Quentin Gary Gensler

Quentin Gary Gensler was born in Houston, Texas on August 26, 1940 to Quentin Granville Gensler, an auto-parts salesman, and Dolores Gensler (born Weiman), who also worked at the auto-parts store. He was born into a very humble background in the 3rd Ward. Quentin grew up an active member in the Catholic Church as an altar boy. In high school, he was a member of the Junior Historians and Math Club. He had fond memories of time spent with his aunts: Aunt Nona – especially, of her banana puddings and floating island desserts, and his Aunt Birdey, who took him fishing on the Galveston Pier.

He was eternally grateful to his Aunt Helen and Uncle Art for funding his university studies, which culminated in a degree in Accounting at the University of Houston. His first car was a Ford Mainline stick shift that his Dad helped him buy. He upgraded to a 2-seat Ford Thunderbird that he paid for himself from his grocery work. It was while he was working at Kroger that he met Michelle, the love of his life.

He and Michelle Virginia Gensler (born Cook) married on April 3, 1965. When they first got married, they spent the weekend at Laredo. Later, they went to Las Vegas for their official honeymoon. In the beginning, they had very little money, so Michelle’s Mom, Shirley Sherwood Cook, affectionately known as “Fred”, would cook for them. Quentin’s Dad helped him with the loan on their first home at 9215 Renwood in the Spring Branch neighborhood.

Quentin had a long successful career in natural gas supply. He began his career at Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corporation from 1978-1995 as a manager in Gas Accounting. He left Transco for Southern Natural Gas Supply to work as a Gas Purchases Buyer from 1975-1978. Returning to Transco in 1978, he worked as a manager to Gas Purchases until 1995. Quentin was one of 26 employees to win the Excellence Award in 1988 that is presented at his Remembrance Table. From 1995-2003, Quentin worked as a corporate consultant testifying at trials on excess royalty claims and producer settlements.

Quentin enjoyed his years as a company man at Transco. He made many friends along the way. He loved deep sea water fishing in Stuart Florida with his colleagues. He joined the Transco Bowling League where he won several bowling trophies and proudly bowled a maximum score of 220. He also enjoyed playing racquetball at the Post Oak YMCA.

Quentin love to go sight-seeing with Michelle. They often went on long weekend trips to small towns to shop and toodle around. He loved shopping and often stocked up on multiples of items. Quentin’s pride and joy were his children. He planned 2-week summer vacations each summer where he drove in the family van. Trips were as far up north as Washington DC to the northeast and Los Angeles, CA on the west coast. He planned each trip with AAA and did all of the driving.

Christmastime was another shared love between Quentin and Michelle. The gifts and decorations on Christmas morning were often talking points with friends due to the generosity and uniqueness of the gifts. He enjoyed shopping and continued to celebrate big even after Michelle’s passing.

Quentin’s other interests included baseball (the Astros), old cars (as mentioned), movies (he was a big fan of Natalie Wood), sweets (in addition to his Aunt’s treats, Redi-Whip, and Maple Nut Goodies from Wards were big hits) and following the stock market.

Quentin touched many lives. He gave regularly to many charities, such as his favorite charity M.D. Anderson. He told his daughter Danielle that “they needed the money more than we do”. Every time he went to the grocery store, he would tip his favorite checker and any checkers that may be working that day. He worked at a few grocery stores in his youth and knew how hard it was to save money. Many times, he would hand money to those that were standing on the street corner while he was sitting at the streetlight. His love of pranks, teasing, and his quirky sense of humor are fondly remembered. Quentin gave over 9 gallons of blood to the blood bank over the years.

He was preceded in death by his parents Quentin and Dolores, his wife Michelle, his Uncle Art & Aunt Helen, his Aunts Nona and Birdey, his brother Glen, his sister Mary Anne, his sister Ann Marie, his wife’s mother Shirley, who he considered his mother, his brother in-law Rick and his sister-in-law Marilyn. He is survived by his daughter Danielle, son Scott and his wife Donna and their daughter Michaela and son Matthew, his son Brett and his husband Daniel, his daughter Lacy, his nieces Amy & Heather Gensler, among many others including Michelle’s family and family friend, Jack Snead.

A small private family service is planned.

QUENTIN’S HISTORY IN HIS OWN WORDS

Following are excerpts from a series of emails that Quentin sent to his kids in August 2014. They are a great example of his great sense of humor and the people and memories that were important to him. We hope you enjoy hearing Quentin speak in his own voice about his life.

