Peyton Donald Waters, Sr.

A devoted husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, Peyton was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the 21st of October 1925, the younger son of Secessia Gutierrez Waters and William Alexander Waters, Sr. During the Great Depression, his father became ill with tuberculosis and was sent to New Mexico for treatment. Peyton and his brother moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, and they lived with his grandmother, mother, aunts, uncles, and cousins until his father recovered. He considered those days living with his kind extended family and playing in the Bay of Biloxi some of his happiest childhood memories.

Beginning in junior high school, he attended St. Stanislaus College, a college preparatory school for boys in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, where he studied and thrived under the tutelage of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. He was a star athlete and a football teammate of Doc Blanchard when St. Stanislaus won the Toy Bowl in New Orleans the night before the attack on Pearl Harbor. At St. Stanislaus he made lifelong friends and was known for his leadership, loyalty, selflessness, and consistent concern for others’ wellbeing. Peyton was abundantly grateful for his opportunity to study with the Brothers at St. Stanislaus, and he maintained his active association with the school for his entire life.

After graduation in 1944 at the age of eighteen, he joined the United States Army Air Corps to serve his country in the Pacific in World War II. While stationed in Japan after the Allied invasion, he saved missionary nuns and Marianist priests who had been stranded in the mountains by keeping them supplied with food. Upon completion of his military service, he returned home to study business and engineering at Tulane University on the G.I. Bill. While in New Orleans he was introduced to Geneva Dufour, a pretty, blue-eyed Charity Hospital nursing student. They fell in love and married on the 18th of September 1948. They quickly started building their family and a beautiful life together.

In 1951, Peyton graduated from Tulane and began his business career with National Supply Company in Louisiana, where he learned every aspect of the drilling industry and became an expert in drilling machinery. National Supply Company moved his family and him to Houston in 1962. He then served as President of Metal Arts Company before founding Waters International, Inc. in Houston in 1970. For the next fifty years he traveled the world to serve his international customers, founded Spartan Equipment and Supply, Inc., created many jobs and benefits for his dedicated and hard-working employees, and was blessed with a successful career. He shared his success generously, and most often anonymously, in the spirit of Christian charity with his family, friends, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, and those less fortunate.

Peyton was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, William Alexander Waters, Jr.; and his infant sister, Geraldine Rita Waters. He is survived by his devoted wife of seventy-two years, Geneva Dufour Waters; his children, Donna Waters Harris and her husband Dr. Joseph Denton Harris IV, Peyton Donald Waters, Jr. and his wife Karen Kennedy Waters, Dr. William Joseph Waters, and Elizabeth Waters Paterson and her husband Alan Gerard Paterson; his grandchildren, Dr. Lindsey Harris Massengale and her husband Michael Christopher Massengale, Anne Reagan Harris Fibbe and her husband George Harold Fibbe, Audrey Waters Loweth and her husband Justin Isensee Loweth, Emily Dunn Harris, Peyton Donald Waters III, and his wife Mary Kathryn Benefield Waters, Catherine Blair Paterson Kessler and her husband Barry Robert Kessler, and Elliot Baass Paterson; and his great-grandchildren, Charlotte Blair Loweth, George Finch Fibbe, Denton Harris Fibbe, Bannon William Loweth, Anne Cullen Fibbe, Margaret Gray Sessions Banks, Peyton Donald Waters IV, Griffin Waters Loweth, Robert Paterson Kessler, and Rhett Patrick Kessler. He is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews.

A gifted raconteur, especially about his native New Orleans, Peyton will be remembered by his family and friends for his unconditional love, loyalty, generosity, and authenticity, his lively smile, his warmth, his other-centeredness, and his ability to fix anything. He derived his greatest joy from his family, and he was a constant presence for all their special occasions. He took great pride in all the achievements of his children and grandchildren, who acknowledged and appreciated that he could make each and every one feel special and cherished.

A rosary was prayed, led by the Reverend David Zapalac, CSB, Pastor of St. Anne Catholic Church, and a Mass of Christian Burial was offered in celebration of Peyton’s life at St. Anne Catholic Church by the Most Reverend Curtis John Guillory, SVD, DD, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Beaumont, and the Reverend Monsignor Jeremiah McGrath, rector of St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica of Beaumont. Entombment followed in the Chapel Mausoleum of Memorial Oaks Cemetery in Houston. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the services were attended by his immediate family.

For those desiring, and in lieu of customary remembrances, contributions in memory of Peyton Donald Waters, Sr. may be directed to The Waters Family Endowment and mailed to Saint Stanislaus Catholic Boarding School, 304 South Beach Blvd., Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi 39520.