I don’t usually write much about my family on the blog, because it’s a photography blog and as you know, I don’t make too many photos of people. The exception is the short series I wrote two years ago, when I was going through the process of cleaning out my parents’ house; you can see that here.

And now, this: my dad passed away last Friday. Here’s a little bit about him:

Chester A. Green died on September 11, 2015. He was born in Branson, Colorado, on October 26, 1923, and moved to Mobeetie, Texas, as a small child.  He enrolled in Texas Technological College at age 16, but left before graduating. After working in the Dominican Republic in his early 20s, he returned to Tech and graduated with a degree in civil engineering. He began his career in San Angelo, Texas, and met the love of his life in nearby Sonora. He and Ada Ruth Martin were married on September 10, 1948. (Ever an engineer, he proposed to her while they were parked on the Ozona highway.) Chester joined Parkhill, Smith, and Cooper, Inc. in 1956, and worked there until his retirement in 1991. His engineering career was long and distinguished; he specialized in water- and sewage-treatment facilities and was active in many professional organizations. He and Ada Ruth (or Sugar, as she was known to her family) were members of LakeRidge United Methodist Church and served for many years as lay chaplains at Methodist Hospital. In addition, they were very generous supporters of a number of local organizations.

Chester was famous in his family for his dry sense of humor and his fondness of puns. He enjoyed camping, and planned many family vacations around the dates of the full moon and the proximity of interesting water treatment facilities. He and Sugar shared a love of travel, which took them all over the world (including, once, to cooking school in France).  He was a passionate reader, and his happiest evenings were spent with a book in his hands and a purring cat on his lap.

His parents, Leonard and Evelyn Green, his sister Elizabeth Street, his wife, Ada Ruth Green, preceded him in death. He is survived by his daughters Melinda Green Harvey (Larry) of Lubbock and Laura Norbury (Mark) of Salem, Oregon; his grandsons Nathan Harvey (Kacee) of Lubbock, and Tyler and Dylan Norbury, of Oregon; and his great-granddaughters Hannah and Bennett Harvey, of Lubbock.

We will always miss him.