He had his first full-time teaching contract, for an annual salary of , when he was 20 years old and had completed only three years of college. In the ensuing decade, he was also a National Science Foundation Guest Lecturer, was the founder and Director of Summer Mathematics Institutes at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, and earned national recognition for innovative weekly enrichment programs he created for secondary school students, and for in-service programs for elementary and secondary school teachers, all without cost, as Chair of the Alamo District Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1960–1962).