02/17/2022 02:31:14 PMWhen the oil bust of the 1980s left her dad out of work, Kelly Thurber recalls checking the University of Houston bulletin boards for jobs she could do as an undergraduate. An aspiring teacher, she worked at a law firm, day care center, trucking company and as a nanny to pay for school.
“I remember not having enough money to put gas in my car and debating how am I going to get to class,” Thurber said.
Her then-boyfriend and now-husband, Todd Thurber, was working his way through college at the University of Texas in Austin, his family also hit by the oil crisis.