In Memory

Brett Heumann VIEW PROFILE

Cannot find Brett's obit, but here is his father's:

John Roger Heumann, beloved father and grandfather, passed away on Tuesday, December 22, 2015, at age 91. He is survived by his eldest son, John Mark Heumann; sister Ann Heumann Prunty of Houston, Texas; granddaughter Kara N. Heumann of Austin, Texas; and daughter-in-law Jan L. Heumann of Cedar Park, Texas.

He was interred at Memorial Oaks Cemetery in Houston, Texas, next to his wife, Patricia SoRelle Heumann, and his sons Scott Fredric and Roger Brett.

Roger—later called J. R.—was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 28, 1924. He was the older of two children of John Berthold Heumann, dairy engineer, and Vertna Peters Heumann, teacher.

Roger attended Central Park High School in Kansas City, then transferred to Highland Park High School when the family moved to Dallas. There he met a group of young people who enjoyed getting together to listen to classical music. Among those young people were Patricia SoRelle and her sisters.

Roger attended Southern Methodist University for two years before being inducted into the Army Air Corps. As World War II came to a close, Roger expected to be transferred overseas as part of the Army of Occupation. He and Patricia married. But Roger was discharged, and the young couple moved to Norman, Oklahoma, where he could finish his education in chemical engineering.

In 1947 their first son, Mark, was born. The three went where Roger’s job with Standard Oil took him. By 1954 he had a business degree from Oklahoma City University, and the couple had three boys, Mark, Scott, and Brett. A few years later the family moved from Oklahoma City to Houston, which was their home for over 60 years.

Roger spent most of his career as Project Director for Fish Engineering and Construction, Houston. As he neared retirement, he did environmental projects for AWD Technologies, and he was consulting engineer to Hunt & Hunt Engineering, Houston.

Music was always a part of the family’s life: the symphony and, for Patricia especially, the opera. They sang in the choir at John Knox Presbyterian Church, where Roger was a founding elder, and they enjoyed dancing.

Especially, they enjoyed travel. While studying at the University of Houston, Patricia made friends with a South African couple, who were their hosts on a visit to South Africa. When Roger’s work took him to Germany, he visited Brett, who was stationed with the US Army in Nuremberg. On another trip, he and Patricia visited Leipzig. They went to Belgium, England, Australia, the Bahamas, and Canada together, and they went to Alaska to fish for salmon. Roger was an excellent photographer.

Roger’s great passion was fishing. The family had a fishing camp on Toledo Bend, and Roger enjoyed competing in, and winning, local bass tournaments. He did some deer hunting with son Brett. Later in life, he built and flew radio-controlled model airplanes with the Jetero R/C Club.

Scott Heumann, Artistic Administrator for Houston Grand Opera, died in 1993, and Brett died in 2000. Mark looked out for both parents during their last three years of life.





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