Gerald Winston Maness

GERALD WINSTON MANESS, M.D. of Houston, Texas passed from life through death and into eternity on Wednesday, July 05, 2017. He is now absent from the body and face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ. Gerald was born on the 24th of April 1930 in Houston, Texas to Thomas Alvin and Ruth Monroe Maness. He is preceded in death by his parents and sister Shirley Prestwood. He is survived by his loving and devoted wife of 60 years, Barbara Elizabeth Maness, by his 5 children and their spouses - Kathleen O’Conner (Patrick), Steven Maness M.D. (Doreen), Karen Maness McKenney M.D. (Hugh), Kimberly Willingham (Bradley), and Dr. Karolyn Leasure (Robert) and his fifteen grandchildren. Gerald, since a young boy, was blessed with the knowledge his “niche” in life was to be a medical doctor. Gerald accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior while a young man and began with the blessing and help of God to prepare himself for a future in medicine. He graduated from John H. Reagan High School in Houston, Texas. He continued his growth and preparation at Baylor University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts Degrees. In 1957, he graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and became a Doctor of Medicine. He completed his General Practice Internship at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, University of Tennessee and a General Practice Residency at Huey P. Long Charity Hospital in Pineville, Louisiana at Tulane University. In 1959, Dr. Gerald W. Maness opened his medical office in Northwest Houston and continued to practice his profession until December 2016. His patients were blessed with his state-of-the-art medical office and an excellent office staff. Many of his staff worked along side of him for decades. He was honored to have the dedication and trusted support of nurse Elaine Jones for more than 40 years, who shared Dr. Maness’ passion for enhancing the health of his patients. He demanded excellence from himself and from those around him. His high standards resulted in the improvement of Family Practice. During his medical career he served on staff at 5 different hospitals, Memorial-Hermann Northwest and Southwest Hospitals, Spring Branch Medical Center, Methodist, St. Luke’s Episcopal and Heights Hospitals. In the last fifty-years at Memorial-Hermann Northwest Hospital, Dr. Maness served in multiple roles including Chief-of-Staff, Chairman of Family Practice, and Chairman of the Executive Committee. He also worked tirelessly on improvement, by-laws, quality assurance, and ethics of many other hospital committees. In addition he served as a Delegate to the American Medical Association and Texas Medical Association. Besides medicine Gerald was interested in photography and do it yourself projects. He loved root beer, sour pickles and milk shakes. He prided himself on his sense of humor and enjoyed teasing people he liked. Gerald attended Berachah church for more than 50 years. He made his transfer from time to eternity in God’s provision of dying grace and with the firm understanding that “for me, living is Christ, dying is profit” (Philippians 1:21); for Jesus Christ proclaimed, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me shall live even if he dies” (John 11:25). The apostle Paul wrote a eulogy for faithful servants in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” Dr. Maness would encourage all who knew him to become positive to God’s Word and seek the high ground of spiritual maturity and glorify God.

The family requests, with gratitude, for memorials in Gerald’s memory be directed to R.B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 5139 West Alabama Street, Houston, Texas 77056.