Obituary for
Billy Andrew Kendrick
Billy A. Kendrick
Bill was born in Sherman, TX in 1933. He was the youngest of Marvin Henry’s and Lola’s four children. His father was a railroader who lost his job during the Depression and scoured the countryside in search of a home when they were unable to pay their apartment rent. He found a one-room, unfinished home outside of Howe, TX where the family lived for some time. Bill, his parents and siblings, picked cotton to make ends meet. Bill would work half of the school term and attend elementary school for the remainder of the term. He received good grades.
His family relocated to Sherman where Bill attended high school and played football. After graduation, he relocated to Dallas and worked for Proctor and Gamble. He was drafted in 1951 and served two-years in the army during the Korean War as a surveyor at the White Sands Missile Range.
He was honorably discharged from the army and accepted into Texas Tech University where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics.
While a student at Texas Tech, he married Erma Mae Brittain December 23, 1960. After college, he worked for a Seismic Engineering company in southern Oklahoma as a computer (yes – humans used to do the computations). His first two children, James and Janice were born in 1962 and 1963. After the birth of Janice, he accepted a position as a Geophysical Technical Assistant with Chevron Oil and relocated to Oklahoma City.
His youngest son, Craig, was born in 1971. Shortly thereafter, Chevron relocated the company and their employees to Denver, CO. In 1980, after 17-years with Chevron, he accepted a position as COO of Kary Data, relocated the family Humble, TX and opened Kary Data’s Houston office. After 8-yrs in that role, he purchased the Houston office and continued as the CEO of Kendrick Geophysical. He sold the office and retired in 1998. He lived his remaining years in the house in Humble (Atascocita).
He proudly gave his daughter’s hand in marriage to Philip Fenley in 1984 and welcomed his daughter-in-law Debra Wenig to the family when she married James in 1993. James and Debra were blessed with his only granddaughter Nicole in 1999.
Bill always enjoyed camping and fishing with family and friends while visiting State and National Parks all over the country. He always took great pride in sharing photos and stories of the family’s travels.