WILLIAM MEREDITH "BILL" BOREN

WILLIAM MEREDITH "BILL" BOREN died Monday, March 15, 2010. He was born in San Antonio in 1924, the son of Thomas L. Boren, Sr. and Verda Locke Boren. He is survived by his devoted wife, Molly Sarver Boren, and their children: Susan and her husband Kenneth Laird, Patricia and her husband Mike Gregory, Janet and her husband Dennis Torrence, Jenny and her husband Paul McKay, and Burton Cleveland and his wife Yvette. He is also survived by nine grandchildren: John, Michael, Garrett, Madeleine, Joe, Sam, Brittany, Cody and Cory, and by his brother Ken and wife Jane, and his sister Virginia. He was preceded in death by his wife Rosemary Kirchman Boren, and his beloved son Cliff.He attended Texas A&M before enlisting in the Navy, then Rice University (V12 Naval Officer Training). After WWII he attended and graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1949 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He served in the Navy in WWII as a fighter pilot with the rank of Lt.(j.g.) He was named Distinguished Engineering Graduate of The University of Texas in 1992, and was a member of the Chancellor's Council in 1996. In 2004 he was named a charter member of Texas University's Distinguished Mechanical Engineering Graduates.He served as Vice President and General Manager of Rolo Mfg. Co., Houston, manager of sales engineering with Black, Sivalls & Bryson, Okla. City, Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Big Three Industries, Houston and as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Air Liquide America, the Paris-based buyer of Big Three. He served as a director of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and for 16 years on the Engineering Faculty Advisory Council of the University of Texas, where his main contribution was promoting the establishment of the Biomedical Engineering department, now a reality with a new building in Austin. He served as a trustee of Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio) for 10 years. In 1989 he was president, and later chairman of The International Oxygen Manufacturers Association. He was a director of Houston's French-American Chamber of Commerce. After retirement in 1995, for several years he was a volunteer instructor in computers at The Women's Home, where he and Molly are members of the Advisory Board. He was a member of, and webmaster for St. Philip Presbyterian Church of Houston.His patented inventions included Classic Bridge, a game allowing four players to play duplicate bridge using 128 deals played at international bridge tournaments, with commentary by Oswald Jacoby and Alan Truscott, bridge editor of The New York Times. The game was first produced and sold by 3M Company and then by Abercrombie & Fitch. His patents also included several oil field inventions including a special three-way valve and an oil/water sampler.After his retirement, he and Molly wrote a screenplay, Pegasus Bridge, a true story based on the midnight capture of two vital bridges in Normandy, the first operation of D-Day, June 6, 1944, by 180 British soldiers of D Company, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Infantry Division, who crash-landed at midnight by the bridges in six large wooden gliders. Research for the screenplay, based on the Stephen Ambrose book of the same title, began in 1995, involving yearly trips by Bill and Molly to Normandy and England. Bill wrote a memoir of their 10-year adventure in meeting the surviving veterans and researching the screenplay. Bill's hobbies were bridge and computer programming.A memorial service for Bill will be held at St. Philip Presbyterian Church Saturday, March 20, at 3 p.m., followed by a reception in the gathering area. It was Bill's wish that his ashes be buried at the family plot in Glenwood Cemetery. Remembrances may be sent to the SPCA, 900 Portway Drive, Houston, TX 77024-8022. or to St. Philip Presbyterian Church, 4807 San Felipe, Houston, TX 77056