**For Immediate Release**
OPSU Part of Flowers Family History
-released by OPSU Campus Communications 02-20-06
by Jeff Flanagan
Goodwell, Okla. - Kevin Flowers lives
in a small, one bedroom, one bathroom apartment in Holter
Hall on the Oklahoma Panhandle State campus with his
wife, Mandy, and their children, six-year-old Hannah
and seven-month-old Nathan Luke. Flowers is OPSU’s
new dorm director, taking over this spring for Charles
Mark who returned to active military duty in January.
But there’s a catch.
This small and cozy apartment is
not just another typical family home. It is the exact
apartment that Flowers’ parents
lived in when he was born 28 years ago.
Before Flowers was born, his father
was also the Holter Hall dorm director. Kevin lived with
his parents and older brother, Steven, in Holter Hall
for about a year. His mother, LuAnn, decided it was time
to move to a larger house when she became pregnant with
Flowers’ younger sister,
Melissa, so they moved to 705 Hackberry in married student
housing. They stayed there for another year and a half
before David got a high school coaching job in Marietta,
Okla.
Flowers’ father, David, was
an OPSU student and Aggies football player from 1977-1980.
He was an All-American and received letters to try out
from both the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots.
Although he enjoyed football, David decided not to seek
a professional spot so he could stay close to his growing
family.
Kevin Flowers eventually met his wife Mandy, and they
lived in Dallas for a while before deciding to continue
their college education. They wanted to find a good school
and a nice place to raise their children, and they thought
of OPSU.
When they arrived, they were shown
to their new home in married student housing- 705 Hackberry. “None of
this happened on purpose,” Flowers said. He had no
idea he would move his family into the same house he had
lived in for almost two years as a child. He also never
planned on taking the dorm director job and moving back
into the apartment he lived in when he was a year old.
Nevertheless, the Flowers family
is happy with the way things worked out. “My family really likes it here,” Kevin
said. “Hannah enjoys interacting with the students.
She thinks the lobby is her living room, and she usually
watches TV there.”
But there can be a downside to living
with a bunch of college students. When asked if there
was anything he doesn’t
like about living in the dorms, Flowers replied, “The
noise at times.”
Kevin and Mandy will stay in Holter
Hall until they graduate in December. After that, the
Flowers plan on moving their family again, this time
to Canyon, Texas so Mandy can work on a Master’s degree at West Texas A&M.
The Flowers’ time here at OPSU has been anything
but predictable. “None of this was expected,” Flowers
said. “But I’m glad it happened. I’ve
enjoyed being here.”
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