Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 39

1 1 Awn we 41 FRIDAY MORNING DECEMBER 7 1984 FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM 27A vw FS I 7 JV 170P lAdi1 11VaMIII a -rs vagabond life Into of i By OLIVE TALLEY Associated Press "My theory was the more things I knew how to do the better I could make a living In the 50s I thought if I could make $36 a week that would put me on easy street compared to the $29 a week I was making in the factory" He added "But I also decided if I was going to get out of that rut I had to educate myself and learn how to speak and do things" Turney was lying in a hospital bed in Columbia SC recuperating from surgery for leg injuries from a car accident when he found the motivation he needed to change his life "I read two books: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Those two books had more to do with me turning around than any other one thing" he said "They made the point you are responsible for your own life and can do anything you want to do if you want to do it badly enough I began doing it It goes slowly but if you constantly strive to improve whatever you are soon you become what you perceive yourself to be" Thrney took an IQ test issued by Mensa the organization for people with intelligence levels above 98 percent of the population His score qualified him as a member He educated himself through reading and emulating others And he put his mind to work with a new sense of confidence He invented toys liquid cleaners and some food products including an item called "Otter Pops" fruit-flavored frozen popsicles still sold on the West Coast "I invented a lot of items and products I sold that the world could easily do without" Turney said "In 1976 I decided that if I was going to develop products it would be things that would be beneficial to mankind" In 1979 Turney formed King James Shrimp Co a commercial shrimp-growing operation near Chicago-1000 miles from any ocean He invented a process to make sea water and built a biological filtration system to grow shrimp year-around He believes that his process will one day provide an inexpensive food source to feed the poor "Every biologist I talked to said I was crazy that we could never raise and breed shrimp in that environment" he said "We not only did it but we had a demand for our shrimp However the cost of producing the water was too expensive so we re-evaluated the system and wrote it off as a pilot" He re-engineered the Chicago operation for relocation in tropical areas to take advantage of nearby sea water Currently his firm Systems International Inc is negotiating two joint ventures to build $12 million shrimp-producing plants in Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula and the Dominican Republic His innovations Turney believes will revolutionize the shrimp industry "Our shrimp will not have to be deveined" he said "We quit feeding them 24 hours before we harvest them and they clean out their digestive tracts In a natural food chain you cannot do that Shrimp is a gourmet item now but with the technology we're developing it will one day become an inexpensive protein" HOUSTON Howard Turney grew up thinking it was wrong to be a dreamer Now he knows better His father a railroad worker -struggling to support 11 children from three marriages scorned cre- ative play and admonished Turney to use his spare time to hunt rabbits and deer to help feed the impover 7 ished family Although Turney had read every book in the library of the tiny school he attended in Fort Thomas Ariz teachers considered him one of their worst students He was a gifted child with genius: level intelligence but nobody in- cluding himself recognized it Lack ing encouragement and stimulus he dropped Out of high school spent s- two years in the Army and then wandered the Eastern seaboard working menial and odd jobs He never got a high school ma or college degree but he never quit reading At age 31 he by chance read two books that ulti- IPOk rat el' 1 vowsel 1Ae him HULEN MALL NORTH HILLS MALL SIX FLAGS MALL 0 I ARLINGTON -l'tt: 7) A r- iv li ft 1 1 tinn" MON: OHO ermifflia' mately spurred to change his life around Now at 53 Turney is a successful businessman who parlayed his day- dreams into multimillion-dollar 2 businesses and launched a crusade to help gifted children "Almost the majority of the time people will say if you