At its first meeting and luncheon of the new year held on January 13 at Maggiano’s restaurant, the Houston Mortgage Bankers Association delivered a surprise: the presentation of the first HMBA Lifetime Achievement Award to long-time HMBA member Calvin C. Mann.
A founding partner of Black Mann & Graham, L. L. P, mortgage lender and real estate attorneys, Mann has more than 33 years in the document preparation business in Houston. In presenting the award, HMBA President Bill Dawley said that HMBA had long sought a means to recognize extraordinary people, such as Mann, who are part of Houston’s mortgage industry. He noted that Mann had also received the Larry E. Temple Distinguished Service Award from the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association.
Mann thanked HMBA for the honor and accepted the award “on behalf of his employees.” A longtime supporter of the TMBA PAC, he urged the audience to support the PAC with their time and money. “Nothing happens in Austin – or Washington – without money,” he quipped.
The luncheon’s featured speaker, Mike Carroll, an account manager at Mortgage Guarantee Insurance Corporation Insurance (MGIC) in San Antonio, delivered a hair-raising account of his survival in the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. A former state golf champion at Stephen F. Austin University, Carroll went to work for Morgan Stanley in Houston immediately after graduation in 2001and was in New York to prep for his Series 7 exam. He was in the Morgan Stanley office on the 61st floor of the second tower when the first plane hit tower one.
“I was at my desk about 8:30 a.m. when it sounded like a huge freight elevator rumbled past. Then people began saying that there was something wrong with the next tower and that’s when I saw what looked like ticker tape and smoke whirling past the windows. Our manager told us he didn’t know what was happening but to get our gear and get out.”
“That saved my life,” Carroll continued, “because the Port Authority was on the building PA system telling everyone to go back to work. I was in the stairwell when the second plane hit our building and was thrown across the stairwell into the far wall. It was the loudest noise I have ever heard but I was lucky again: my stairwell survived the attack intact.”
Carroll eventual made his way to the ground and exited the building 10 minutes before it collapsed. He closed with these thoughts: “Remember 911; make sure you have courage as it will always get you through; act in a professional manner when things are stressful; thank God every day; experience life as it can be fleeting; and tell your family you love them – every day.”
