Dale Carroll Cheesman Jr.

Dale attended Lamar High School, New Mexico Military Academy, and graduated from the University of Texas, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. After attending The University for two years, he enlisted in the United States Air Force at the start of the Korean War and was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. He then married his high school sweetheart and returned to UT to complete his remaining years of college.

After graduating from college, he joined his father at Dale C. Cheesman & Son, where they traded in leases, minerals and royalties in the oil business. In 1965, Dale Jr. formed CICO Oil & Gas Company to drill and explore for oil and gas throughout Texas and Louisiana. He ran the company for over fifty years, coming to the office every day until his death. He loved his office family, especially his loyal and devoted manager Marilyn Faulkner. Dale earned a strong reputation in business as a smart, successful and honest Oil Man.

Dale was a pilot, a guitar player, and an avid fisherman and hunter, where he was known as a world class shot. He loved taking his family and friends down to south Texas for big hunting weekends, and to Lake Conroe and their Galveston bay house for boating and fishing weekends. He was a member of and served on the boards of the Petroleum Club of Houston, the Houston Country Club, Tanglewood Bank, the Open Door Mission and on the Vestry of St. Martins Episcopal Church where he was a founding member.

Dale sends his final salute to his many close friends, including the Old Geezers.

The Cheesman family would like to express their gratitude to his devoted caregivers, Koko, Sophia, Trinika, Shanae and Bianca.

Dale was preceded in death by his parents and sister Carolyn Cheesman Hippard.

He is survived by his beloved wife of 61 years, Shirley Edwards Cheesman, his two daughters and two sons, Sheryl Cheesman Doyle and her husband Doug Doyle, and Lolly Cheesman Erwin, Dale Cheesman, III and wife Stacy Scott Cheesman, and John Cheesman and wife Emily McDonald Cheesman, his nine grandchildren Douglas and Caroline Doyle, Courtney and Tommy Erwin, Taryn, Dale IV and Cecily Cheesman, John Christian and Carley Cheesman, his sister Barbara Cheesman Groves, and a multitude of nieces and nephews, including his special niece Janet Landry.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon until seven o’clock in the evening on Tuesday, the 6th of January 2015 in the library and grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

A memorial service is to be conducted at two o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, the 7th of January at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, 717 Sage Road in Houston. Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception to be held in the adjacent Bagby Parish Hall.

Prior to the service, the family will have gathered for a private interment at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests donations be made to the Open Door Mission, at 5803 Harrisburg, Houston, Texas 77011.

“You’re alive as long as you’re remembered”

Given the mark you left on so many people,

You will be remembered for a long, long, long time….