About Texas Ragtime

Our Story

Arch W. (Bill) Hunt, PhD

Chairman

Carmen Y. Hunt, MBA

President

Bill finished Baylor University with BS and MS degrees in Mathematics and Physics. He entered the USAF as a 2nd Lieutenant, stationed at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. He served as an engineer, specializing in infrared guidance for air-to-air missiles. Upon completion of his active duty, he remained in the Air Force Reserves, serving as an operations analyst and Air Force Academy Liaison Officer, and retiring as a Lt. Colonel.

Bill spent time as an Engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company and a Project Operations Analyst at General Dynamics. Acquiring an interest in operations research and management, Bill left the defense industry to obtain a PhD degree in Operations Research, Statistics, and Accounting at the University of Texas at Austin. Upon completion, Bill received an appointment as Assistant Professor of Operations Research in the College of Business at UT Austin. Ultimately, he became the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs. He followed his leader to become Assistant to the President and Director of Management Information Systems, assisting in the development of the new University of Texas at San Antonio.

During his time in San Antonio, he spent nearly two years teaching MBA coursework, under contract for Boston University in Italy and Germany, to military and civil servants. Also, he taught a semester at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico.

Intrigued with private enterprise, Bill took a position with Fuddruckers Restaurants as Vice President and Controller. He brought his wife, Carmen, on board as the Director of the management training programs, initiated franchising, and inventory/accounting control systems. Ultimately, Bill and Carmen decided to take the franchise rights to the State of Tennessee and proceeded to build several restaurants in Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee.

After a decade in the restaurant business, wanting to return to Texas, Bill became the President of a large textile recycling company in Dallas, Texas. He steered the company into the computer age, organizing production, data base management, and sales. Health issues caused a change in course.

In 1996, Bill and Carmen decided to raise capital and start a new corporation in Athens, Texas called Texas Ragtime, Inc. It was started in a portion of the old Curtis Mathes television production facility. As a Brownfield site, our lease provided impetus in cleaning and removing the old facility from the tainted property list. After about 10 years, the company found a permanent location, just north of Athens. The facility contains about 85,000 square feet on seven acres of land.

In semi-retirement, Bill still handles the day-to-day financial operations and continues to analyze operations to assist in the development and maintenance of sound operating procedures and corporate growth.

Carmen graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with BBA and MBA degrees. She became an insurance adjuster for a large San Antonio insurance company. Later, she became a marketing representative for another insurance company.

With the growth of the Fuddruckers restaurant chain as a result of internal and franchisee growth, it became imperative that a recruitment and training program be initiated as soon as possible. Carmen accepted the responsibility to join Bill at Fuddruckers to develop a solid manager recruitment and training program. It was highly successful in satisfying corporate and franchisee management requirements.

Carmen joined Bill in the development of the Tennessee franchise territory. Again, Carmen recruited and trained the personnel – managers, cooks, butchers, bakers, cashiers, etc. for the three Fuddruckers in Nashville and Knoxville locations. In addition, three other non-franchise restaurants were started, including full-service and cafeteria-style concepts.

After a decade, Carmen moved to Dallas and, ultimately, to Athens, Texas to assist Bill in financing, recruitment, and training staff for Texas Ragtime, Inc. It was a very tough time to develop a newly formed company, with the global economies struggling with recessions, currency issues, and internal upheavals, all of which impacted small, start-up companies. Carmen and Bill worked as a solid team with a dedicated staff to establish Texas Ragtime as one of the largest textile recycling companies in the USA!

Our mission today is to continue to provide the level of service and quality products that our customers have come to appreciate for over twenty-five years!