Dr. W. Oren Swearingen Jr.

Services will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 2815 Welsh Avenue in College Station at 10:00 a.m. on October 9th, 2014. Burial will be at the Millheim Cemetery in Austin County on the old ancestral land of the Spanish land grant.

He grew up in Port Arthur, and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1948. He then enrolled at Texas A&M University and became a member of the 'fightin' Texas Aggie band for all four years. Upon leaving A&M in June of 1952, he entered the Baylor University College of Dentistry in Dallas, and graduated in June of 1956. In October of 1956, he entered the U.S. Army Dental Corps with the rank of 1st Lieutenant, and was assigned to White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, and the next year received a promotion to Captain.

After military service, he practiced dentistry in Dallas, Hughes Springs, El Paso and Bryan. He was a member of the Dallas County Dental Society, El Paso County Dental Society and the Brazos County Dental Society. About 1966 he bought a Cessna 182 Skylane and loved to fly in it. While pursuing his hobby of genealogical research, he discovered that he was a direct descendant of men who took part in the Texas Revolution as well as the American Revolution. He joined the "Sons of the Republic of Texas" and also the "Sons of the American Revolution" and twice served as president of the El Paso Chapter. When a new Chapter was chartered in Bryan/College Station, he was the first president of it.

Oren is survived by his wife, the former Ann Alexander and their three children, Rebecca Ann Sampson, of Kingwood, William Van Swearingen, of Utah, and Robert Oren Swearingen, of Granbury. He is also survived by his 17 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.