James Edward Fix Sr., Ph.D.'s Obituary
FIX, JAMES EDWARD Ph.D.Our beloved husband, father, and grandfather lost his courageous battle to overcome the effects of a stroke on Monday, Jan. 17th. Born June 19, 1926, in Dallas, Texas to Florence and George Fix. He was married for almost 60 years to Barbara Erwin Fix who survives him. He is survived by his son Dr. Skip Fix and his wife Sheri of Katy, TX and daughters Dr. Laurel Fix of Englewood Cliffs, NJ and Stacey Fix Conti and her husband Ed of Corte Madera, CA. He is also survived by grandchildren Michael and Melissa Fix, Emily Lysyk, and Taylor, Raine, and Braeden Conti. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School where he was Lt. Col. in the ROTC and entered Texas A & M until he was drafted. The army sent him to Oregon State for training and then to Los Alamos where he worked on the detonator for the atomic bomb. On returning he graduated from Texas A & M, then received his MS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue Univ, and his Ph.D. in Geophysics from SMU. He joined the Geo J Fix Company in sales, going on to become Manager of the Houston Branch. He then worked for Teledyne in Garland where he specialized in designing seismic instruments for earthquake detection and the black boxes that detected underground bomb detonations. After he completed his PhD in Geophysics, he went to work in the oil business for Gulf Oil and Atlantic Richfield, developing seismic methods for detecting oil and gas. He authored many articles on his seismic research, was a member of the AGU and SSA and served as Vice President of the Society of Exploration Geophysics. He formed his own company as a consultant after retiring. He was active in his church, serving as a deacon and Stephen Minister and President of the May Friendship Class. He loved his family, camping, judging ice skating competitions and keeping up with the new discoveries in geophysics. He enjoyed sailing, road rallies, spelunking, rock collecting and especially Aggie and Cowboy football games. His legacy to his children and grandchildren was a love of discovery and curiosity about life and learning. He was active in Seniors Active In Learning at Collin College where he attended classes until his illness last June. He always had a smile and a friendly word for everyone and took time to help anyone solve difficult problems at work and in his private life. He courageously had to relearn how to walk 3 times in the last 4 years, overcoming many obstacles. Many thanks to the caregivers at The Village at Richardson for their loving care and support. He will be deeply missed by his family and friends. Family will receive friends from 6-8pm on Friday, January 21, 2011 at Restland Funeral Home. A celebration of his life will be held at Northway Christian Church on Northwest Hwy on Sat., Jan. 22nd at 3:00pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Northway Christian Church.
What’s your fondest memory of James?
What’s a lesson you learned from James?
Share a story where James' kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with James you’ll never forget.
How did James make you smile?