname after the old Cactus Theater on Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, which was run by his father, "Skinny" Pryor.
Pryor was first heard on Lady Bird Johnson's radio station 590 KLBJ, though his face became as well known as his voice once he moved to television broadcasting on Austin television station KTBC.In addition to his work in radio and television, Pryor also appeared in two films starring John Wayne, both released in 1968: Hellfighters and The Green Berets. Pryor was the author of a 1995 collection of some 40 essays entitled Playback. At KTBC, Pryor had served as programming manager and had hosted a variety of shows. He had conducted interviews with celebrities such as Arthur Godfrey and Dan Blocker and narrated behind-the-scenes programs about KTBC.As part of his involvement with the Headliners Club of Austin journalists, Pryor starred in satires of television news. He provided the voiceover for the 1960 KTBC film “Target Austin”, which presents the scenario of a nuclear missile strike on Austin.
In 1950, Pryor had a novelty hit on the country music charts with the number 7 "Cry of the Dying Duck in a Thunder-Storm", a parody of Tennessee Ernie Ford's "The Cry of the Wild Goose".He regaled audiences on Austin radio with a daily 2-minute trip down memory lane, reminiscing about places and people from his past well into the 2000s. He was a self-described liberal, but acknowledged that his children do not share his beliefs. He claimed to have been one of the first people to have heard of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, having been at the ranch of then-vice president Lyndon Baines Johnson at the time.
Pryor had for several years, been a radio spokesman for the Austin-based Tex-Mex restaurant chain Serrano's. In these ads, he is often called "Nopalito," which loosely means little cactus, after the Spanish word nopal. His broadcasting sign-off consisted of a nonsense word, "thermostrockimortimer," the meaning of which (if any) was never made public. Cactus stated that, "The phrase is in the Bible; if you don't find it, keep reading." "Thermostrockimortimer!" appears on the shared headstone of Cactus Pryor and his wife Peggy in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
In 2007, Pryor told his radio audience that he was battling Alzheimer's disease. He died on August 30, 2011, in Austin, Texas, aged 88, weeks after breaking his leg in a fall.
His son, Don Pryor, is co-host of the "Todd and Don Show" on News Radio KLBJ. Another of Cactus's sons, Paul Pryor (1949-2015), once worked in Austin radio as well.
Aldo Semerari (Italian pronunciation: [ˈaldo semeˈraːri]; 8 May 1923 − March or 1 April 1982) was an Italian criminologist, anthropologist and psychiatrist. He was also a noted neo-fascist, who was suspected of complicity in the terror attack that killed 85 people at Bologna railway station in 1980.
Robert A. Trias (March 18, 1923 – July 11, 1989) was an American karate pioneer, founding the first karate school in the mainland United States and becoming one of the first known American black belts. He also developed Shuri-ryū karate, an eclectic style with roots in Chinese kung-fu, and indirectly some Okinawan karate.
Clyde Wilson (1923 – November 1, 2008) was an American detective and private investigator. He was famous for his skills to solve difficult cases. He is regarded as "Houston's Most Public Private Eye".