Changes
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Darryl Kent Grusendorf
|image=Kent Grusendorf of TX.jpg
|party=[[Republican]]
|spouse=Twice divorced:<br>
(1) Nancy Ellen Todd Grusendorf<br>
(2) Barbara Thompson Grusendorf
|religionresidence=[[Austin]], [[Texas]]
|birth_date=December 17, 1939
|birth_place=[[Waco, Texas|Waco]], McLennan County<br>[[Texas]]
|term_3end=January 2007
|preceded=Jan McKenna
|succeeded=[[Diane Patrick]]
}}
'''Darryl Kent Grusendorf''' (born December 17, 1939)<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=http://www.assisttexas.org/statereps_biographical.pdf|title=Biographical Data, Texas House of Representatives, 78th Session|publisher=assisttexas.org|accessdate=September 15, 2011}}</ref> is a [[business]]man and investor from [[Austin]], [[Texas]], who served as a [[Republican Party|Republican]] member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 94 from 1987 to 2007, while he resided in Arlington in Tarrant County in north Texas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legeLeaders/members/memberDisplay.cfm?memberID=138&searchparams=chamber=~city=~countyID=0~district=~first=Kent~gender=~last=~leaderNote=~leg=~party=Republican~roleDesc=~Committee=|title=Kent Grusendorf|accessdate=September 15, 2011}}</ref> He was unseated in the 2006 Republican primary.
==Background==
Grusendorf was reared in [[Waco, Texas|Waco]] in north Central central Texas. He procured a band scholarship to the University of Texas at Arlington, then known as Arlington State College. When he arrived in Arlington, possibly in the early 1960s, he had only his French horn and $90 in his pocket.<ref name=uta/> He also attended [[Baylor University]] in Waco, but the time of his studies there is unclear.<ref name=bio/>
Grusendorf married Nancy Ellen Todd of Waco, the daughter of Randall Woodrow Todd and the former Edna Thelma Dodge (1914-1988). The couple had one child, Darryl Kent Grusendorf, Jr., who was born in 1962 in Grand Prairie in Dallas County. The young family moved to Arlington, but in 1965, after Grusendorf received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from UTA, they relocated to Parma, near [[Cleveland, Ohio|Cleveland]] in Cuyahoga County, [[Ohio]]. They returned in 1970 to Arlington. Their son, an honor student at Bowie High School in Arlington, died at the age of seventeen in 1979. He is interred at Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington.<ref>{{cite web|url=httphttps://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsp=46879854&GRid=20257632&|title=Darryl Kent Grusendorf, Jr.|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=September 16, 2011}}</ref>
==Political life==
Early in Grusendorf's legislative career, the Texas Select Committee on Higher Education, a group appointed by Governor [[Mark White]] to consider streamlining of the state's colleges and universities, proposed that the University of Texas at Arlington be re-defined as a "comprehensive university," with an emphasis on teaching, instead of research. Many UTA faculty and students believed that the change would have eliminated doctoral programs at the institution. [[Bob McFarland]], the state senator from Arlington, and Grusendorf, when he joined the legislature in 1987, fought the committee recommendation. Soon political support was manifested throughout Tarrant County, and the mission of UTA was clarified to include "achieving excellence in all academic areas — teaching, research, and public service."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uta.edu/publications/utamagazine/fall_2008/index.php?section=Yesteryear|title=YESTERYEAR: United they stood, Fall 2008|publisher=uta.edu|accessdate=September 13, 2011}}</ref>
A [[conservative]] in Republican circles, Grusendorf in 2006 lost renomination for an eleventh two-year term to [[Diane Patrick]], a [[Moderate Republican]] college teacher considered a moderate member of the GOPprofessor. In the 2005 legislative session, Grusendorf was the chairman of the House Education Committee and a long-time advocate of school vouchers. Patrick, backed by the teacher unions, made Grusendorf's support for vochers key to her upset victory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2007-01-12/435186/|title=In Search of a New Agenda: What to look for in the 2007 Texas Legislature, January 12, 2007|publisher=austinchronicle.com|accessdate=September 15, 2011}}</ref> In the primary held on March 7, 2006, Patrick polled 5,973 votes (58 percent) to Grusendorf's 4,308 (41.9 percent).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://elections.sos.state.tx.us/elchist.exe|title=Republican primary election returns, March 7, 2006|publisher=elections.sos.state.tx.us|accessdate=September 15, 2011}}</ref> By contrast in the 1992 primary, Grusendorf had defeated T. Arthur Andrews, 7,222 (78.7 percent) to 1,950 (21.3 percent).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://elections.sos.state.tx.us/elchist.exe|title=Texas Secretary of State, Republican primary election returns, March 10, 1992|publisher=elections.sos.state.tx.us|accessdate=September 15, 2011}}</ref>
Grusendorf benefited from two campaign appearances on his behalf by Governor Perry, who stressed their common views on education. Grusendorf supported a $2 billion increase in educational funding but not the $10 billion then advocated by the public school lobby. Ultimately, Grusendorf blamed his defeat on Democratic crossover voters who had not previously participated in Republican primaries in Tarrant County, of which [[Fort Worth]] is the county seat.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/421774/fort_worth_startelegram_texas_eats_beat_column_patrick_would_give/index.html|title=Patrick would give schools a new voice, March 9, 2006|publisher=redorbit.com|accessdate=September 15, 2011}}</ref>
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:State Representatives]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Ohio]]