have a genius intelligence you don't need any- thing else" Turney said "But if it's not identified you don't have it My life is the best example I can think of" He added "It took a lot of years to try to better myself and learn how to speak dress and learn how to talk to 'people" It is hard to imagine Turney as the insecure inarticulate and poorly dressed man he describes as the Howard Turney through age 31 His craggy wrinkled face and pi: ercing eyes hint at the rough times he' experienced but his gentle man- ners and carefully chosen words defy that image In the corner of the plushly car: peted room in his office 17 floors above the West Loop near San Felipe a bronze replica of the Lind berg Eagle one of eight in the world sits perched atop a huge oak pedestal It symbolizes Turney's fierce determination to achieve "You have never heard a hillbilly from Arkansas or any place you can name in the United States who had a vocabulary as bad as mine" he said "In my 20s I was introverted and damn near speechless in front of a I man wearing a tie I had to overcome things most people take for granted You cannot imagine how far it is from there to here" Turney dislikes talking about himself but agreed to share his ex: periences in hopes of helping others overcome similar situations He was the oldest of two sons born to a railroad section foreman living in the Arizona desert His father married three times during his childhood and 'Raney had one brother two half-brothers four stepbrothers and three stepsisters He left home at 12 and returned a 'few months later at the insistence of the school's basketball coach To re turn however his father required him to pay $1 a day for room and board until he left home for good in the llth grade Turney worked as a logger cow hand bronc buster and ditch digger before joining the Army on a dare from two buddies who flunked the entrance exam He spent two years in occupation forces in Japan before being discharged and returning to the states "I worked in furniture factories textile mills restaurants sold Bibles blankets and fans door to door drove a truck and even did some cooking" he said Surgery set for Siamese twin Associated Press GALVESTON Doctors were preparing Thursday evening to op erate on a 9-day-old Siamese twin to repair an intestinal perforation a hospital spokeswoman said Alma Petry was to undergo surgery for the problem which was discovered Thursday spokeswoman Linda Westerlage said "I don't have any estimate as to what time they'll be through" Westerlage said Alma was separated from her sis' ter Ashleigh in an 18-hour opera Nov 27 the day after they were born Westerlage said Ashleigh re mained "very stable" Hai: A Sanger Harris charge account is as near as Call 263-405L ext 331 ORIPtallroMPM11 4 tl olr I 4101tr 1 ''1' XV l': eP4i-eZ- 'A -I: I -A i 4' 1 4 '''ici- i ro 5)'e- 1Wv24-N f'' i -14-- tt-4-- ''-''-'4 ''i-'----4-- i---4 liti it ll 1: :1: :0:: i 4'44t-- r'Z-: 5 ll 'll: i l' 15 -1-'44 5 1: 5- 1 1 A CHRISTMAS IS IN THE BAG 4 WITH OUR SALE Mit 0 0 leather 21 1 din hobos satchels bucket shaped totes ha portfolios compartment hell wear all year long' at- these low prices you a-nice new handbag? We ye a wonderful selection of fine Whatwoamg afford to tuck a se inside! --1 4 can nother little surpn ii '''-111P styles and more in terrific colors ntenm 'del Orig 6D -7 -r0--''- -4- 4w4 -01-'2-4-w1 Interim markdowns may have been taken Handbags dept 1-71161500 Selection vanes t-0'4- --0 "f7-' 0 i otorv iv-nr''''S eg -'A -ft" ''N -41 41e! ft: 1-4 ii-- 1:::::::: 1 t4-' '''r- 411 '-i4 '71' 4- 'kt 'A A 5 1 'Alf NOP 1 4ktE4t 1:: i 1" -i" ik AN- 4'''' A' 5t71C- s'4 -''57 5' A 5 At A' 41- 4' i' V547-4? i'' t'' -4 la A 4f ::5 I' 50 1 5 l'A 1 lic i3A -k-1ZA 4 A A- 4: :447" a a e1- I i a 't f- 41' -i At: '('Y'l '(t As 4-' "'7 a 1 'z 1 It oy VIII' '''v 4e-khpf 1-- tsr 14 -4-- -A -t 4-4: k- -s s-' 's s---- 's s-'-- --s7 -t 4 tl 4-t -i I 'fr i '14 4 i 0 1' '-p: 'i ''i''t'S 4 4 'tk' '''K'-AC-' :1" 0 -se!" cr l'-'t- 5-' 1" 1 5 V' 1i4'''''' ---5--- '1 -5- 5 -4-: 1 0 its54 kv "'5 rs i 41 '1'4: A A '1 a as za i 14 i '-at a i 'a '1' 4 A 0 4 4' 1 0 i 4 rt'V'' 'p A lbftt40k i SHOP LATE FOR CHRISTMAS CALL 294-6743 FOR STORE HOURS SHOP LATE FOR CHRISTMAS CALL 294 CHRISTMAS IS IN THE BAG WITH OUR SALE 4999-59099 What woman wouldn't like a nice new handbag? 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