Henry Grady Creel Jr.

1921 - 2006

Henry Grady Creel Jr., 84, a retired investor and professional civil engineer, died Monday, Aug. 21, 2006.

Funeral: 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the sanctuary of Broadway Baptist Church. Dr. Brett Younger and the Rev. William Love will officiate. Committal service: A private service will be held in Laurel Land Memorial Park in Dallas. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Thompson's Harveson & Cole Funeral Home.

Memorials: His memory may be honored with a gift to The Texas A&M Foundation, 401 George Bush Drive, College Station, Texas 77840-2811; or Broadway Baptist Church Endowment Fund, 305 W. Broadway, Fort Worth, Texas 76104.

Henry Grady Creel Jr. was born Dec. 4, 1921, in Dallas and graduated from Sunset High School and Texas A&M University. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the European theater, during which time he was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with cluster and five campaign stars. He was inducted into the Military Hall of Honor at the University of Texas at Arlington and retired from the Army Reserve as a colonel and commandant of the USAR School in Fort Worth.

Mr. Creel was a civil engineer who served as city manager of Denton in the 1950s and later operated a civil engineering consulting practice in Fort Worth. He was a registered professional engineer and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, as well as various local professional organizations. He served as a consultant on many street improvement projects for the city of Fort Worth during the 1970s.

From his post in Denton in 1956, he moved to Fort Worth, where he assumed the position of director of community facilities for the Housing and Home Finance Agency (now HUD). There he oversaw funding for construction of many buildings on college campuses, including dormitories throughout the Southwest, such as Kinsolving at the University of Texas at Austin. He received the agency's Distinguished Service Award for his accomplishments while there.

He was also a real estate broker and developer and was involved in many projects, primarily commercial in nature. At one point, a well-known publisher asked him to write a book on commercial real estate development, but he modestly declined.

A member of the Texas A&M class of 1942, Mr. Creel supported many organizations and causes in his love for his alma mater. He served as president of the Denton County A&M Club, the Fort Worth A&M Club, was an endowed donor of the 12th Man Foundation, and funded and endowed scholarships at A&M for engineers, needy students and students from Tarrant County. He served as class agent for the Class of 1942.

He was a lifelong Baptist, having been baptized at Cockrell Hill Baptist Church. He served as a deacon and chairman of the deacons at First Baptist Church of Denton and a deacon at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth and was a member of the Longhorn Sunday School Class.

Among his other interests were gardening, investing, reading, traveling and learning about new things.

People who worked for him through the years often commented on the wealth of knowledge he possessed, frequently being heard to say, "I always learn something new from him."

He was preceded in death by his wife of 51 years, Theda Belle Waddle Creel.

Survivors: His children, James A. Creel and his wife, Bonnie, and Martha Darwin; and grandchildren, Heather Darwin Templeton and her husband, Sam, Mary Katherine Stout and her husband, Stephen, Whitney Darwin, Diana Darwin and Matthew Creel.