John Raymond Castle, Jr.

John Raymond Castle, Jr. died peacefully in his sleep of pneumonia, following a brief battle with a kidney disease. John was a man of faith, family and friends and referred to by all as a "good man".

John was born in Longview, Texas, on January 6, 1943. John and his two brothers, Jimmy and Gene, grew up in Mount Pleasant, Texas, where he made and kept life-long friends.

In 1964, John graduated from the University of Texas, with honors. He went on to attend the University of Texas for law school, graduating number 1 in his class in 1967.

John was a distinguished attorney. He was a founding partner of Luce Hennessy Smith & Castle in 1973, which became Hughes & Luce, then was later acquired by K&L Gates. He was a managing partner of Hughes & Luce and managing partner of the Austin office of Hughes & Luce. The highlight of his time as an attorney was his law partners and co-workers, most of whom are his close friends to this day.

In 1988 he joined his former client, EDS Corp., as Executive Vice President with legal, government relations, communications, community affairs and public relations functions all reporting to him. He used to say he got the best promotion - he went from partner to client. He served on the leadership council of EDS until retirement from EDS in 1999. EDS was a global information technology company doing business in over 50 countries, with over 125,000 employees and revenues of approximately $20 billion.

EDS was acquired by Hewlett Packard in 2007. As was John's way, he made extraordinary friends and personal connections while at EDS, lasting well past his retirement from the company.

Even with all of his corporate accomplishments, John's proudest achievements in his professional life were his service-related positions. After retirement in 1999, he was able to focus on his true passion, which was serving the community. John is a past chairman of The Dallas Foundation, The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center and TexProtects.

He was also on the board of directors of the Foundation for Community Empowerment, The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, The Bridge, TexProtects and the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest.

John previously served on the boards of the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, The Points of Light Foundation, the Texas Department of Family Services and Nurse Family Partnership. In 2007 he received the "Trailblazer for Youth" award from the Texas Network of Youth Services in Austin, Texas.

He served frequently and in many positions at Church of the Incarnation, his beloved home church for many years.

But his greatest love was his family - h was preceded in death by his parents, father John Raymond Castle, Sr. and mother, Laverne Castle, his brother Jimmy, his aunt Mamaweese and his aunt Mildred, plus many other dear relatives who welcomed him Home on Monday.

He is survived by his beloved wife of 57 years, Dorothy Renshaw Castle; his daughter, Amy Castle Gray; son-in-law, Tom Gray; his pride and joy - grandchildren, Boone and Sullivan Gray; his brother, Gene Castle and wife, Sabrina of Longview; cherished cousins and numerous life-long friends.

Visitation will be held from 4-6 pm Sunday, October 23, at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home, 7405 W. Northwest Highway, Dallas, TX, 75225. Funeral Service will begin at 10:30 am Monday, October 24, at Church of the Incarnation, 3966 McKinney Avenue, Dallas, TX, 75204.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center (www.bridgehrc.org ), Austin Street Shelter (www.austinstreet.org ) or TexProtects (www.texprotects.org)

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.Sparkman-Hillcrest.com for the Castle family.