James D. Webb

James David Webb Sr. passed away on Friday, the 23rd of June 2023, in Houston, Texas. He was 92 years of age. He was born to Edith Lorena Miller Webb and Arthur Darrell Webb on the 27th of April 1931, in Big Spring, Texas.

He described himself as an unpopular child.

In the first grade at Big Spring Elementary, Jimmy was the only student in the class who received no Valentines in the paper bag he had decorated with hearts that February day in 1937. Eighty years later, he would tell that story with tears in his sky-blue eyes.

Jim was raised by Edith and Darrell Webb, who eloped when they were too young to have acquired many of the skills that come with the lessons of life. Even so, they built a family together, and they saw both of their sons graduate from college. Jim described his parents as God-fearing and hard-working people who did their best raising boys during the Great Depression. He was proud of his family.

After arriving at the University of Texas in Austin in 1948, Jim joined Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, where he felt a sense of belonging for the first time in his life. He admired his ATO brothers, many of whom had fought overseas in World War II. Jim graduated with a degree in Geology in 1952 and began a 70-year career in the oil and gas industry.

He loved the science of geology; he took pride in providing for his family. He felt joy in the camaraderie with the businessmen at the Petroleum Club, with the roughnecks at the rig, who waited while Jim looked at core samples under his microscope, and with the other hopeful explorers in the quiet of the land library, reading logs, looking for the next big lick.

Jim met Irene Patricia Hogan from Breckenridge, Texas, on a blind date in 1951, and they fell into a true and beautiful love with one another that would last until her sudden and terribly early death in 1975. Pat’s death left Jim a 43-year-old widower with five children, ages 23 to 7. In the next chapters in his life, he started his own exploration company, moved to Denver, Houston, Arkansas, and back to Midland again. He remarried; he loved his wives.

He considered himself a lucky man.

Once when he was trimming some trees in the backyard, he dropped the chainsaw on his foot. The saw cut through his leather shoe, nicked one of his toenails, but never drew any blood. Jim knew that his successes were due not only to the fruits of hard work and integrity, but also of the sheer luck of having been born at all, and an American, in the time and place when he did, with the fortune of a healthy body and a sound mind. He never took his life for granted, and he wrung out every drop of joy that this world offered him.

The child without a single Valentine was named to the City Counsel of Midland, Texas, in 1994. He traveled the world; he caught marlin in the Pacific, he saw Elvis, Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Mac Davis, and Johnny Cash live. Once, Liberace stopped his show – in the middle of a song – because Jim’s wife left her seat in the front row of the Vegas theater to go to the restroom. He earned his pilot’s license. He shined his shoes, carried a handkerchief, and wore a fedora. He stood when a woman entered the room. His favorite president was Eisenhower. He was a good card player. He was a good friend. He loved, respected, and often bragged about his children.

He was a thinker.

Jim was interested in the largest questions in life: Why are we here? What is the universe expanding into? How does a simple wound somehow know how to heal itself? Why do salmon return to their birthplace before they die? He was intellectually curious, and he loved reading and discussing the philosophies of Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, and Bertrand Russell.

He is preceded in death by his wives Irene Patricia Hogan Webb and Norma Jean Helm Webb, and by his son, James David Webb, Jr. He is survived by his children Janet Webb, John Webb (Sharon Webb), Jeff Webb (Shirley Webb), and Jill Webb (Susan Webb), as well as 14 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren. He will be dearly missed.

The family will have gather for a private interment at Resthaven Memorial Gardens in Midland.

A memorial service will be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Friday, the 30th of June, at First Presbyterian Church Midland, 800 W. Texas Ave in Midland. Immediately following all are invited to greet the family during a reception at a venue to be announced during the service.

Please visit Jim’s online memorial tribute at GeoHLewis.com where fond memories and words of comfort and condolence may be shared electronically with his family.