JAY BENOIR WEIDLER, JR.

1933-2019

May 27, 1933 November 17, 2019

Jay Benoir Weidler, Jr., 86, of Brenham, Texas was born May 27, 1933 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to the late Emma Dorothy (Stalker) Weidler and Jay Benoir Weidler, Sr. He departed this life on November 17, 2019.

A funeral service will be held Saturday, December 14, 2019 at 1:00 pm at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 2310 Airline Dr., Brenham, TX 77834. Celebration of life reception to follow immediately at St. Peter’s Parish Hall.

Jay grew up in Philadelphia, attended Central High School (196th graduating class), and left for Rice Institute in Houston, Texas in 1951. He joined the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (N.R.O.T.C.) and tragically was one of the only survivors of a plane crash occurring shortly after midnight on July 17, 1953 in Pensacola, Florida as part of midshipman amphibious training. After recovering from his injuries at home in Philadelphia, he returned to college for his junior year. He graduated from Rice Institute in 1956 with a B.A. and a B.S. in civil engineering. He then served in the Marine Corps, as an Engineering Officer ending with a rank of First Lieutenant. He was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps in 1959 and from the reserves in 1964. He returned to Rice in 1959 for graduate school, earning an M.S. in 1961 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1965 in civil engineering, followed by postdoctoral work at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island from 1965 to 1968. He left academia and returned to Houston in 1969 to join Brown & Root, Inc. and rose to Senior Vice President, Chief Marine Engineer and Director of Technology, semi-retiring in 2000, and fully retiring in 2004 after consulting part-time.

Dr. Weidler had over 45 years of engineering experience in the military, academic, and industrial fields. He authored or co-authored 26 technical papers and held five patents. Weidler’s accomplishments included the design, fabrication and installation of the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which received the ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award in 1982. In 1995, Jay was the Offshore Technology Conference recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award for Individuals for significant leadership in the application of structural engineering concepts and approaches that allowed the safe and economic development in challenging offshore areas worldwide, including the Gulf of Mexico, North Slope and Cook Inlet, Alaska, and the North Sea. Also in 1995, he was awarded the American Society of Civil Engineers John G. MoffattFrank E. Nichol Harbor and Coastal Engineering Award. He was inducted in 1998 to the Offshore Pioneers Hall Fame as a charter member at the Offshore Energy Center in Galveston, Texas. Dr. Weidler was a two-term member of the Rice University Alumni Board, an initial Chairman of Industry Advisory Board for the University of Texas / Texas A&M University for the establishment of the Offshore Technology Research Center, 1988-1990. Jay was also on the Board of Trustees of the Southwest Research Institute, served as Brown & Root representative to the

American Petroleum Institute Committee Two, Committee for Standardization of Offshore Structures and was active on numerous subcommittees, work groups as a member and/ or chairman for over twenty-five years.

Jay married Mary Hughston “Mary Hugh” Patrick in 1961 in Houston, TX. Jay was a loving husband and father, who could hold an intelligent informative conversation on just about any topic. Jay was the orderly, practical, hard-working, early-rising type, who liked to run a tight ship much to both the awe and dismay of his wife and three children. He was also generous, resilient, well-traveled, thoughtful, diligent, silly, easy to get along with and gave excellent detailed directions or instructions, without any reference materials.

Jay is survived by: his wife, Mary Patrick Weidler; his daughters, Teresa Weidler and Julia Hall Weidler; his son and daughter-in-law, John Benoir Weidler and Christine Elizabeth Edwards; his grandchildren, Jodie Olivia Tokumoto; Sean Mareo Tokumoto; Joseph Thomas Weidler; and Elise Catherine Weidler; Jay’s younger sister, Phyllis Jane (Weidler) Gilbert; and his three nephews and their wives: Samuel Vanderpoel Gilbert IV (wife Kristine), Jay Benoir Gilbert (wife Marti), and Geoffrey Calderwood Gilbert (wife Jennifer), and their children .

Jay is preceded in death by: his parents, Emma Dorothy (Stalker) Weidler and Jay Benoir Weidler, Sr.; his grandchild, Corinne Elizabeth Weidler; his brotherin-law, Samuel Vanderpoel Gilbert III; his aunts, Phyllis Edith Stalker; Jessie Apoline (Weidler) Oberholtzer; Jane Groff (Weidler) Blizzard; his uncles, Robert Dobson Stalker; William John Stalker, Jr.; Edward Dale Stalker; Joseph Grier Weidler; John Alford Weidler; James Theodore Weidler; Grier Lud Orth Weidler, Jr.; and his grandparents, Grier Lud Orth Weidler, Sr.; Jessie Apoline (Bennor) Weidler; William John Stalker, Sr.; Emma Dorothy (Hall) Stalker; his father-in-law, William Lester Patrick; and mother-in-law, Julia Emma (Taylor) Patrick.

Memorials may be directed to Give Kids The World Village, Rice University or a charity of your choice.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Memorial Oaks Chapel, 1306 W. Main St., Brenham, TX, 77833, (979) 836-4564.