Charles Bennett Read

Charles Bennett Read, 94, a well-known New Mexico and West Texas pioneer oil and gas operator, died Monday, January 9 in Roswell, New Mexico. He was born in Almont, Kansas on April 8, 1922 but grew up in Baxter Springs, Kansas, where he graduated from high school in 1939. Charlie graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Petroleum Engineering in 1943 and enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps and first trained at Yale University. He subsequently was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant as an engineering officer with a P-51 Squadron in Germany for two years, returning to a job with Gulf Oil Corporation for three years living in Hobbs, New Mexico. Charlie married his university sweetheart, Jean Votrian, in 1947. She died from cancer in 1990. He resigned from Gulf Oil and moved to Roswell in 1950 as an independent petroleum operator. In 1969, he and Norman Stevens, a Gulf Land Man, organized Read and Stevens Inc., a two man, one secretary business, evolved into a thriving company today. Read bought Stevens' interest in the company in 1979. Charlie married Laura Sue Kennedy in 1993 and they lived in Roswell where Charlie was active in the community as is his wife today. Over the past 65 years here, he served as a director, member of the Executive Committee of the old Sunwest Bank of Roswell, N.A., chairman of the Board of Sierra Drilling Co., the Executive Committee of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, Chairman of the Depletion Committee, and of the Public Land Committee of the Association. He was President of the New Mexico Landman's Association, member of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Engineering Committee, Director of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, Board of Directors of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, and Vice President of the Petroleum Association of America. In Roswell, he was a founding board member and past chairman of St. Mary's Hospital Foundation and board member of the Conquistador Council of the Boy Scouts. He helped start the Chaves County United Way in 1959 and served on the United Way Board for many years. He was honoree of the Sun Classic Charity Golf Tournament in 1992 and was named Citizen of the Year by the Roswell Association of Realtors in 1999. Survivors include his children, Carolyn Beall and husband Tom of Midland, Texas, Jim Read and his wife Mary of Ardmore, Oklahoma, and Betty Young and her husband Jim of Roswell; two step-children, Lee Kennedy and his wife Diane of Maui, Hawaii and Susan Head and her husband Chris of Albuquerque; seven grandchildren; and one sister, Bernadine Glenn of Charleston, South Carolina. His parents and one brother are deceased. Memorial services will take place at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, January 13, 2017 at First Presbyterian Church in Roswell with Reverend Larry Snydow officiating, assisted by Fr. Dale Plumber of St Andrews Episcopal Church. The family suggests memorials to Charlie may be made to First Presbyterian Church, 400 West 3rd Street, Roswell, NM 88201; New Mexico Landmen's Association, P.O. Box 718, Roswell, NM 88202; Presbyterian Ear Institute, 415 Cedar St. SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, or the charity of one's choice. Arrangements have been entrusted to Ballard Funeral Home and Crematory. An online registry can be accessed at www.ballardfuneralhome. com.