Climb Every Mountain
The Life Story of Wales H. Madden Jr. as Told to Jon Mark Beilue
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“From helping a fellow friend and sportswriter to projects that made a lasting difference on hundreds of lives, that’s Wales Madden, Jr.’s legacy. That’s a life well-lived, and in some small way, I hope our Fridays with each other conveyed that.” Jon Mark Beilue Columnist Amarillo Globe-News
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About the Book
Today and in the future, many in Amarillo, Texas, and at the University of Texas, stand on the shoulders of giants of those whose commitment to growth and change have made a difference. Wales Madden Jr. might be small of stature, but those shoulders are quite broad. He has spent a lifetime to better his hometown and alma mater. His influence and insight has made him friends with Boone Pickens and former presidents Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. From his time as student body president at UT in the early 1950s to one of the school’s youngest regents to his work with UT’s prestigious Harrington Fellows, Wales’s work with his alma mater is profound. An attorney in his hometown of Amarillo, Wales’s reach in the Texas Panhandle has been long, from his early work to secure funding for the Pioneer Amphitheater in his beloved Palo Duro Canyon to involvement in key parts of the city’s growth. And he’s done it all with his trademark self-deprecating sense of humor and aw-shucks modesty.
About the Author
Jon Mark Beilue, like Wales Madden, grew up in the Texas Panhandle, although it was some thirty years later, and in a much smaller place. Beilue grew up in the small town of Groom, the son of a farmer and a high school English and journalism teacher. In high school, after summers and weekends toiling on the farm, he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, but he knew it should involve air-conditioning. Working on the school paper gave him an idea. Beilue went to Texas Tech, worked on the university daily student newspaper, and graduated with a BA in journalism in 1981. He was hired first as a sportswriter with Amarillo Globe-News that summer. Thinking he would be there a couple of years, it has been more than thirty-five. The first twenty-five years were in the sports department, the last seventeen of them as sports editor. In 2006, he became the Globe-News’ general columnist, the first for the newspaper since the 1970s. He has won numerous statewide and national awards in his career, and a book of his columns, This Might Be a Good Story, was published in 2014. He and his wife, Sandy, have two grown sons.