M1EK - looks like there's an opening at Cap Metro....
By Laylan Copelin | Monday, March 31, 2008, 02:16 PM
Lee Walker, who has led Capital Metro’s board of directors over a decade of turbulence, is resigning, effective at the end of May.
“When I leave something I really love,” Walker said in an interview Monday, “it’s really hard. Actually, I’m kind of sad.”
Just a few weeks ago, Walker said he had assured Sen. Kirk Watson that he could continue as chairman through the 2009 legislative session. But he changed his mind after a particularly long day of balancing his public duties, the needs of his family (ranging from an 88-year-old mother to a three-year-old daughter) to his teaching duties at the University of Texas.
“I remember looking in the mirror and saying, ‘I can’t keep this up,’” said Walker, 66.
In addition to stepping down at Capital Metro, Walker also has handed over the chairmanship of Westcave Preserve, an organization that protects a lush canyon formed by a collapsed grotto, after 25 years.
Walker may be slowing down but he’s not stopping.
“Teaching is my real career,” Walker said. “When I’m 91, I’ll still be teaching.”
He teaches a Plan II course entitled “Community & Place.”
Walker, a Texas native, made his fortune as an entrepreneur in New York, then retired to Austin before he was 40. He was lured out of retirement to become the first chief executive to what became Dell Computer. He retired again after an illness.
In 1997, after the Legislature had scrapped the Capital Metro board amid allegations of corruption and incompetence, Walker was appointed to a new board to redirect the agency.
During that time, Walker and the new board righted the agency, but his true passion, bringing passenger rail to Austin, was a struggle. In 2000, voters narrowly defeated a proposal to build light rail on Austin streets.
Four years later, they approved a 32-mile commuter line from Leander to downtown Austin. Rail cars are being tested now, but the opening of the line is not expected for several months as Capital Metro works through safety issues.
“I won’t get to cut the ribbon,” said Walker, only half-jokingly.
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte..._was_time.html