From birth to about age 12 or so, I lived with my parents on the south side of town over by McGregor Park. At night, we could hear people at church singing from our house. Our house was wooden and sat on wooden cinder blocks. My Dad added on to the house, and in one room there was a board that one could open and crawl into the house. My brother Glen and I would crawl under the house playing cowboys and Indians.

The house at the end of the street had a boy whose dad was in construction and the yards in the neighborhood were all one acre. His yard was filled with bricks and dirt, etc. We would play there as we had allot of stuff to play as hiding places and old time cowboys.

Since our house was on a little over 3/4 of an acre, the house sat close to the street with front yard ditches. We had one tree in the front on the right side when you faced the house from the street. It was a Chinese Elm and was ugly and we could only climb up it a small amount.

When it rained, crawfish would come alive in the ditches and my brother and I would catch them and keep them in a pail. We loved doing that. Because of the length of the yard in the back, my parents got us a male and female white rabbit. Glen and I waited for months hoping for babies. Once, the rabbits got out it, and it took Glen and me a long time to catch them. But we finally did. Since the rabbits were so fast and wild, Glen and I got tired of them so we gave them to a neighbor at the corner lot. Just a few weeks later the female rabbit had babies.

My Dad had to work 5 and half days a week at Motor Parts Depot. On Sunday mornings after church, he took us to MacGregor Park and cooked breakfast and other things on a Coleman stove. The food cooked in the park always tasted better than made at home.

Since we had very little money, my Dad would take us to Galveston to spend the day on West Beach. He always put a big blanket attached to the car window (a Plymouth) to stakes so that Glen and I could get out of the sun. All those years with him in the sun got him, when he was 72, melanoma cancer under the hair line. The Kelsey Seybold Clinic was able to get the cancer removed for 5 years, but it came back and at the age of 78 a few days before his 79 birthday, he passed away from the cancer.

My Dad was to me the most important person in my life. My Dad was very handsome and my Mom was very beautiful. My Mom – just like Fred – was a fantastic cook and very seldom used a cookbook. The best thing I recall loving was her homemade mayo, which on bread was a dream.

My mother was into the Catholic religion. She came from Baytown, as I recall, and before then from Louisiana. She never talked about her past. I only know of her two aunts, Nona and Birdey. I loved my aunt Nona LeBlanc. She lived close to St. Anne's church and went to mass almost every day by walking there from her apartment. Her husband, Mitch was an owner of a big band. Their apartment was a two bedroom, two bath and was huge like a house and they lived there all their lives. The lady that owned the two apartment buildings was a close friend of Aunt Nona, and so she kept the rent low for years so that the LeBlanc's were able to stay there. My Aunt always had cakes, pies, and other things like floating island and cinnamon rolls for me and Glen when we visited, so we loved going to her house. Floating island was similar to banana pudding and the cinnamon rolls were similar to today's Cinnabon.

When I was still very young, my parents moved to an apartment across the street called Oden Court from St. Peter’s Catholic Church on La Salle Street. I went to school there until the eighth grade. It had a soda machine that only contained 7-Up. I had so many 7-Up that to today I am not a big fan of 7-Up.

Now, on to the Oden Court Apartments. When we lived there we had a neighbor who was a single woman in her 50’s and she was the manager of the OST movie theatre. So Glen and I went to the movies every Saturday for free. Glen took according lessons and was pretty good at it. One Saturday, he performed at a competition at the theatre. He got lessons from Uncle Mitch, as Uncle Mitch was a good piano player and taught music lessons after the big band era ended. He played at our wedding.

When we lived at Oden Court, which was across from St. Peter’s, I became an altar boy. I did weddings, funerals, Nun residences at the convent, and masses at the Sick Veterans Hospital. Only the priest would go into the very ill veterans’ area of the hospital. Because of my frequent participant at masses, weddings, and funerals I was given the honor to preside at Easter activities on Good Friday, and more. This was a big honor and I also served at Easter services on other holidays of Christ. I still am proud of my accomplishments.

Michelle and I had Danielle baptized in the St. Celicia’s Catholic Church, and Scott, Brett, and Lacy were baptized in the Lutheran Church.

When I was going into the ninth grade, my parents moved to a 1,400 square foot home with 3 bedrooms and 1 bath in Spring Branch. I rode a bike to Spring Branch's Memorial Junior High, which was located in the Memorial area across the I-10 freeway. I learned to love Math.

