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WILLIAM GORDON Services for William Gordon Abbott, age 86, will be on Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 2 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in Hobbs, NM with Rev. Steve Chappell officiating. Mr. Abbott died January 9, 2008 of congestive heart failure. Mr. Abbott was born in St. Charles, IL March 31, 1921 to Dr. Gordon M. and Molly Abbott. He attended Oregon Illinois High School, the University of Illinois, and graduated from the University of Texas with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1948. Mr. Abbott volunteered for the Army Air Corps in Oct., 1941, before Pearl Harbor, and then served in the U. S. Air Force in WWII as a fighter pilot flying P-40's in Africa, Sicily and Italy, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart, after flying 100 missions. He met Margaret Ann Bell in Vernon, TX, as a flying cadet in 1941. They were married in Vernon on Sept. 12, 1944, and located to Hobbs, NM, in 1951 after several moves with Amerada Petroleum in Texas. He retired as a Lt. Colonel in the Air Force Reserves in 1961. Mr. Abbott was President of Agua, Inc. and Petro Thermo Corporation, retiring in 1986. He was a member of the Hobbs First United Methodist Church since 1951. He was a Rotarian and a Paul Harris Fellow. Some of his other memberships were A.I.M.E., New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, New Mexico Tech Research Foundation, 79th Fighter Group, and P-40 Pilots Association. He enjoyed attending the reunions of his pilot groups. Mr. Abbott served ten years on the Hobbs City Water Board. Gov.'s Mechem (1961), Cargo (1967), and King (1971, 1979, 1985) appointed him to the Board of Regents at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, where he received an Honorary Doctor of Engineering after serving a total of 41 years. Throughout his career he was a licensed professional engineer in Texas and New Mexico. Mr. Abbott is survived by his wife, Margaret Ann; daughter, Suzanne Reaves and husband, Michael, of Denton, Texas; son, Robert W. Abbott and wife, Kathy, of Albuquerque; son, James T. Abbott of Los Angeles, California; grandchildren, Rob and Mark Reaves of Dallas, Terrell Abbott of Austin, and Molly Abbott of Albuquerque; brother, Robert J. Abbott and wife, Bonnie, of DeKalb, IL; and two nephews, Mark and Greg Abbott, and niece, Debbie Chilton. His parents, one brother, and one sister preceded him in death.
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