Clifford "Gene" Eugene Minster

Clifford Eugene Minster died at 90 years of age peacefully in his sleep on June 27, 2017 at South Pointe Care Center in Oklahoma City. Clifford or “Gene” was a hard working ember of his community and a parishioner of Northwest Church of Christ. He owned and operated Gene’s mobile Service, a full service station, located at Meridian Avenue and N. W. 43rd Street. He was an old school mechanic that taught his employees, including all his children that the customers always right. After he sold his station in 1985, he began a new career as a Pinkerton night guardsman. He worked for 22 years until he was 82 years old and was forced to retire. As a young man in a family of four, growing up in Chanute, Kansas, he loved going to the matinees featuring spaghetti westerns and Laurel and Hardy films. A member of the “Greatest Generation”, Gene was recruited on his 18th birthday by the U. S. Army taken out of his senior year of high school. He quickly earned the rank of Sergeant with the 40th Infantry Division in the Philippines and South Korea. After the war, Gene went to Junior College and Vo-tech mechanic classes and met Lena Mae Gildart. They married in 1950 and moved to McAllen, Texas where he worked in the oil fields. Moving to Cushing and Blackwell, Oklahoma, they eventually moved to Oklahoma City in 1960. Gene and Mae and three children; Jeff of Bristow, VA, Beth of Oklahoma City and Rita of San Jose, California. Jeff married Jean Coleman of Oklahoma City and had three sons, Michael of San Antonio, Texas, Nicholas and Matthew of Bristow, Virginia. Gene also has one great grandson, Anthony of Norman, Oklahoma. Gene was a big fan of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan and exploring physics and space. An avid movie buff, he liked Star Wars, Superman and Roger Rabbit. He loved to laugh and tell silly jokes. Crazy about babies, he was everyone’s grandpa at church. Clifford was a supportive husband and father and grandfather. He was kind and dearly loved and will be missed. Arrangements under the direction of Bill Merritt Funeral Service, Bethany, OK