When I went to Spring Branch High School my Dad took me to school at 7:15 AM each day and at the end of the day I always walked home, as the bus made me get home much later. Sometimes, I got a ride from a fellow student. Very few students had cars. It was on those days that often had a dog from a particular house come out and bark and attack me. One day the dog bit me, and it was from those days that I became uneasy and afraid of dogs. Till today, I don't have a strong connection with dogs. I did love Soco, Fred’s weiner dog, like Sadie. I think that Sadie felt that I was uneasy about dogs as she was always very loving around me. I came to love Sadie, also. I liked Rusty, but because of her largeness, it took a while. Now, I love Sadie and Coco.

My Dad's great great aunt and uncle (Art and Helen), who never had children, paid for my education, as I initially went to the University of Houston into the medical degree program. They were so impressed with my high school grades and to have a doctor in the family that they sent my Dad $1,000 each year for my school tuition, books, and lodging. Back then, $ 1,000 dollars was a lot, so my Dad used most of the money for tuition and had me get used books at the used book store, and since I lived at home he kept the lodging dollars.

I never was in the service, even though I had to register for the draft. I went to the Air Force base near Galveston to join the reserves, but when I got there I chickened out. When I married Michelle after I graduated from college, we got married. I was deferred from the daft because or marriage, then when we had Danielle I was deferred because of a child; thereafter, the draft was eliminated.

My Uncle Art worked for the Chicago Railroad Company and due to health reasons was retired at a full pension when he was in his early 40's. He lived at home with his wife until both passed within 30 days of one another in the early 80's. Uncle Art did the “goodie boxes” for me and Glen at Christmas for years. That is the origin of my goodie boxes for you all. He also sent in the big box a small gift that we were not to open until New Year’s Eve.

When I was 14, my Dad drove us to Ohio to visit, and their house had a basement and was 3 stories tall. The 3rd floor was really a converted attic and was small. We also went to see my grandfather (Dad's). My grandfather (Dad's) came to Houston several times when we lived on the south east side of town. Oh, by the way, there were very few drug stores back then and we went to Madding.

In Cleveland, I went to a baseball game where Ted Williams (of the Cleveland Indians) was part of a triple play on second base. I believe that there have not been many of those in baseball over the years and I got to witness one.

Our visit to Cleveland was wonderful as the house of my Uncle and Aunt was at the end of a street just south of Lake Erie. The country side in the summer was full of trees and foliage and just awesomely beautiful. But the winters were extremely cold – so cold that my Dad, when he was 20, moved to Dallas to work for Motor Parts. He later came to Houston and met my mother who worked there, too. She was 11 years younger than he.

Getting back to me and college, I got into the pre-med association in college. Michelle went with me to Austin, Texas one day to go to a movie theatre while I took a 4 hour medical test. In the final stages, I applied to the University of Texas Dental School and made the top 10 finalist not accepted. The school only enrolled 100 students a year. I don't know where I was in the 10. I may have been number 1 or number 10, but I did not get in.

By this time I was engaged to you Mom and very much in love and wanted to get married. So I chose to finish with a degree in Accounting and took a job at Transco by virtue of my Dad's friendship with a Catholic Church member.

Michelle and I loved going on long weekend trips to small towns in Texas to shop and site see. During those years and I got into Transco's bowling league and several times (like 6 or 7) bowled over 200. My highest score was a 220. I also joined the YMCA on Augusta near Transco and worked out and played racquetball with other Transco people. I even use to play raquetball with Glenn Cook at his place in the Spring Branch/Memorial area. Glenn was a much better player and always won.

Michelle and I loved going to outdoor festivals at churches and other places like the Alligator Festival and the Katy Festival each October. This was before Michelle and I were marriage and when she worked at Spring Branch Bank. Shelly worked in the back room filing cancelled checks. Soon after or marriage Shelly worked at a 5-and-dime place with a Mr. Cotton as the manager. He was in his late 50's and was very nice to your Mom. He later opened a store on Clay Road near when Fred lived. We shopped there from time to time.

My first real date with Michelle was when we went to see Ben Hur at the Lowes Theatre in downtown Houston. We always walked several blocks to the movie houses and never had problems in those days. When Michelle and I got married, we went to Laredo, TX and stayed Saturday night, all day Sunday, and came back late Monday. When we were in Laredo we went to a bull fight. We never cared to go and see one again. That summer we took what we called our honeymoon when we went to Los Angles and went to Disney Land and Knots Berry Farm, and there ate one of the farm’s famous chicken dinners. Our trip was famous, as when we came into the city we passed tanks and trucks with US Army personnel. On the way to California in New Mexico a deer jumped in front of our brand new Chevy two door coup and killed the Air Conditioner. So, the rest of the trip in July was with open windows.

