Raymond Boone Kelly Jr.

1922 - 2003

Raymond B. Kelly Jr., a specialized contractor for oil, gas and other industries, and a banker, investor and former mayor of Westover Hills, died Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003.

A Memorial Eucharist will be celebrated at 4 p.m. Tuesday at All Saints Episcopal Church. Graveside services will be private. The family will receive friends at home 5 to 7 p.m. Friday.

Memorials: Should friends desire, memorials may be given to Cook Children's Medical Center, All Saints Hospital, Vitas Hospice or a charity of choice.

Honorary pallbearers are William C. Bahan, George Beggs III, Albert A. Bingham, Hugh Chaplin Jr., Robert R. Click, Robert W. Decker, Cass O. Edwards, Preston M. Geren Jr., James Goodson, James M. Harrison, Eric F. Hyden, Jack C. Llewellyn, Scott McDonald, Cecil E. Munn, Paul R. Ray, C. Willard Robinson, Walter A. Schmid Jr. and Jack A. Schutts.

Mr. Kelly, born in Dallas in 1922 and raised in Fort Worth, graduated from Phillips Academy (Andover) in 1940. He entered Princeton University as a member of the class of 1944, graduating with high honors in 1943 with a B.S. in engineering. In July 1943, he was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy, serving with both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets until being honorably discharged in 1946.

Immediately following the war, Mr. Kelly followed in his father's footsteps, beginning a career in the petroleum industry, initially with Humble Oil Company, and then Sid Richardson Oil Company, with assignments in Louisiana. After returning to Fort Worth in 1952, he joined Calvert Drilling Company as an officer and director. Over the next 30 years, he continued in the drilling and exploration business. He founded several companies, including Global Trading Inc., Calvert Drilling Inc., Calvert Western Exploration Company, McKay Welding, Fleet Cementers, Calvert Iran Inc., Bush Drilling, Lightning Creek Oil Company and C-C Investment Company. He managed coal mine rehabilitation for the Bureau of Mines in Pennsylvania, performed technical drilling for the Atomic Energy Commission in Nevada and Washington state, and conducted mineral exploration in Bandar Abbas, Iran, preceding the revolution. He was a founding director of Overton Bank and Trust, actively serving on the loan committee and as the chairman of the trust committee until the bank's merger with Frost National Bank in 1998.

Mr. Kelly was involved in many civic activities, serving as a trustee of All Saints Hospital and as a member of the board of Fort Worth Children's Hospital, now Cook Children's Medical Center. He served as a director of River Crest Country Club, a governor of the Fort Worth Club and was president of both the Exchange Club and the Breakfast Club. He was a longtime member of the town council of Westover Hills and was its longest serving mayor, from 1974 until 1988.

Memberships include River Crest Country Club, The Fort Worth Club, Exchange Club, The Steeplechase Club, Breakfast Club and the United States Senior Golf Association.

The family wishes to thank Annie Whitaker for her loyalty and devotion and the staff of Vitas Hospice and the independent care givers for their caring support.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Katherine B. and Raymond B. Kelly Sr.

Survivors: Wife of 60 years, Martha Morehead Kelly; children, Brooke Kelly Lively and her husband, John R. Lively, Raymond B. Kelly III and his wife, Ellen M. Kelly, Jon M. Kelly and his wife, Kathy W. Kelly, W. Whitney Kelly and his wife, Kristine K. Kelly, all of Fort Worth; brother, Gordon B. Kelly and his wife, Joan P. Kelly; sister, Joan Kelly Ryan and her husband, Edwin S. Ryan; 13 grandchildren; two stepgrandchildren; and many nieces and nephews and their families.