Roll Call Tribute

Jesse Hardy Jefferies 

September 2, 1935 - January 28, 2024 

Jesse Hardy Jefferies, 88 of Houston, Texas passed away January 28, 2024. Jesse was born September 2, 1935, in San Marcos, Texas to Perry and Rosa Jefferies. He is preceded in death by his daughter Kelley Jefferies and brother Perry Jefferies. He is survived by his wife Gloria of 37 years of marriage, his sons Darrel, James and Jesse, his daughter Regina, and grandchildren Jasyn, Steven, Hanson, Trenton, Mika, Rosalie, and Miles.

Jesse spent his formative years in, as he described, “the many cosmopolitan towns of rural Texas”, but most of his youth was in Laredo and San Antonio. The son of a construction manager and nurse, he graduated from Burbank High School and went on to attend Texas A&M and Texas Universities. Jesse excelled in athletics, becoming an all-district running-back and cultivating a passion for athletics and physicality that followed him for the rest of his life. An outdoorsman in his youth, many of his favorite memories and life lessons were acquired hunting with his father as well as his grandfather and mentor, Jesse Applewhite, in the brush country of South Texas. While not originally planning on being able to attend college, Jesse’s fierce work ethic and intellectual curiosity led him to excel in school despite many hardships, becoming a mechanical and chemical engineer. Jesse thrived in his chosen profession and held multiple patents and awards. He went on to found a chemical company that had a tremendous positive impact in the petrochemicals industry internationally. After a successful career in petrochemicals, Jesse also pioneered in the water treatment sector where he would be named water technologist of the year in 1997 by the American Association of Water Technologies. Lesser known to his professional accomplishments, Jesse was a generous philanthropist, lover of the arts, and a teacher by nature.

Described as a true renaissance man by all, Jesse enjoyed and excelled in many pastimes but found the most joy in his time as a tennis player, traveler, painter, sailor, fisherman, and as a lifetime student of just about anything he could read. A passion for history, civics, and the arts led him to be a man of the world and of travel, but he was always careful to remind us of how proud he felt to be a Texan and an American.

The beautiful balance in which Jesse lived his life is a testament to his desire for living life fully and in moderation: He was known by all to be an imposing athlete and a sensitive artist, a determined businessman yet a famous practical joker, an immensely hard worker and a class clown, a disciplined rationalist but a hopeless romantic. To those that knew him well, he was an impossibly generous giver and deeply optimistic in those around him. He always saw the potential and best in everyone. Above all, Jesse was known to be honest, a man of faith, and a man of character always seeking to do the right thing and fear nothing. Jesse was a man for others and while he is missed by his family from the moment of his passing, his legacy and example lives on in the hearts of all that knew him. He would have considered his greatest successes to be those in which he fostered opportunity for others to flourish.

A visitation beginning at 6:00 PM and Vigil Service at 7:00 PM will be held Monday, February 12, 2024, at Dettling Funeral Home 14094 Memorial Dr. Houston, TX 77079. Funeral Mass will be the following morning Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at 11:00 AM, at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church 10688 Shadow Wood Dr. Houston, TX 77043 with reception to follow on church grounds. In Lieu of flowers please consider a charitable donation to Shriners Hospitals for Children.