News

Longview ISD honors distinguished alumni

Longview News-Journal - May 9, 2009

By Christina Lane

Longview High School distinguished alumnus Charlie Parsons talks about his 27-year career with the FBI on Friday to students in a criminal justice class at the school.

Former FBI agent and 1961 Longview High School graduate Charlie Parsons recalled an old saying that a Pinewood Park fifth-grade teacher used to tell him.

"She said 'When you think about your life, what do you want written on your tombstone?' " Parsons said as he talked to a criminal justice class Friday at his alma mater. "What you should want written is: 'He left the world a better place than he found it.' "

Those words helped to form the foundation of his life, Parsons said. On Friday, the Longview Independent School District Foundation honored Parsons and two other LHS alumni at the Distinguished Alumni Luncheon at Pinecrest Country Club.

"The Longview ISD Foundation's purpose is to support today's educators and students in the hopes that they will achieve what those who have gone before them have achieved," said Kay Ray, the foundation's executive director.

This year's three honorees spoke to LHS classes before the banquet about how their Longview education affected their success.

Parsons told students about his 27-year career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

As an agent in New York City, he helped prosecute members of five New York mafia families for organized crime gambling operations. Parsons left to head the Los Angeles Division of the FBI. He received the Presidential Award for his performance in the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

"Our teachers prepared our class for everything that was to come," Parsons said of his experience at LHS. "This district has the most dedicated faculty."

Now, Parsons is the president and chief executive officer of D.A.R.E. America (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and D.A.R.E. International.

He said it humbled him to be named a distinguished alumnus.

"This is an honor," he said.

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