Charles Robert Perry

Charles R Perry passed away July 12th, 2018. He was born in Shamrock, Texas on September 8th, 1929, just in time to see the stock market crash and the Depression begin. But those humble roots would only set the stage for a stunning lifetime where he was widely known for entrepreneurship, business dealing and innovative advances in gas processing.

Growing up in Shamrock, he was destined for a career in the sciences, having set fire to his bedroom with a chemistry set. His family moved to Odessa when his father, Charles B Perry, founded First State Bank. Charles graduated from Odessa High School where he played tackle on the 1946 football team that won OHS’s first and only state championship. His contribution to the team was tutoring the star players so they could pass their classes to be able to play.

With football and chemistry in his blood, the clear choice for college was the University of Oklahoma where he studied Chemical Engineering. Charles was very proud to have studied under several legendary engineering professors, and even more proud to have a lifelong connection with the greatest college football program of the past hundred years: the Oklahoma Sooners.

Following college, Charles took a process engineering job at Union Carbide in Texas City, Texas. But that was not to last long, when Uncle Sam called in 1954 and insisted that he become a member of the United States Army. Despite his university degree, he went in as a buck private. However, with his degree and the fact that he had the second highest IQ on the entire Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, he was sent to Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver, Colorado instead of Korea. There he worked in a research laboratory developing treatments for tuberculosis. He had the idea to combine two drugs together which resulted in longtime TB patients walking out of the hospital after languishing there for years.

It was in the Rockies that this boy from the desert fell in love with the mountains. It was also there that he took a blind date, fell in love with and married Nancy Joanna White in 1955. As Charles would say, they had one of those “war time marriages that would never last.” He was honorably discharged from the Army as a Sergeant and took this girl from Minnesota back to Odessa.

At that time, Odessa had a fantastic group of young professionals, all of whom made significant impacts on the growth of the Permian Basin. They settled in this West Texas town where everyone knew everyone. Charles took a job at Sivalls Engineering as a process engineer and one day he was asked to take a sales engineer job. Charles had his doubts about the job, but his boss said, “Suit yourself, but if I were you, I’d get closer to the cash register.” He took the job and that phrase guided his career from then on: “stay close to the cash register.”

In 1967, Charles left Sivalls and bought a tiny company called Portable Treaters, which built skid-mounted gas processing units. Charles took that idea and turned it into an innovation of renting the use of treating plants and charging by the throughput. This was three full decades before also-rans like Uber and Airbnb copied his idea. The name was changed to Perry Gas Companies and it became one of the largest gas treating companies in the world before it was sold to Parker Drilling in 1980.

Throughout his lifetime, Charles was known for three things: his integrity, his insistence on giving back to the community, and his lack of awareness about how much of a nerd he was. One of the famed West Texas stories is about Charles sealing a multi-million dollar deal on nothing but a handshake. Charles’ word was his bond.

His business acumen led to a list of accomplishments too lengthy to list, but the highlights include the Perry Award from TxDOT, Distinguished Graduate Award from the University of Oklahoma, the Silver Bar Award and the Hanlon award from the Gas Processors Association. He also was a Director for TXU and founded nine other companies. Additionally, Charles was awarded 5 patents in gas treating and published numerous technical papers.

Giving back to the community meant both time and money to Charles. Working to better the community was important to him especially with the Colorado River Municipal Water District and continuing the legacy started by his father Charles B. Perry over 70 years ago to ensure the residents of West Texas had water for decades to come. His leadership in volunteering made an impact on the Salvation Army, United Way of Odessa, UTPB Development Board, Texas National Research Commission and the University of Oklahoma School of Chemical Engineering Board along with dozens of other organizations.

As a nerd, he loved airplanes and owned many of them. On more than one occasion, he offered his airplane to families in crisis. For fun, he enjoyed working on natural gas calculations well into his 70’s resulting in the creation of massive excel spreadsheets to analyze treating designs. Lastly, he always made a fashion statement with his collection of “Dad” clothes.

In his retirement years, Charles took his wedding vows seriously and was focused on the tireless and unrelenting care of his wife, Jo who is afflicted with dementia. His last conscious moments before he died were with her and we believe that is just the way he would have wanted it.

Charles deeply loved his family and was very proud that his kids turned out great despite their many hijinks growing up. He was a great mentor to each of his children throughout their careers. He was even more proud to spend time with the next generations as a Grandpa and then as a Great-Grandpa.

Charles is survived by his wife of 63 years Nancy Joanna White Perry, daughters Beth Sewell (Richard) and Nancy Perry Eaton (Peter), son Tom Perry (Ruth), six grandchildren Lauren Henderson (Bryan), Shannon Wade (Blake), Alex Perry (Amber), Andrea Abbott (Sam), Wesley Perry and Mac McCutcheon and four great-grandchildren Blair Henderson, Charlotte Perry, Josephine Perry, Annabelle Wade, brother Ken Perry (Mary) and Sister-in-law June Perry. He is predeceased by his daughter, Diane Perry, parents, Charles B. and Sunshine V. Perry, brother, James R. Perry and grandson, David Perry Rowe.

Memorial services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 11 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 4901 Maple Ave in Odessa, TX. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to The Salvation Army of Texas at http://www.salvationarmytexas.org/odessa or The American Heart Association http://www.heart.org or the charity of your choice.

Boomer Sooner, Pops!