John Michael Webb

1940 - 2023

John Michael Webb
02/09/1940 - 08/24/2023
John Michael "Mike" Webb passed away in Houston on Thursday, the 24th of August. He was 83 years of age.
Mike was born in Tucson, Arizona, on the 9th of February 1940, to Col. Maurice Eaton Webb and Johanna Heidel Webb. He was predeceased by his brother, Maurice and his sister, Jo Ann; his daughter Amy Randall Webb; and his wife of 60 years, Alida Hollingshead Webb.
He is survived by nieces, Holly Ann Webb and Kathy Livingston; nephew, Adam Maurice Webb; and five cousins, Don, Norman, Judy and Guy Webb, and Frances Hynes.
Mike was married to Alida Elizabeth Hollingshead on the 22nd of December 1962, at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in El Paso, Texas. At that time, Mike was attending Texas Western College after graduating from Ysleta High School in El Paso in May 1959. He graduated from Texas Western with the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration in June 1963. This was followed by a Bachelor of Law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law in May 1966. Mike was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in September of that year, becoming a member of the Houston Bar Association as well.
His practice of law spanned nearly 60 years. His first position in 1966 was with Fulbright Crooker Freeman Bates & Jaworski, in Houston, followed by the U.S. Life Corporation in New York. In the early 1970s he returned to Houston and established his own law firm, later Webb & Lauterbach PC, where he practiced from 1992 to 2023.
Throughout his career in corporate law, Mike served on numerous Boards of Directors. He was General Counsel of the Paragon Corporation in Dallas and President of both the U.S. Life Corporation in New York and Rauma - USA in Atlanta. For his service to Rauma and related enterprises in Finland he was designated Knight First Class of the Lion of Finland 1992 by Mauno Kovisto, President of Finland.
As a child of a military family, Mike lived in several locations during his school years, including Panama and New Orleans. His father, Maurice Webb, was on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur in WWII, serving in the South Pacific and in the Admiralty Islands campaign before his post-war assignment for three years in the Panama Canal Zone.
Mike had a wry sense of humor expressed in part by his occasional poetry and cartoons (unpublished) characterizing family, friends, associates, their pets, and sometimes opposing counsel and other noteworthy figures. He was generous in aiding and supporting those who sought his advice, and he had a special attachment to each of the family dogs over many years.
As devoted members for some 50 years of St. Martin's Episcopal Church, Mike will be inurned next to his beloved wife Alida and daughter Amy.
Please visit Mr. Webb's online memorial tribute at GeoHLewis.com where fond memories and words of comfort and condolence may be shared electronically with his family.