William LeRoy "Bill" RADER

1926 - 2016

RADER, William
William LeRoy "Bill" Rader passed away July 23, 2016 in Austin, Texas, where he had been a resident since 1992. Bill was born in Spencer, Iowa, on August 3, 1926, the oldest child of LeRoy Anthony Rader and Anna Rita (Burns) Rader.
The Rader family moved from Spencer to Des Moines in 1932 and from Des Moines to Storm Lake, Iowa in 1938. In 1944, Bill graduated from Storm Lake Senior High School, where he served as senior-year class president. He then enlisted in the United States Navy, in which he became a signalman and served in the Pacific Theater.
Bill became a student at the University of Iowa in 1946 and graduated with a B.A. in 1950. He attained a M.Sc. in geology in the following year. While at Iowa, Bill served as the vice president of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and was an associate member of Sigma Xi.

In 1949, Bill married Maryanne Love Larrabee, and the couple had two children, William Larrabee Rader and Charles LeRoy Rader.

While at the University of Iowa, Bill was offered the position of geologist by Standard Oil Company of Texas (Standard of California). This job, which Bill started in 1951, was the beginning of a more than four-decade-long career in the oil/energy business. After working as a geologist/geophysicist for Standard of Texas, Bill was hired by Standard of Ohio (Sohio) in 1956. He became the district geologist responsible for south Louisiana and Louisiana offshore exploration. After working for a pair of major oil companies, Bill then worked as a consulting geologist for Robert Mosbacher, William Kilroy, and Global Marine, Inc. In 1966, he became the exploration manager for Global Marine, and, in 1970, as a senior vice president, he started Challenger Oil and Gas Company as a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Marine. In 1975, as vice president-energy, Bill assisted Beker and Co. in its bid to enter the energy business.
In 1976, Bill began working for Farmland, Inc., which at that time was the world's largest cooperative. As a senior vice president at Farmland, he was responsible for petroleum operations. Midcon Corp. (Peoples' Gas and Natural Gas Pipeline of America) hired Bill to consolidate their petroleum exploration and production operations in 1980. Exeter Exploration, Buckhorn Petroleum, Harper Oil Company, and Texoma Production were combined into Midcon Exploration Company, where Bill was president and CEO. In 1986, Occidental Petroleum acquired the assets of Midcon.
Bill then started Palacios Exploration Co., a petroleum exploration company that served Gulf Coast independent operators and aided foreign companies with their personnel needs. In 1992, after a 41-year career in oil and energy, he made the decision to retire. However, Bill re-entered the working world in 2006, when he was appointed to the Travis Central Appraisal Review Board. He served the maximum of three two-year terms with the board, becoming to co--chairman in his fifth year and board chairman in his sixth.

Public service played a large part in Bill's life. In Houston, Texas, during the 1960s, he was a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America and troop committee chairman. He was a trustee of the Denver Art Museum in the 1980s, as well as the chairman of the Colorado affiliate of The National Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped and chairman of the independent petroleum section of the United Way in Denver. Bill was also the past vice president and membership chairman of the Jaguar Club of Austin.

Bill was a 5O-year member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and a 25-year member of the Society of Petroleum Geophysicists. At various times, he was a member of the Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Denver, and Austin Geological Societies. He was also a member of the Houston, Los Angeles, and Denver Petroleum Clubs, and a past member of the Society of Independent Petroleum Earth Scientists, Geological Society of America, and the American Petroleum Institute.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Roger Francis Rader, and his stepson Philip James Mattalino, Jr. He is survived by his loving wife of more than 40 years, Ursula Passafuma Rader, his sister Rita Roberta Rader of Storm Lake, IA, his sons William Larrabee Rader of Austin, TX, and Charles LeRoy Rader and his wife Lorraine Rader of Saratoga, CA, his grandchildren Teresa Rader of Los Angeles, CA, and Kyle Rader and his wife Laura of San Jose, CA, his stepsons Michael J. Mattalino and wife Lisa of Houston, TX, and Warren C. Switzer, Ill of Austin, TX, his step-granddaughter Michelle Mattalino and Matt Prochaska and children Archer D. Honigschmidt and Ursuline Prochaska of Austin, TX, his step-granddaughter Margherita Cecilia "Maggie" Mattalino of Baton Rouge, LA, and niece Ingrid Rader Hatfield her daughter Kirstin Crabtree and granddaughter Audrey Crabtree of Virginia Beach, VA.

Visitation will be from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 28, 2016, at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 North Lamar Blvd., Austin, Texas.

Funeral Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 4, 2016 at St. Mary's Catholic Church, 320 Seneca St., Storm Lake, Iowa. Burial will be held at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The National Foundation of Dentistry for The Handicapped, 1800 15th Street, Suite 100, Denver, CO 80202.

Obituary and memorial guestbook available online at www.wcfish.com