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Frederick Agnich Research Paper

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Frederick Joseph Agnich was born on July 19, 1913 in Eveleth, St. Louis County, Minnesota and died at the age of 91 on October 28, 2004 in Dallas, Texas. He is currently resting in the Calvary Hill Cemetery in Dallas. Agnich had a full life ahead of him when he left Minnesota after attending University of Minnesota at Saint Paul, where he earned his Bachelors of Arts in Geology in 1937. Agnich came to Texas after he graduated and worked for a company called Geophysical Services, Inc. He worked as a geophysicist for one of the first independent prospecting companies to execute seismic exploration for petroleum. Geophysical Services, Inc. later became known as Texas Instruments, Inc. and was searching for petroleum in the United States and abroad …show more content…

During the 1950’s Frederick Agnich participated in fundraising for a number of years. From 1955 through 1959 Agnich was a key player in establishing the Greenhill School. The school was the first co-educational, non-denominational, who serviced Pre-Kindergarten through the 12th grade in Dallas, where he was a chairman of the board. Disaster struck at the Greenhill School involving a fire wiping out the main building in April 1963. Agnich took charge and declared to the board “When lightning hit the school, the next morning I said to myself, ‘Thank God! Do we want to put up permanent buildings, or do we want to quit?” (Agnich). The board considered what Agnich had to say and ten weeks later the school broke ground and built the first permanent building which was dedicated to the heroic board chair member. The Agnich Science Building was designed by O’Neil Ford and was the first permanent building constructed on campus which consisted of brick a mortar. He also participated as a trustee for the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies, now known as The University of Texas at Dallas. It was evident that Agnich gave his time and applied his talents to the educational system, but also in the arts. “Agnich served as the director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas Historical Society, Dallas Petroleum Club, and the Dallas Civic Opera” …show more content…

In 1960 and 1964, he chaired on the fundraising activities for the honorable Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater. In 1966 he accepted the position, chairman for the Dallas County Republican Party. In 1972, he was elected Republican National Committeeman (RNC) by his fellow Texans until 1976 and served as vice chairman of the RNC from 1974 to 1976. Although Agnich was considered a conservative, he was one out of the five state representatives to oppose the Higher Education in Texas for excess spending. Therefore, in 1979, he endorsed John Connally Jr., a former democratic governor, in his presidential nomination, which he lost to Reagan. Frederick Agnich was then elected in 1970 to the Texas Legislature and was a nine-term member. During Agnich’s first term he displayed his dauntless attitude when he joined a reform-minded coalition of Republicans and Democrats known as the “Dirty Thirty” when the Sharpstown Scandal

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