Thomas Sudberry Sr.

SUDBERRY, Sr., THOMAS W. Thomas W. Sudberry, Sr. died on Independence Day, July 4, 2008. He was born in Winters, Texas, on October 3, 1920, and graduated from Winters High School in 1938. He married Leta Lucille Lewis of Norton, Texas, on November 12, 1939. Leta passed away April 8, 1989. Tom entered the U.S. Army in 1943, and served in Germany during World War II as an enlisted rifleman. At the conclusion of the war, he returned to West Texas and renewed his career with Noble Drilling Corporation. He progressed from roughneck, to driller, tool pusher, and eventually drilling superintendent for the midland based West Texas/New Mexico division of Noble. A portion of his career, from 1953 to 1958, he worked out of the company headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as chief troubleshooter on Noble rigs from North Dakota, to Jamaica and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. While stationed in Tulsa, he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering through a correspondence course. After leaving Noble in 1962, he accepted a position with Reeco, one of the prime contractors for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tom was the drilling superintendent for the rigs, which were used to drill deep shafts for the government's testing of underground nuclear weapons. His retirement years were spent in Kerrville, Texas and La Jolla, California. He is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Tom, Jr. and Cookie Sudberry, two grandchildren, Colton Sudberry and his wife Cyndi, Chelsea and her husband, Marco Sessa, six great-grandchildren, Cameron, Piper and Beau Thomas Sudberry and Isabella, Cannon and Brody Sessa, all of San Diego. The family would like to give special recognition and thanks to Tom's two caregivers for the last four years, Maricela Welch and Silva Aguila. Funeral services were conducted in Winters, Texas on July 13, 2008.