Name: Dennis C. D’Amico 

College: University of Missouri, School of Journalism, BJ 

Major: Advertising 

Favorite Book: Shelby Foote multi-volume, “The Civil War” 

Favorite Movie: Lonesome Dove (and the book, too.) And two of JImmy Stewart’s best – “It’s a Great Life,” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” 

Favorite Song: Amazing Grace, Oh Happy Day, most anything by Willie Nelson, Kenny Chesney or Clint Black 

Favorite Food: Genuine Pasta with Genuine Italian Sausage and Sauce, and Texas Chili (Of course, can’t forget that!). 

Favorite Wine: A 

Favorite President: Abraham Lincoln 

Favorite Quote: "Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."

Dennis C. D’Amico

Dennis admits to thinking he was a

liberal at one time. “Conservative just didn’t seem to fit a teenage male in college.”

A history professor changed his mind.

“We were studying recent world history, much of the focus on World War II and Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers’ Party. The professor felt it necessary to devote a portion of one lecture on ‘why he is a democratic socialist.’ You might call it an epiphany, because I knew from that moment on those were not my beliefs. Not in the least.”

That epiphany grew to a warming to the conservative label. Eventually it spurred thoughts to running for local office; a trustee for a small village outside of Springfield, Ill., thwarted by a job move to an advertising agency in St. Louis.

From that point on in Missouri, starting with the handling of a local candidate to working on the five-minute speeches of then candidate, later Governor, Kit Bond, to Texas and working on Governor and then President George W. Bush’s campaigns, Dennis cemented his political views and values.

He has owned his own advertising agency, was a principal of a number of others. Since 1995 he has practiced as a management consultant, specializing in marketing and advertising agency consultation.

He is executive director of the 4A’s Dallas Council of the American Advertising Agencies Association, and founder and for 15 years chairman of the AAF Dallas Foundation (formerly Dallas Advertising League),

Dennis has a Bachelor of Journalism in Advertising from the University of Missouri, with minors in marketing management and broadcast production. He has supplemented his education with MBA level courses in management and marketing. Among his many civic accomplishments, he was an adjunct instructor in Marketing & Media Strategy at the University of North Texas; guest lectures at Dallas Baptist University; is a past president of the Dallas Advertising League and an organizer and officer of the Caruth Hills & Homeplace Neighborhood Assn.; chairman of Marketing Dallas: The Mayor’s Task Force; and served as president of Marketing Communications Executives International-Dallas. He also keeps up his busy, semi-retired life as a docent team leader at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

Favorite Speech: The Gettysburg Address.

My favorite links

• growthstrat.com 

Name: Howard Haddock 

College: Valpariso College 

Major: BSEE 

Favorite Book: The Gathering Storm-Winston Churchill or any non-fiction book 

Favorite Movies: Patton, The Godfather or Shawshank Redemption 

Favorite Food: Pizza 

Favorite Song: Battle Hymn of the Republic 

Favorite Quote: “The helping hand you are looking for is at the end of your arm” 

Purpose: Stimulate the American people to become more involved and more informed in our Governmental processes and to participate in the election process.

Dennis C. D’Amico

Dennis admits to thinking he was a

liberal at one time. “Conservative just didn’t seem to fit a teenage male in college.”

A history professor changed his mind.

He has owned his own advertising agency, was a principal of a number of others. Since 1995 he has practiced as a management consultant, specializing in marketing and advertising agency consultation.

Howard Haddock

Howard considers himself a Reagan conservative, because, as he says, “…in my life time he set the standard for excellence in the Federal government.”

He points to the Carter years as when he became politically active as a true Conservative when “ever-increasing levels of government keep infringing on our freedoms.” Since then he has diligently worked to keep core American values safe, and to protect the American culture from the “ravages” of progressive policies and the deterioration of work ethics.

Howard believes that in America has been experiencing continual and accelerated decline in recent years, and so he has redoubled his efforts to safeguard American principles and values by a high level of involvement in local, state and federal political participation.

“Only through our involvement, now and continually, can we regain American’s competitive standards of excellence. We must refocus on reducing government involvement in our lives, and allow markets to determine success. We must provide the environment necessary for all Americans to succeed based on their individual qualifications, abilities and desires.”

Howard spent all of my working career working for a Fortune 500 company in various management positions in their operating facilities, and finished out the last ten years of his career managing major capital programs on the corporate staff.

“The work ethic that I applied each and every day was to truly earn my salary and contribute to the overall objectives as set forth in our business plan and our capital plan. Accountability was always a major part of that requirement. It is too much to ask the same of our government?”

John W. Jenkins

In the summer of 1961 John was preparing to leave Texas for Boston to attend the Harvard Business School. He had graduated in engineering from Texas A & M and spent three years flying airplanes in the U. S. Air force during the Cold War. Two of those that knew him well independently gave him copies of “Keynes at Harvard: Economic Deception as a Political Credo”. Fortunately during those days back in the 1960s, the business school, as opposed to Harvard College, did not spend much time espousing Keynesian economics, so the book did not make that much of an impact on him then.