Michelle and I loved our vacations and weekend trips over the years.

My hair was so thick when I was young I had to go to a place two blocks from Transco when it was downtown to get it thinned. I got to know the barber well and he was also a manager of the drive-in movie theater on Clay Road near Mr. Cotton’s place. He would give me free tickets, and Michelle would make chili and hot dogs with cheese and we would leave the kids who were alive then with Fred. Fred relished the opportunity to watch you all. As you know, there are probably no drive-ins left. Shelly and I would go to drive-ins on Old Post Oak where Transco is now, in the Garden Oaks area, really all over the city. Some nights we would see 2 or 3 movies that night.

The day that Fred passed away was a very difficult day for me, as I considered for years Fred as my true mother. Rande gave a talk at the gathering, as she did for Michelle. I was so distraught when Michelle passed I could not talk.

Michelle and I bought all of our first furniture at Fed-Mart. We were so poor that we used vegetable baskets from the Fed-Mart produce department as end tables. When our cheap couch wore out we put towels over the cushions to keep the springs from hurting us. This growing up with little money and at a young age made us appreciate things when we were doing better.

When Michelle's Dad passed away at age 41 of a heart attack, Fred had to go to work, and after I had a few years at Transco, we purchased a quarter of a cow from one of my Transco friends. He lived in the country in Richmond Texas and we split a half of a cow. Michelle and I gave our quarter to Fred to put in her freezer and had the steaks made into hamburger as we needed to stretch the meat as far as we could.

I did not date until my senior year in High School. I dated a girl named Dora Crawford. We went to dance classes together at Arthur Murry and movies. Dora, after high school, went to Sam Houston State. I went to the University of Houston my first year. The second year, I transferred to Sam Houston. At the end of my semester at Sam Houston, I transferred back to U of H. When I was at Sam I roomed with Ronald Stewart, a guy that was 6’ 5", and who was dating a gal from high school. He spent all his money for the whole year on the girl and after that she dumped him. After my semester at Sam, I saw Dora several times and then never saw her again as her family moved to San Antonio.

When I was at Sam I owned a 1956 Thunderbird two seater rag and hard top car. It was awesome. My Dad drove the car when I was at Sam. My Dad took me to college at Sam. When I came back to Houston, I had previously worked at Gerland’s, but now I was at Henke & Pilot, which was later purchased by Safeway, a California company. Later, when Safeway moved out of Houston, the stores became Kroger. While there, I met Michelle who came in with her Mom and Dad to shop.

My Dad got me a loan with Houston National Bank for my down payment on my first house. Michelle and I were living in apartments on Long Point Road. Often, we had no money for dinner and so we went to an ice cream place next to our apartment for our dinner. After we were there, we moved to the Sir Charles Apartments, which was behind Grant’s where Marilyn and Rick lived. One morning on a Saturday, Michelle woke me and said that her water had broken during the night, and she did not want to wake me until it was 8:30 AM. Needless to say that I ran red lights to get her to the Sam Houston Hospital off of Long Point Road.

The Hospital back then was owned by Holiday Inn Company. It was located behind the first K Mart in Texas. I had my first credit card there. We named her Danielle when we were in the hospital. As I said before Michelle was elated having a girl and named Dan's first name and I picked Dan's middle name and explained to Michelle why. When we called my Mother she thought we were crazy calling a girl Daniel. She misunderstood. We gave Fred her first grandchild and my mother’s first too. Michelle shared a room with a woman who had her 8th. She said that the birth of the 8th was the worst she had had.

Fred let us keep our furniture in her garage for 5 months when we were waiting for a loan for our Renwood house. Fred had dinner ready ever day at 5:30 PM when I got home as she wanted me to have a warm meal. Fred treated me all my life with knowing her as a child of hers. At Thanksgiving, I loved mincemeat pie. Fred made a pumpkin pie and then another pie that was half mincemeat and the other half pumpkin. Only she and I liked mincemeat. At Christmas each year, Fred made like 7 different types of cookies for each family and homemade rolls for breakfast when opening gifts Christmas morning. Thanksgiving my mother made turkey while she was in church and Michelle and I went there early afternoon and later ate at Fred’s in the late afternoon. On Christmas, my mother had gifts on Christmas Eve and so Christmas Day was with Fred. Danielle when she got older made sandwiches for lunch on Christmas Day and then in the evening all came to our house for Christmas dinner. Fred did Thanksgiving.