Cyrus Strong V

CYRUS STRONG V, of Houston, Texas passed away on Thursday, the 7th of April 2016 after a yearlong illness. Cy was born on the 13th of November 1932 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to the late John Dodge and Mary Inglis Strong of Hingham, Massachusetts.

Cy’s grandfather was William Wallace Inglis of Scranton, PA, president of Glen Alden Coal Company, one of the largest coal mining companies of its time. To understand the importance of education, Cy often told of his grandfather making him work for a dollar a day in the mines. It was a lesson that he carried with him throughout his life.

Growing up in Belmont, MA, Cy attended Belmont Hill school. He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, MA in 1954. After college, he entered the U.S. Army as a private and qualified for Officers Training school in Fort Benning, GA. Cy finished first in his class and joined the Engineer Corps. He spent three years in Germany with a small battalion in Dexheim (Rhine Hessen) building bridges across the Rhine. After his military service, he attended Rice University on the GI Bill and earned a Masters Degree in Geology.

Cy met Diane Helene Schwob, the love of his life, during his senior year of college at the Williams College Carnival in 1954. Diane was a senior at Middlebury College at the time. They married in Pleasantville, NY, in 1955.

After graduating from Rice, Cy was hired by Shell Oil Company where he worked in exploration throughout the world for over thirty years. While with Shell, he lived in Houston, New Orleans, Denver and back to Houston in 1973. He was very active in the Houston Geological Society and was president in 1992. Cy was an avid runner. He ran in scores of marathons, including Houston and New York multiple times, and was a member of the Houston Masters running club. He was inducted into the Houston Marathon’s Hall of Fame in 2009 after many years of service on the Houston Marathon Committee as a board member, treasurer, course director and elite coordinator, among other positions.

Cy was an avid sailor and saltwater fisherman. He loved boats and being near the water. Cy enjoyed spending time in Bolivar, TX with his family where he and Diane had a beach house for many years. He loved playing tennis at the Houston Racquet Club in his younger years and golf in his later years at Hillsboro Club in Florida as well as Pine Forest Country Club in Houston. Cy and Diane enjoyed traveling. One of their favorite places was the south of France where they celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary last summer with family and friends.

Cy was preceded in death by his brother, John Dodge Strong, of Tulsa, Oklahoma and is survived by two sisters, Molly Dow of Vero Beach, Florida and Kathie Schlesinger of Brooklyn, New York. He deeply loved and was very proud of his four children: Gregory Strong and wife Alanna of Dallas, Pennie Casey and husband Ronnie of Fort Worth, Hilary Purcell and husband Tim of Houston and Andrew Strong and wife Denise of Houston. He also loved and adored his nine grandchildren and two step-grandchildren: Sam Strong; Josh, Stephanie and Valerie Ellis; Caroline, Connor and Mitchell Purcell; Alexa and Zach Strong, Lilly Leman and her husband Joseph and Reilly Ettinger.

The memorial service will be conducted at ten o’clock in the morning on Tuesday, the 12th of April, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston. Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the adjacent grand foyer.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions may be directed to The Friends of Spring Branch-Memorial Library, www.friendsofsbml.org, The Humane Society of Houston, www.houstonhumane.org, or the charity of your choice.