With some business experience behind him beginning with some years at IBM, John began to rethink the threat to our economy revealed in that short 114 page book published back in 1960. Since the years of FDR and the Great Recession, Keynesian policies have been the guiding economic principles of the Democratic Party. However, politicians of all stripes have been drawn to Keynesian economics because these theories provide an economic justification for the welfare state, crony capitalism, and all sorts of government handouts that provide politicians with a path to obtain political power.

Just in the first six years of the current administration the amount of deficit Keynesian spending, that is, “Federal stimulus”, will approach a record $7 trillion. This record amount of stimulus spending has produced growth since 2009 that has best been described as being “anemic”, especially following such a deep recession. The Republicans have responded by talking about these devastating budget deficits and advocating cutting Federal spending and tax rates but without clearly advocating a well-argued economic program for the country to counter the Keynesians.

As John sees it, the only way the Federal government will ever be able to meet its growing commitments and control its massive debt is to implement policies which will create exceptional U.S. economic growth bringing in the massive tax revenues that will automatically accompany such growth.

In 2012 the George W. Bush Institute published “The 4% Solutions: Unleashing the economic growth America needs”. John is looking to find a Republican presidential candidate or Congressional leader that will make this premise the central theme of Federal governmental policy.

Pam Porvaznik

For years, Pam never considered herself involved in politics, but looking back she realized that wasn’t quite true. She had been “the writer” of note for numerous politicians running for city, county and state offices in her adopted state of Kansas.

It wasn’t until she was hired by former Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) to be his District Director in the Clinton Administration that she really began to take an interest…mostly in government waste. “Everyone should work in Congress,” she says, “if only to see where your money really goes.”

Pam has had a varied career, always in the writing field. She was an assistant editor of the Detroit New Sunday Magazine; Founding Editor and Publisher of a city magazine; Founding President of an ad agency; Coordinator of Public Relations for Pizza Hut, Inc.; Manager of the Kids Hall of Fame Program, a consortium between Pizza Hut and National Geographic Magazine; Issues writer for Representative Mike Pompeo (R-KS) and now is the company writer for a family-owned chain of eight health food stores.

A graduate of the University of Missouri Journalism School, Pam actually did “graduate work” before she entered college, studying art and art history and living in Paris and Rome for a year after high school. Pam has been a prolific freelance writer for local publications and early on for Jet Magazine. She is a long-time member of the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum board where she volunteers her time administrating the Friends Facebook page

Arnie Freeman

Soviet soldiers invaded my homeland and indiscriminately killed men, women and children, including most of my mother’s family. My father’s family was splintered into those that stayed under Communist rule versus those that scattered across the globe to Venezuela, Germany and other countries. Lithuania ceased to exist and I was robbed of my extended family. At five years old, I was acutely aware that the absence of grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins was the result of a thing called “war.” I did not like it.

But I liked America. Its people were not always happy about seeing immigrants among them, nevertheless it was a much-improved change. My father taught me the importance of determination, it was the key to persistently inventing ways of escaping from Communist tyrannies of Lithuania, then Poland and lastly East Germany, as well as living under Nazism for eight years. My mother taught me the value of compassion, telling stories about individual persons who stepped up to the plate, sometimes in heroic measure to help us in an hour of need. In a world gone mad, killing, maiming, displacing, sometimes being unimaginably vicious and at other times being miraculously kind, I was swept along like a piece of debris riding upon the waves of a turbulent human sea. My viewpoint necessarily shifted from participant to observer, putting psychological distance between my fragile sensibilities and the relentless noise of the storm.

That’s what you need to know about me, if you’re going to read my stuff and wonder from whence some of these crazy notions were spawned; that I can offer you an outside view of things, not because I’m exceptionally smart but because my life’s experience gifted me with an ability to question what is and see things as they could be. Our founding fathers gave us an unprecedented creative experiment in living together. All we need do is continue their creativity, to think the unthinkable and act just a bit out-of-the-box.

I grew up in the fifties when the streets of America were filled with the rumble of colorful, flamboyant carriages harmonizing with the beat of rock ‘n roll music. It felt good to be an American. Everything was possible.

At age twenty-eight I founded an ad agency, then surrounded myself with partners and employees that were smarter and swifter than I was. We built a dream team that at its height boasted sixty people in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Dallas. We excelled in serving our clients with ad campaigns that fulfilled their marketing goals just about every time. We were a proud, creative bunch.

I moved on to New York, where I spent the remaining twenty years of my professional life with the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), helping other ad agency owners and managers to better manage their businesses using 4As’ infinite resources. Fifteen of those twenty years were spent in the 4As San Francisco office. It became my favorite of all American cities.

That’s my story.

Robert P. Smith

Dr. Robert P. Smith is an environmental scientist and professional engineer. He received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. Smith has previously been employed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root, and his own consulting firm. He is retired from full time employment and in recent years has focused on energy and climate issues and lectures and writes on these topics.

