Walter Frank Buce

Frank Buce, loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend, passed away on August 31, 2025, in Wylie, Texas. Family visitation will be at 1:30 pm on Sunday, September 7, 2025, with the funeral to follow at 2:30 pm at the Wylie Church of Christ. Interment will be at the Riverdale Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.

Frank was born on August 1, 1931, in Columbus, Georgia, to Walter Howard and Kathryn Elizabeth Casteel Buce. He spent most of his early years in Columbus and Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama. After his father's death in 1941, his family returned to Columbus, where he attended school and graduated from Jordan High School. He later served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War and was honorably discharged in 1955.

He moved to Houston, Texas, where he was employed by Emraco Production Laboratory and later by Phillips Petroleum Company. He continued his education, completing studies in Advanced Drafting and specializing in oil refinery design in 1959. He was then transferred to Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where he worked at the Reservoir Engineering Laboratory as a Senior Technologist and attained two U.S. patents related to the petroleum industry. Frank continued his education at Oklahoma Wesleyan College and Oklahoma State University. In 1971 he was promoted to Supervisor of the Reservoir Engineering Laboratory. He retired early in 1986 became a private consultant for Phillips until the spring of 1988.

While in Oklahoma, Frank was active in civic organizations and served as President of the Lion's Club. He also served on various citizens' committees for the city of Bartlesville. Additionally, he was active with the Republican Party, where he was State Committeeman, State Vice Chairman of the Young Republicans, and as a national delegate to the 1980 Republican National Convention. Frank was also a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and a charter member of the National Society of Core Analysts.

In 1987, he established a grapefruit orchard in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, which later became the Buce Citrus Orchard, Inc. He was a member of Texas Citrus Mutual and served on their Board of Directors. Frank retired again and moved to Longview, Texas, in 2003, to the Christian Care Center in Mesquite in 2015, and in 2019 he moved to Wylie.

He was preceded in death by his parents and two brothers, Robert Austin Buce and Walter Howard Buce. He is survived by his loving wife, Gloria; two sons, Walter and wife Cassandra and Douglas and wife Kristi; five grandchildren: Stephanie Dodson and husband Ryan, James Buce and wife Morgan, Trevor Buce and wife Julia, Sawyer Buce, and Brooks Buce; four great-granddaughters: Tinsley Dodson, Tatum Dodson, Madden Buce, and Hallie Buce; three great-grandsons: Beckett Buce, Jones Buce, and Nash Buce. Additionally, he is survived by two sisters-in-law, Evelyn Buce and Tricia Buce, along with numerous other relatives and friends.