Roll Call Tribute

LTC David Louis Myers (Ret. US Army) 
May 3, 1941 - June 17, 2023 

David Louis Myers (LTC, USAR Ret) passed away peacefully Saturday June 17, aged 82, surrounded by family at home in Vienna, Texas. He was born to David A. & Cecile Myers, May 3, 1941, at Fort Sam Houston, and grew up on several army posts, including Alaska, until 1952, when he came to live in Vienna with his grandparents, Lee and Elenora Cheney.

David attended Vienna country school, where students walked to school with shotguns and fishing poles so they could try to provide dinner on the way home. In fifth grade, he noticed Patricia (Pat) Roth at school and – finding a resemblance to Doris Day – began carving her name onto trees. They graduated from Hallettsville High School in 1959 as high school sweethearts.

David accepted an athletic scholarship to Texas A&M where he played football for two years and wound up working on the college farm researching turf grasses that might grow in the proposed Astrodome. He married Pat in 1962, at First Baptist Church in Hallettsville, then graduated in 1964 with a B.S. degree in agronomy. He was commissioned into the army as a second lieutenant being posted to Ft. Hood, TX, Ft. Sill, OK, and Ft. Bliss TX. In 1966 he transitioned into the Reserves and the National Guard until retiring in 2001 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

After active duty, David accepted a variety of positions with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, in Taylor, Alice, Bartlett and Houston before retiring in 1996, as the Harris County district conservationist. While in Houston, he was elected to multiple terms on the water board for the Bear Creek subdivision (similar to a city council) totaling 15 years of service, and supervised search and rescue missions conducted by the reserves and national guard during various tropical storms and hurricanes of the 70s and 80s. He also volunteered to help the county prepare for natural disasters as part of the civil defense office for Houston that became the Office of Emergency Management.

Professionally, David pioneered several innovations in Harris County that are now standard conservation practices: using flood-prone areas for parkland, improving concrete-lined drainage channels by adding vegetation to slow runoff and encouraging developers to control runoff and prevent flooding by installing aesthetically pleasing detention ponds to hold excess water.

In 1997, he retired to his beloved ranch in Vienna that has been in the family for 192 years. For the next 26 years, they both kept busy with family, traveling and helping out in the community, leaving it better than when they came. He organized all reunions for the HHS Class of 1959 and wrote a book with Pat about Lavaca County historical markers and the text for the Vienna Historical Marker at the intersection of FM 530 and County Road 124. For seven years, he coordinated operations at the Lavaca Assistance Ministries food pantry. He used his professional background to study the feasibility of an underground water district for Lavaca County and advocated for it as a Republican candidate for District 13 state representative.

David narrated the Festival of Lights Christmas pageant for the first 15 years it existed. He was an elder and deacon in the Presbyterian Church in Alice, Bartlett, Houston and Gonzales. He was a founding member of Heritage Presbyterian Church in Houston.

David is survived by: wife of 61 years, Patricia “Pat” Myers; sons, Mark (Fonda) Myers of Hallettsville and Kevin (Natasha) Myers of Austin; daughter Julie (Reagon Clamon) of Castroville; brother-in-law David Roth of Vienna; sister-in-law & brother-in-law Becky & Jim Harding of Ludington Mich.; grandchildren, Erika Myers of Houston, Caroline Clary & husband Steven of Kerrville, Kristen Valdivia & husband Adrian of Katy, Jacob Myers & wife Jocelyn of Westport, Mass., Raetsch Myers of Austin, Luke Clamon of College Station, Molly Clamon of Castroville, Emory Myers and twins Lera & Sasha Nikashova, all of Austin; great-grandchildren, Layla Bossie, Abigail & Brianna Myers, Cameron King, Landon & Olivia Clary, and twins Aaron & Aidan Valdivia.

Besides his parents, David was preceded in death by daughter-in-law, Karen Myers.

Memorial donations may be made to Samaritan’s Purse or Hospice of South Texas.

A private celebration of a life well-lived will be held at a later date.