Arthur Voss

ARTHUR VOSS, father, grandfather, great grandfather, veteran, and a native Houstonian. Born December 28, 1915, Arthur Marion Voss, 92, died of heart failure on Monday, February 18, 2008 in Houston. Arthur was the son of Charles Henry Voss and grandson of Charles John Henry Voss who bought 100 acre of land at the corner of Post Oak and Westheimer in 1874. He gave one acre of that land for the first school in that area. The school was run by two different school districts before it became part of the Houston School District. It was called the Post Oak School and was later sold. This school land is where Neiman Marcus is in Galleria Mall today. Arthur met Wilma Wietstruck in 1939 shortly after she moved to Houston from Bellville, Texas. They were married November 6, 1942 in Houston at Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church. They recently celebrated their 65th anniversary. Mr. Voss helped with the family grocery store and farm at Post Oak and Westheimer as a young man. His father built a baseball park on the northeast corner of Post Oak and Westheimer in 1930. Arthur and his brother Lester formed an amateur baseball club and played for the Orange Crush Bottling Company. Following marriage he continued farming and other projects until he bought Southland Hardware in 1960. Upon retirement at age 80, he sold the store the store to daughter Patricia and her husband Martin O'Brien. Arthur was active in church work for many years and a member of the Sons of Hermann for 70 years. He supported the University of Houston from which both his daughters graduated. He also supported the major downtown hospitals in Houston and in Bellville, TX. He is survived by his wife, Wilma; daughters Beverly Hogan and Ron of Atlanta and Patricia O'Brien and Martin of Houston; grandchildren Tracey Hogan McDowell, Kelly Hogan Simpson, Christy Hogan Ellis, Kathleen O'Brien Maddux, Jennifer O'Brien and Michael O'Brien; great grandchildren Lucy Voss McDowell, Jane Charlotte McDowell, Anna Katherine McDowell and Braden Andrew Maddux. The family will receive friends from six until eight o'clock in the evening on Thursday, the 21st of February, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive, in Houston. A service in celebration of Arthur's life will be conducted at ten o'clock in the morning on Friday, the 22nd of February, in the Jasek Chapel at Geo. H. Lewis & Sons where Pastor Robert E. Webb, senior pastor of Westminster United Methodist Church, will officiate. Immediately following the service, all are invited to join the family for a reception in the adjacent Pavilion at Geo. H. Lewis & Sons. The entombment will be conducted at one o'clock in the afternoon on Friday, the 22nd of February in the Mausoleum at Memorial Oaks Cemetery, 13001 Katy Freeway at Eldridge. Serving as pallbearers are Charles Rogers Ellis, Michael Arthur O'Brien, Peter Renich McDowell, Michael Christopher Maddux, Bradley Wayne Simpson, William Harold Wietstruck, James Ross Wietstruck, and Robert Wayne Reinicke. In lieu of flowers, please send contributions in Arthur's honor to: M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, The Arthur Marion Voss Fund, P. O. Box 4486, Houston, Texas 77210 (or call 1-800-525-5841)