William Thomas Deffebach

Bill Deffebach died on Monday, the 11th of April 2022, at the age of 91. He was born on the 2nd of February 1931, in Winters, Texas, to Lyle and Irene Deffebach. His family moved to Snyder, Texas in 1939. During his Junior and Senior High School years, he worked for spending money as the janitor of his father’s accounting and insurance offices by riding his bicycle from home to those offices on the downtown “square” at 4:30 a.m., back home for breakfast, and then to school. On Saturdays throughout the school year, he also worked at various jobs, such as salesperson at a local clothing store, a fountain helper at a local drug store, and later, during the World War II years, as a delivery boy for a local grocery store, which was managed by the wife of the overseas owner. These odd-jobs were also supplemented during the summer months by pulling (not picking) cotton bolls. During these years, Bill also advanced through the ranks of the Boy Scouts to Eagle with Order of the Arrow.

He also attended Snyder High School, lettering in football, basketball, and tennis for three years, graduated in 1948, and was named as salutatorian of his class. He then attended McMurry College in Abilene, Texas for two years before transferring to the University of Texas, School of Business Administration, from which he graduated with a BBA major in public accountancy in 1952. He then volunteered to serve in the United States Marine Corp during the Korean Conflict, became a Company Commander, and was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain in 1955. After working a year in a CPA firm, Bill then entered the University of Texas School of Law.

He graduated from law school, summa cum laud, in 1958, being named the Senior Student with the Greatest Promise to Achieve Distinction in the Practice of Law. While attending law school, he was also elected to the following honorary organizations and positions: Chancellors, Order of the Coif, Texas Law Review (Comment Editor); Phi Delta Phi, a national honorary legal fraternity (President and Clerk); and Quizmaster. He also received the following additional honors: Outstanding Mid-Law Student; and Outstanding Phi Delta Phi Graduate for the University of Texas School of Law and for the Southern United States Region.

Following graduation, he joined the law firm of Hardie, Grambling, Sims & Galatzan in El Paso, Texas. He was admitted to that firm as a partner in 1961, and later its name was changed to Gramling, Mounce, Deffebach, Sims, Hardie & Galatzan. Bill was admitted to practice in all Texas courts, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the United States Tax Court, the United States Supreme Court and, with special permission, the Supreme Court of the State of New Mexico.

Bill was General Counsel of the El Paso National Bank, and he also served as a director and Vice President of El Paso National Corporation, a multi-bank holding company, from its inception in 1971 to January 1986. Following its merger with Texas Commerce Bancshares, its subsidiary banks were Texas Commerce Bank- El Paso, Texas Commerce Bank-First State, Texas Commerce Bank-Northgate, Texas Commerce Bank-Bolder City, Texas Commerce Bank-West, Texas Commerce Bank-East, and Texas Commerce Bank-Chamizal. As a practicing attorney, Bill successfully defended this holding company (initially named Trans Texas Bancorporation) in litigation of first impression filed by the United States Department of Justice to challenge its formation. The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bill’s client on the final day of its 1973 session, which then represented the first Clayton Act anti-trust case lost by the Department of Justice for over twenty years.

While in El Paso, Bill served as a director of Azar Nut Company, which at the time was the third largest nut processing company in the United States, and at Border Steel Rolling Mills. He was also a member, officer, and director of various civic and professional organizations. He chaired the attorneys’ division of the United Way, and he was a member of the Administrative Board and a Trustee of the Western Hills Methodist Church. He was also President-Elect of the El Paso Bar Association in 1978 when he retired from the private practice of law, at which time he moved to Houston, Texas.

In Houston, he was the President and Director of Great Western Management Corporation. He was also an officer and director of: Goodson Pontiac; Landmark Chevrolet Corp., Houston; Landmark Oldsmobile Corp., Orlando, Florida; Costa Mesa Honda and Infiniti, Costa Mesa, California; Goodson Acura, Dallas; Goodson Spring Branch, Houston; and a partner in Goodson Insurance Agency, Ltd. Following a sale of the Houston automobile dealerships on July 6, 2020 to Roger Penske of United Auto Group, Inc., a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, he served as President of UAG’s Houston subsidiaries: Goodson Auto Group; Goodson Honda North; Goodson Honda West; Goodson Pontiac-GMC; Goodson Dodge West; Goodson Chrysler Jeep West; and Goodson Dodge-Chrysler Jeep North. Bill then retired from the automobile business on his seventy-second birthday, February 2, 2003.

