For four days and 26 miles, Alex Harris paddled his 17-foot kayak through Laguna Ojo de Liebre in Baja, Calif., slipping among gray whales so near the surface that they stilled the ocean's currents.
"It'll stop your breath," said Harris, the new chairman of the Greater Corpus Christi Business Alliance and 12-year chief executive officer of San Jacinto Title Co.
Harris has backpacked into the Cuyamaca Mountains and the Anza-Borrego Desert, both in California, and kayaked the Crystal River in Florida and the Ouachita River in Arkansas. He makes annual trips to the Big Bend.
Closer to home, he haunts the waters of the more familiar Laguna Madre, Shamrock Cove, Packery Channel and Matagorda Island, sometimes getting up before daylight to be on the water at dawn.
So when long-time civic leader Harris, 43, starts talking about adventure and moving Corpus Christi forward, friends and colleagues say you can be sure he's not the type to sit still.
"To live is to be adventurous," said Harris, whose energy at times surprises those who work with him. "We've got a lot of things on the plate for 1997. Having an adventure spirit will help us achieve some great things."
Harris takes the top leadership role at the alliance after a year of achievements in 1996 that included attracting two new telemarketing firms to the community and seeing the water shortage through to the city's decision to build the Lake Texana pipeline.
But many projects lie ahead for the group -- including a potential half-cent economic development sales tax -- and Harris said he hopes in 1997 to bring the resources and credibility of the 1,600-member alliance to bear even more on community issues.
"We need to make sure that the city and the county and the port look to the alliance as a leader to participate in solving the problems that face Corpus Christi," Harris said.
When Harris graduated from Ray High School in 1971, many of his friends left Corpus Christi for colleges outside South Texas. But Harris went to Texas A&I University in Kingsville -- now Texas A&M University-Kingsville -- where his mother and all five of his older brothers and sisters had gone.
After earning a bachelor's degree in business administration and computers, Harris started working for Harrell Petroleum Co., a convenience-store company owned by his father-in-law that had stations throughout South Texas.
He started in the company's warehouse, eventually working his way up to president.
During this period, Harris became involved in state and national politics, lobbying for the Texas Oil Marketers Association, an organization for which he served as regional vice president from 1983 to 1985.
When Harrell Petroleum was sold 12 years ago, Harris took the position of San Jacinto Title Co.'s chief executive officer.
He is now one of 10 owners of San Jacinto, a company that has grown to five offices from two under his leadership and has handled closings on such transactions as the Blanche Moore land deal on South Padre Island Drive, the Memorial Medical Center and Spohn Hospital merger, and the sale of 102 Maverick Markets to Coastal Mart Inc. in 1995.
Harris recently married Polly Harris, a teacher and part-time assistant principal at Hamlin Middle School. He has two children from a previous marriage who attend Ray High School.
Harris said attorney Cecil Burney, a mentor to many young leaders before he died, urged him to become involved in local issues, advising him to go through a Leadership Corpus Christi class.
"Cecil always had what he called Burney's Law," Harris said. "Burney's Law says that one man or woman with an idea whose time has come can accomplish anything, provided they're willing to work hard enough.
"It's a motto I've tried to live by," Harris said.
At times, Harris has taken the reins of tasks that others considered daunting.
Mike Carrell, president and chief executive of Frost Bank, recalls Harris' leading the group that in 1994-95 rescued the Columbus ship replicas, a tourist attraction whose finances were crumbling after a barge collided with one of the ships.
"He took on a project that everybody seemed very concerned about and there were no obvious answers," said Carrell, whose bank was a lender on the project. "Alex dove in and developed a plan to dig out of a problem. He's provided a lot of comfort for the community in terms of dealing with the Columbus ships."
Shirley Mims, a home builder whom Harris asked to serve on the Columbus Fleet task force, said her first reaction after attending the first meeting was to "send the things back to Spain."
"Lots of people had strong opinions," Mims said. "Alex was able to draw out the best qualities of each one of us -- how we felt about the ships, how we thought they could be fixed.
"Alex was very open when he walked into it. He wanted something good for Corpus Christi, but he wanted it to be viable, too."
The task force was able to raise $40,000 in donations from private companies and individuals to pay immediate bills, and eventually developed a plan that was accepted by the City Council that involved building a shipyard exhibit next to the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History, where the ships could be displayed and repaired.
"There were so many problems and negative connotations," Carrell said. "My hat was off to Alex for being willing to take on such a complex project. He's just an honest, hard-working person and you don't have to worry about an ulterior motive."
Mark Scott, president of National Therapy Providers and colleague on community projects, said Harris often works late into the evening at his office so he can spend time out of the office during the day.
"I don't think people realize how much this guy works," Scott said. "When you and I may get tired at 6, 8 and 10 o'clock at night, he doesn't get tired until midnight, and where you and I have to sleep until 6, his body just wakes up at 4 o'clock."
Scott also said Harris, as chief executive of a local title company, brings to the alliance board a sincere interest in small business, which makes up the majority of the alliance's membership.
"He lives in a small-business environment," Scott said. "He recognizes that most of the business growth comes from small-business entities."
Dr. Skip Langley, a close friend of Harris and partner on kayaking, canoeing and backpacking trips, said Harris is a person who has a genuine interest in others without the showmanship that sometimes accompanies leaders.
"I was out with him once on the Rio Grande River when it was cold, miserable and ripping, and we found some Mexicans who had been trapped on the shore for three days without food," Langley said.
While some in the canoeing group were still debating what to do, Langley said, Harris had already paddled over to rescue the group.
Langley also said he admires Harris for his accomplishments, including earning a master's degree in business administration from Corpus Christi State University -- now Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi -- despite a struggle with dyslexia.
"He's had to work not as hard, but a lot harder than everybody else to be where he is today," Langley said.
Harris said that dyslexia -- an impairment of the ability to read -- was a challenge for him while growing up, but he eventually overcame the disorder.
The problem has not slowed him down. In addition to many civic projects, Harris has served as an adjunct professor in the computer-science department at Del Mar College.
True to his spirit, Harris chose a speaker, John Amatt, for the annual banquet Wednesday whose adventures as a mountain climber underscore the themes of personal peak performance and effective teamwork.
"The board this year will have to stay very active to make sure we are in the forefront of bringing issues before the county and city in economic development and business development in our community," Harris said.
"We want our city to grow, and we'll do everything we can to make Corpus Christi grow."