Obituary & Life History
Bill Gus Frame, beloved husband and father, entered into rest on Friday, February 26, 2010, at his home in College Station. He was 79, one week short...
Bill Gus Frame, beloved husband and father, entered into rest on Friday, February 26, 2010, at his home in College Station. He was 79, one week short of his 80th birthday. A gathering of friends and family will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 2, at Hillier Funeral Home. Services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 3, at Central Church of Christ of Bryan. Interment will follow at New Church Cemetery in Edge, Texas. Bob Wolfert will officiate.
Bill was born in Brazos County on March 4, 1930, the fourth of five children of Burjes Ray and Ellie Mae (Cox) Frame. He attended Stephen F. Austin High School in Bryan, where he played football his junior and senior years. Upon finishing high school in 1947, he enrolled at Texas A&M University and later Sam Houston State University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1953. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for three years, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant. He received his 16 weeks of basic training at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, before attending Counterintelligence School at Fort Hollabird in Baltimore, Md. He then completed the 22-week Artillery Officer Candidate School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and was assigned to active duty in Richmond, Va., as a counterintelligence officer.
After receiving his honorable discharge at Fort Lee, Va., in January 1957, Bill moved to Houston. He worked briefly for Cameron Iron Works and then took a job with Humble Oil (now ExxonMobil) as an expeditor in the company’s Downstream Purchasing department. Over the next 35 years he rose to the position of senior buyer in the Equipment & Services Group of Exxon’s Materials & Services department, where he was responsible for purchasing equipment for refineries and other company projects around the world. One especially rewarding experience was serving from 1977 to 1979 on the project management team to construct the Exxon Olefins plant in Baytown, Texas.
In the fall of 1958, Bill’s cousin Elenor Cox introduced him to his future wife, Frances Janet Soules of Goldthwaite, Texas. After a brief courtship, they were married in March 1959 at the Central Church of Christ in Houston. In 1962, they moved to the West University neighborhood of Houston, where they lived for the next 28 years and raised their daughter Frances and their son Will. In 1990, they moved to the Bellaire neighborhood of Houston and lived there until 2004, when they relocated to College Station.
Bill retired from Exxon in 1992 after more than 35 years with the company. Over the next 15 years he and Janet took frequent trips to New Mexico, Colorado and various points up and down the East and West coasts. They were blessed to share some of these trips with Bill’s brother-in-law Fred Soules and his wife Sybil. There were two very memorable trips: one to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, in March 1998, and a cruise to Denali and the Inside Passage of Alaska in the summer of 1999.
Bill enjoyed restoring vintage cars and refurbishing antique furniture, and had an artistic sense which he demonstrated in hand-crafting a desk for his home office, a southwestern-style water fountain for his back patio, and a wet bar in his living room. He was also an accomplished builder. Working by himself, he doubled the square footage of the family house in West University by adding an additional bedroom, breakfast room and playroom, and also added a four-car carport.
Mr. Frame was a generous man who donated to numerous charitable organizations and contributed faithfully to his church. He was a lifelong member of the Church of Christ, belonging to the West University congregation in Houston and the Central congregation in Bryan.
Bill was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Deward Glen Frame; sisters and brothers-in-law, Vera Mae and Dr. W.L. Beasley, Marie and J.O. Cheatham and Eugene Sikes.
Survivors include his wife of more than 50 years, Frances Janet Soules Frame; daughter, Dr. Elenor Frances Frame of Charleston, S.C.; son and daughter-in-law, William Burjes and Janet Kay Arnold Frame of Mansfield, Texas; sister, Jane Sikes of DeSoto; nieces, Marijane Deen and husband, Loyd, of Bryan, Susan Beasley and husband, Mike Lacy, of Austin, Kassie Collins and husband, Fred, of Waller, Texas, Amy Moore of Bryan and Lynette Roland of Katy; and nephews, Stephen Sikes and wife, Debra, Mark Sikes and wife, Darlette, Philip Sikes and wife, Deborah, and Wells Moore of Wheelock.
Donations may be made to Central Church of Christ of Bryan, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center or the American Cancer Society.
Pallbearers will be Fred Collins, Loyd Deen, Mike Lacy, Wells Moore, Tim Payne and John Soules.
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