Prior to retirement from the automobile business, he was a member of: the Texas Automobile Dealers Association; Chairman’s Club of AutoPac; National Automobile Dealers Association; President’s Club of the Dealer Election and Action Committee; a founding member of AFIT Pac; American Honda National Dealer Council (in 1991 as Vice Chairman, in 1992 as its Chairman, and a second-term from 1997-1999); Houston Metro Honda Dealers Association (President from 1989-1993); and a Charter Member of the first Board of Directors of the Honda Regional Advertising Board for Zone 3, Dallas, Texas.

While in Houston, Bill continued his association with banking organizations, serving as Director of Texas Commerce Bank-North Freeway in Houston, from 1978-1987, and as a director and officer of the National Loan Bank, a publicly owned company by the former shareholders of Texas Commerce Bank, and the first national bank of its kind, which was created as a result of the Texas Commerce Bancshares merger with the Chemical New York Corporation, solely to liquidate various loans independently of the merged banks. Subsequently, Texas Commerce/Chemical New York merged with Chase Manhattan Bank of New York, the latter then with JPMorgan Bank of New York, resulting in JPMorgan Chase Bank, which later acquired Banc One by merger.

Bill enjoyed exploring his family’s genealogy – tracing it back to the 1560s in Marburg, Germany. The family came to America in 1710 – 23 years before the birth of George Washington and 66 years before the American Revolution, in which four of Bill’s ancestors fought. All of this and a general discussion of life’s lessons is contained in a book he authored in 2005 and updated in 2012 after his wife’s Carolyn’s death, entitled “On My Honor I Will Do My Best.”

Bill, after conversion to Catholicism, was a parishioner of St. Joseph Parish in Houston, and then transferred to St. Cecilia. He was elected by the Vatican as a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He served as a Trustee of the Hermann Eye Fund (now Robert Cizik Eye Center) at Memorial-Hermann Hospital until 2010. He was also a member of the Tuesday Morning Men’s Bible Study Group of Pines Presbyterian Church in Houston, which led him to join this church where he met and married a love of his life, Keziah; President’s Associates, The University of Texas at Austin; a Charter Member of Keeton’s Fellows, University of Texas School of Law; President’s Associates, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and a former Director and President of the Stablewood Property Owners’ Association.

Bill was predeceased by his wives, Joan Matthews Deffebach and Carolyn Rabb Deffebach; his sister, Mary Williams; and his stepson, Brett Rabb Dix. His survivors include his wife, Keziah Kamp Deffebach; his son, Lyle Deffebach and his wife Leslie of Claremore, Oklahoma; his daughter, Susan Hufford and her husband Larry of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; his son, Matthew Deffebach; his granddaughters, Lauren Lee Deffebach, Dylan Anne Deffebach, and Peyton Deffebach; his brother-in-law, Tommy Williams of Early, Texas; his nephew, Blair Williams and his wife Lacey of Ovalo, Texas; his niece, Julie Schafer and her husband Robert of Early, Texas; his godchildren, Fred K. Schneider, Jr., Karl Schneider, Erin Feherty, and Cecily McCullough; his stepsons, William F. Dix and George E. Dix of El Paso, Texas; his cousins, Carol Sweeney of Ft. Worth, Texas and Anna Beth Stephens and her husband Curt of Naples, Florida; and Keziah’s children, John and his wife Bonnie of Thousand Oaks, California, Michael Kamp, Nancy Kamp, Matthew Kamp and his wife Sholay, of Houston, Thomas Kamp of San Antonio, and Daniel Kamp of Fredericksburg, Texas, including the children of Keziah’s children: Kelly Jo Campbell of Asheville, North Carolina; Gretchen Kamp of New York City; and Claire Kamp of Austin. This also includes the great-granddaughter, Hazel, of Asheville, North Carolina.

The family gives special thanks to his physician of many years, Phillip C. Johnson III. M.D., and those who took special care of him, including Dave Sheler, Maria Requena, Maria Perez, Thomas Kamp, Nathan Majure, and the caregivers of Hospice.

A funeral service is to be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Wednesday, the 27th of April, at Pines Presbyterian Church, 12751 Kimberley Lane in Houston.

Interment is to immediately follow, via escorted cortege, at Glenwood Cemetery, 2525 Washington Avenue in Houston.

Friends are then cordially invited to greet the family and share remembrances during a reception to be held at a venue to be announced during the services.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions is his name be directed to CAP (Citizens for Animal Protection), 17555 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX, 77094; or to Faith in Practice, 7500 Beechnut Street, Suite 208, Houston, TX, 77074.