Subject: FW: Brown Bag Lunch Seminar - Orion and Jan Knox - on Mongolia - Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 11:58 AM Bios
Edwards Aquifer Philosophical Society - aka brown bag luncheon Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 11:58: AM Edwards Aquifer Authority 1615 N. St. Mary's Street, San Antonio, TX Walking in the Footsteps of Chinggis Khaan Trekking the Altai Tavan Bogd Mountains of Western Mongolia Orion & Jan Knox Biographies Orion Knox was born in San Antonio and grew up on a farm southeast of town. He attended college at St. Mary's University, San Antonio College and graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Texas at Austin. He started work for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department right out of college and worked as an architect, park planner and completed his carrier as head of the Department's Historic Sites and Restoration Program. He worked on projects as diverse as Native American rock art sites, restoration of frontier forts and historic mansions and the restoration of the Battleship Texas. Another interest that started in high school that he still follows is cave exploring. He has explored caves throughout Texas and in many parts of Mexico. His most notable achievement was being one of the four St. Mary's students who discovered the nearby Natural Bridge Caverns. He eventually took a leave from college and spent a year helping in its development. As a result of that experience and his park planning work, he has assisted in the development of the Rio Camuy caverns in Puerto Rico, Harrison's Cave on the island of Barbados, Grutas de Palmito near Bustamante, Mexico and Kartchner Caverns in Arizona. The travel bug also hit him at an early age. During college he traveled to many remote areas of Mexico looking for caves. Later in life he started traveling overseas and has visited regions of every continent except Europe. He is saving that for old age. Jan Knox Although born in Nashville, Tennessee; Jan soon found her way to Texas. She attended the University of Texas at Austin getting a degree in Geology. While in college she started caving and soon met Orion. She worked for the Texas Water Development Board in the Planning Division; doing a variety of geologic studies on water quality and supply analysis for cities, environmental studies on the Wild and Scenic Rivers, and several years in the field mapping of the Edwards aquifer from Del Rio to Kyle with special emphasis on karst features and recharge. During this time she continued caving with Orion in Texas, Mexico and Barbados. After 26 years with the agency, she quit to try a new endeavor, artist. It was natural for her to paint that which she loved, rocks. She has received numerous awards, taught workshops, but primarily continues to paint and is involved in a new gallery where she has her studio, Austin Art Space. Prior to this business venture, she was one of the principal resident artists in Artspoken Gallery and Studios in Austin, TX. Having always traveled while growing up to National and State Parks, adventure travel was a natural past time. Caving, backpacking, whitewater rafting and canoeing were favorite activities. Now they are traveling globally seeing the world. Jan has traveled on all 7 continents.