PHD, PE

Roy Underwood

Roy grew up as a nomadic son of an Army Officer who had duty in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Born in Panama into a large family that helped build the Panama Canal, he was naturalized by a conservative father who did not trust the government. He spent most of his education in segregated schools, and graduated from an inner-city school in San Antonio. Race was never mentioned in family discussions, but conversations about the Democrats – especially LBJ – were constantly negative.

Rice University provided the scholarship help he needed, as a smart, science-minded teenager from a large fairly low-income military family. It was a major win for the family when Roy became its first college graduate. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Rice with an emphasis on history, and a master’s degree in electrical engineering—doing research which contributed to the development of laser scanners.

His father ended up at the Pentagon during the Johnson/McNamara era and hated everything they were doing to push the US into Vietnam. His father had to regularly testify to Congress on readiness problems heading into Vietnam. LBJ did not like the message and that resulted in a forced retirement after thirty-three years. This event created Roy’s further resentment of the political Washington process.

Roy has lived in Dallas for fifty years. After graduation, he chose to start with Procter and Gamble making soap, rather than accepting a higher-paying first job making nuclear weapons in Silicon Valley.

After thirteen years at Procter and Gamble, followed by multiple job changes, Roy became president of an environmental engineering company during the peak Super Fund days. That company was purchased and at age fifty he was unemployed.

Not wanting to work in big business any more, he created a small retail tax preparation office. He had about 1,000 clients, whose stories shaped his views about tax policy and the thoughts of middle America. An entrepreneur at heart, Roy also developed an online company selling a variety of products, mainly trampolines and exercise equipment. After twenty-five successful years running these businesses, he retired at age 73.

Roy’s love of oblique history has been a common thread in his reading and writing. This all started with two courses. One was in high school, called current events. The textbook was US News and World Report and he had to pay for the subscription. Yes, this was a poor school. The other was at Rice – History of the Southwest. The memorable text was “Log of a Cowboy.”

Roy likes to look at problems and dissect them and debate a variety of sides. He has been known to take different stances on different days depending on the listener. His letters to the editor are often published in the Dallas Morning News.

When addressing situations, he follows a long-standing observation that as a country we have lost the ability to identify and solve problems. We now call problems issues, and issues are just debated – not solved.

Roy created a family slogan: “Life is a death spiral surrounded by random chaos.” He feels it is our duty to reduce the chaos through thinking, writing, and communicating good problem solution.

Name: John W. Jenkins 

Universities: Texas A & M; Harvard Business School 

Majors: Engineering, Finance, Marketing and International Business 

Favorite Book: “The Soul of Battle” by Victor Davis Hanson 

Favorite Poem (and historic place): Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Favorite Movies: Ben Hur, Exodus, and Patton (my brother was a company commander in Patton’s Third Army and met with him on several occasions) 

Favorite Food: My own special home-made chili 

Favorite Quote: “And for the support of this Declaration, with the firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

Name: Pam Porvaznik 

Universities: University of Missouri, School of Journalism, BJ: Institute Catholique, Paris, France and Trinita Dei Monti, Rome Italy 

Favorite Classic: War and Peace 

Favorite Biography: Queen Victoria: A Personal History 

Favorite Movie: On the Waterfront 

Recent Book Read: Ted Cruz–A Time for Truth 

Favorite Music: Anything Anthony Lloyd Webber 

Favorite Food: Mashed Potatoes 

My Favorite Link: My son’s blog: http://paulporvaznik.com/ 

Favorite Quote: “We're at the crossroads. Down one road is a European centralized bureaucratic socialist welfare system in which politicians and bureaucrats define the future. Down the other road is a proud, solid, reaffirmation of American exceptionalism.”—Newt Gingrich 

Name: Arnold Freeman 

College: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 

Major: Sociology, B.S. 

Favorite Book: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 

Recent Book Read: Alexander Hamilton By Ron Chernow 

Favorite Movie: Lawrence of Arabia 

Favorite Song: Beethoven’s “Ode To Joy” 

Favorite Food: Sushi 

Favorite Quote: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 

Favorite Speech: The Gettysburg Address 

Least Favorite Speech: President Nixon’s resignation speech. (See “favorite quote.”) 

Favorite President: Theodore Roosevelt 

Mankind’s Greatest Invention: The Printed Word 

Mankind’s Greatest Achievement: Uniting thirteen colonies under one Constitution 

Mankind’s Greatest Folly: War 

Favorite Thing About America: Its vast highway system, enabling me to travel freely and seemingly without end. 

Biggest Disappointment About America: The free press, squandering its opportunity to help build an informed citizenry. 

Name: Robert P. Smith,PHD, PE 

Universities: Texas Tech; University of Texas at Dallas 

Majors: Industrial Engineering, Environmental Sciences

Name: Roy Underwood 

College: Rice University 

Major: BA/BS/MS EE 

Favorite Book: Fields Without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Ideal 

Recent Book Read: The Black Swan 

Favorite Movie: Shane 

Favorite Song: Shenandoah 

Favorite Link: Breitbart, www.breitbart.com 

Favorite Food: Turkey and dressing 

Favorite Quote: If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. 