Rader, William LeRoy (1926-2016)
RADER, BURNS, LARRABEE, MATTALINO, SWITZER, PROCHASKA, HONIGSCHMIDT, HATFIELD, CRABTREE
Posted By: Paul Nagy (email)
Date: 8/20/2016 at 14:43:24
William LeRoy Rader
August 3, 1926 - July 23, 2016William LeRoy "Bill" Rader passed away July 23, 2016, in Austin, Texas, where he had been a resident since 1992.
Bill, the oldest child of LeRoy Anthony and Anna Rita (Burns) Rader, was born in Spencer, Iowa, on August 3, 1926. The Rader family moved from Spencer to Des Moines in 1932 and from Des Moines to Storm Lake, Iowa in 1938. In 1944, Bill graduated from Storm Lake High School where he served as senior-year class president. He, then, enlisted in the United States Navy, becoming a signalman and serving in the Pacific Theater.
In 1946, Bill enrolled at the University of Iowa and graduated with a B.A. in 1950. He earned a M.S. in geology in the following year. While at Iowa, he, also, served as the vice president of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and was an associate member of Sigma Xi.
In 1949, Bill married Maryanne Love Larrabee. Subsequently, they had two children, William Larrabee Rader and Charles LeRoy Rader.
While still at the University of Iowa, Bill was offered the position of geologist by Standard Oil Company of Texas (Standard of California). This job, which Bill started in 1951, was the beginning of a more than four-decade-long career in the oil/energy business. After working as a geologist/geophysicist for Standard of Texas, Bill was hired by Standard of Ohio (Sohio) in 1956. He became the district geologist responsible for south Louisiana and Louisiana offshore exploration. After working for a pair of major oil companies, Bill, then, worked as a consulting geologist for Robert Mosbacher, William Kilroy, and Global Marine, Inc. In 1966, he became the exploration manager for Global Marine, and, in 1970, as a senior vice president, he started Challenger Oil and Gas Company as a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Marine. In 1975, as vice president-energy, Bill assisted Beker and Co. in its bid to enter the energy business.
In 1976, Bill began working for Farmland, Inc., which at that time was the world's largest cooperative. As a senior vice president at Farmland, he was responsible for petroleum operations. Midcon Corp. (Peoples' Gas and Natural Gas Pipeline of America) hired Bill to consolidate their petroleum exploration and production operations in 1980. Exeter Exploration, Buckhorn Petroleum, Harper Oil Company, and Texoma Production were combined to form Midcon Exploration Company with Bill as president and CEO. In 1986, Occidental Petroleum acquired the assets of Midcon.
Bill, then, started Palacios Exploration Company to serve Gulf Coast independent petroleum operators and aid foreign companies with their personnel needs. In 1992, after a 41-year career in oil and energy, he decided to retire. Nonetheless, Bill re-entered the working world in 2006 when he was appointed to the Travis Central Appraisal Review Board. He served the maximum of three two-year terms with the board, becoming co-chairman in his fifth year and board chairman in his sixth.
In addition, public service played a large role in Bill's life. In Houston, Texas, for example, during the 1960s, he served as a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America and as troop committee chairman. In the 1980s, he became a trustee of the Denver Art Museum as well as the chairman of the Colorado affiliate of The National Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped and chairman of the independent petroleum section of the United Way in Denver. Bill was also the past vice president and membership chairman of the Jaguar Club of Austin.
Bill was a 5O-year member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and a 25-year member of the Society of Petroleum Geophysicists. At various times, he was a member of the Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Denver, and Austin Geological Societies. He was also a member of the Houston, Los Angeles, and Denver Petroleum Clubs, and a past member of the Society of Independent Petroleum Earth Scientists, the Geological Society of America, and the American Petroleum Institute.
Bill was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Roger Francis Rader; and his stepson, Philip James Mattalino, Jr. He is survived by his loving wife of more than 40 years, Ursula Passafuma Rader; his sister, Rita Roberta Rader, of Storm Lake, Iowa; his sons, William Larrabee Rader, of Austin, Texas, and Charles LeRoy Rader, and his wife, Lorraine Rader, of Saratoga, California; his grandchildren, Teresa Rader, of Los Angeles, California, and Kyle Rader, and his wife, Laura, of San Jose, California; his stepsons, Michael J. Mattalino, and wife Lisa, of Houston, Texas, and Warren C. Switzer Ill, of Austin, Texas; his step-granddaughter, Michelle Mattalino, and Matt Prochaska, and children, Archer D. Honigschmidt and Ursuline Prochaska, of Austin, Texas; his step-granddaughter, Margherita Cecilia "Maggie" Mattalino, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and his niece, Ingrid Rader Hatfield, her daughter, Kirstin Crabtree, and granddaughter, Audrey Crabtree, of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The National Foundation of Dentistry for The Handicapped, 1800 15th Street, Suite 100, Denver, CO 80202.
Visitation will be from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 28, 2016, at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 North Lamar Blvd., Austin, Texas. A Funeral Mass will be offered Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Storm Lake. Burial will follow in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery. Visitation will take place one hour prior to the service at the church. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements.
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