DISD icon and Dallas Cowboys security supervisor for 4 a long time

On her first day on the job at Texas Stadium, teen Gail David Dupree took directions from the Dallas Cowboys. He refused to let anybody with out correct credentials by means of his door.

Raised in Iowa — however with household roots in Texas and silver and blue in his veins — Dupree had lengthy dreamed of this second.

Courteous however agency, he turned down particular person after particular person who did not have the required cross – even legendary Cowboys common supervisor Tex Schramm.

“You do not know who I’m?” yelled an irritated Schramm as a supervisor rushed over, apologized, and pulled Dupree from his publish.

Ordered to report back to the safety workplace on the finish of the sport, Dupree’s first day was virtually actually his final.

However Schramm delivered a really totally different message in that 1981 post-match assembly. “He is a man who does his job. It’s a must to promote him. He is particular.

Gail David Dupree rose by means of the ranks to finally develop into head of safety at Texas Stadium – and identified for a few years to hundreds of thousands of viewers because the man who escorted the Cowboys coach on and off the sphere on sport day.

Too few of us know his title or the wonderful story of the double life he lived for 4 a long time.

On weekdays, he was a beloved coach, instructor, and supervisor at Dallas ISD. On weekends, he was a useful member of the Cowboys group.

Every single day he was a loving husband and father who, alongside along with his spouse, Sue, raised three youngsters of their unique Mesquite housing property residence.

Dupree – as most individuals known as him – died on November 28 at age 64 from metastatic gastric most cancers. The prognosis got here in February after he sought his physician’s opinion on why his exercises on the fitness center had left him unusually drained.

He had retired from DISD final June, however remained with the Cowboys till sickness pressured him to retire.

Six-foot-four Dupree was a mountain of a person, however, by all accounts, his coronary heart was the largest a part of his presence — and he had a smile as large as Texas.

Cowboys govt vp Charlotte Jones, whose household purchased the group in 1989, advised me that earlier than that season, she had no recollections that Dupree wasn’t part of.

“He was iconic for us,” she stated.

After the group moved out of Texas Stadium, the place Dupree oversaw all safety, and new contracts have been put in place for what finally turned AT&T Stadium, the Jones household nonetheless made certain Dupree saved a key job.

“What’s extra vital on sport day than the protection of your head coach,” Jones stated. “Dupree was all the time the person we trusted essentially the most.”

She stated it is vital to recollect not solely how vital Dupree was to the Cowboys, but additionally the distinction he made within the lives of so many DISD college students.

“He was so humble and quiet however such a powerful and provoking presence,” Jones stated. “I used to be in a position to take pleasure in it, and my youngsters too.”

Dupree made these round him not solely imagine that the whole lot could be superb, however that something was potential. Individuals trusted him, they have been attracted by his calm, his persistence and his enduring optimism.

Whether or not pupil, member of the family or superstar, every painted a single profile of a person who all the time had your again.

Taylor, the center of three grownup Dupree youngsters, believes the way in which his father lives his life stems from the lack of his personal father at an early age.

“That door closed for him, and it opened his coronary heart much more,” Taylor advised me. “He wished to be that father determine and large brother to everybody. He understood the worth of getting somebody to observe over you.

Corey, the eldest of the siblings, admitted that he, Taylor and his sister Erika grew up considering their dad was a bit well-known, regardless that Dupree by no means acted that means. “Texas Stadium was like our second residence within the Nineteen Nineties, throughout the nice Tremendous Bowl years.”

Corey recalled a Cowboys occasion the place his father identified the place he and his younger schoolmate have been supposed to remain whereas Dupree did his job.

Troy Aikman handed by and Corey’s faculty good friend left after him.

“I obtained caught in a troublesome place,” Corey recalled. “Dad stated to not transfer, however he all the time stated to not lose your pals. So I left too. Troy was so good to us.

Possibly it was as a result of youngsters hardly ever broke Dupree’s guidelines, however this time he reacted with only a trace of his trademark smile.

The identical means he may learn a pupil and know what that youngster wanted to succeed, Taylor stated, he may sense what was taking place on the stadium and take care of it earlier than an issue erupted.

“His reward is just not one thing that may be taught,” Erika stated. He was simply born with it.

Sue, the quieter of the household, and Dupree have been a part of one another’s lives for 45 years. They met in Iowa, attended Iowa State College, after which she adopted him to Texas a yr after he arrived.

Dupree selected Dallas partially as a result of, having had just one black teacher in his personal public faculty years, he was impressed that DISD prioritized hiring academics and coaches. black.

And, after all, it was the middle of the universe for a Dallas Cowboys fan.

A former faculty athlete himself, Dupree joined DISD in 1981 as a instructor and assistant soccer and basketball coach at Hillcrest Excessive College.

Ultimately, he earned his grasp’s diploma in academic administration, with a concentrate on self-discipline, and served as vice-principal at Thomas Jefferson Excessive College and Hillcrest.

After Hurricane Katrina pressured many New Orleans residents to relocate to Dallas, Dupree took on his hardest task in 2006 – headmaster of Carter Excessive College, the place tensions have been excessive between Louisiana transplants and different college students.

Michael Hinojosa, then district superintendent, recalled Carter’s former supervisor warning him earlier than a go to that the crowded hallways would possibly “appear to be a scene out of Beirut.”

“She was proper. It was harmful and wild, and we wanted a supervisor there who may additionally deal with self-discipline,” Hinojosa recalled.

He inspired Dupree to use and, after assembly with the choice committee, “the entire jury began chanting ‘Dupree lastly.’ Thank Almighty God, Dupree eventually.

Dupree led Carter to enhancements over the following six years. He then turned director of the Disciplinary Various Training Program and, in 2016, govt director of the Workplace of Pupil Self-discipline.

“This participating light big impressed folks a lot they might have jumped off a bridge for him,” Hinojosa stated.

Present DISD superintendent Stephanie Elizalde stated Dupree is before everything an advocate for college students.

“I can not inform you the variety of instances once I was a headteacher that he got here to talk to me on behalf of a kid,” she stated.

Elizalde additionally advised me that Dupree was essentially the most constructive individual she had ever labored with.

“He had an enormous coronary heart and an enormous smile, and he nonetheless confirmed up day by day with the 2 engaged {couples},” she stated. “I’ve by no means heard him converse unwell of a single individual – ever.”

Dupree’s daughter, Erika, has adopted in her father’s academic footsteps and is the top coach of the ladies’s volleyball group and an English instructor at Poteet Excessive College in Mesquite.

Now married with two youngsters, she marvels at how her father balanced all of it out. “If I may attain only one individual like him, that will be particular,” she stated.

Sue thought she had some thought of ​​her husband’s good works, however the outpouring since his demise took even her unexpectedly.

The instances he put a very good phrase for somebody on the lookout for a job. The second and even third probability he gave to a struggling pupil. The younger individuals who stated he was the daddy they by no means had.

“He was only a giver that means,” Sue stated. “As large as he was, he made everybody round him really feel so vital.”