Richard Leo Flowers, Sr.

Born at home on the 29th of April 1930, in Shreveport, Louisiana, the youngest of six children, Dick grew up with few material things but with a doting mother and a home full of love and encouragement. Due to his natural intellect and innate work ethic, Dick always succeeded academically. He threw a paper route and served as an altar boy. He helped his mother tend to the vegetables she grew in the family’s garden. Dick’s passion since childhood was hunting. Dick’s inclination to work, solve problems and provide generously for others dominated his life. But despite his many accomplishments, according to Dick, the highlight of his childhood was meeting his future wife, Shirley Stephenson, in the second grade.

Dick’s academic success continued through high school. He was the Salutatorian of his graduating class at St. John Catholic High School. With an academic scholarship and a commitment to U.S. Army’s Reserve Officer’s Training Corps (ROTC), Dick was able to attend his beloved Louisiana State University, the same school Shirley attended. He achieved the rank of captain in his ROTC Company, pledged SAE, and ultimately graduated with a petroleum engineering degree in 1952. After graduation, Dick was hired by Phillips Petroleum Company as a drilling engineer. More than anything he wanted to make Shirley his wife.

Shortly thereafter, however, he was called to active military duty and readily accepted his commission as an officer in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. Hostilities on the Korean Peninsula were raging in 1952. Dick knew there was some significant chance he could be assigned to serve in Korea, he resolved that if he was assigned to Korea, his marriage proposal would have to wait. However, should he be ordered to serve in any other location, he was determined to ask Shirley to be his wife. When his orders came down, he was assigned to Paris to work with the Corp of Engineer’s post-war effort to rebuild France.

Shirley and Dick were married in Shreveport on November 10, 1952. After a brief New Orleans honeymoon, they were off to Paris, France where they spent the first twenty romantic, blissful months of what would mature into an epic, nearly 66 years of unwavering commitment, fidelity, family and true enduring and eternal love. Dick fondly remembered his service: “I had the best deal imaginable, a practically all-expense paid 20-month second honeymoon with my dream girl in Paris and our new baby, Colette.”

Upon returning from Paris, with their precious first born, Dick and Shirley earnestly went about completing their family – Shirley gave birth to four more children in the following five years. Dick resumed working for Phillips Petroleum where he was transferred 5 times, lastly to Houston. In 1959 he was hired by C-B Southern, a newly created compressor packing division of Cooper-Bessemer, the manufacturing giant founded in 1833 (Cooper Industries today). The new business had no sales when Dick joined as a staff engineer. Several years later, because of Dick’s diligence, C-B Southern reported $75 million in sales and, the 33 year old Dick Flowers was named President. Dick’s performance at C-B Southern was so impressive, in 1967 he was promoted to President of Cooper-Bessemer and the family moved to the company’s headquarters in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Dick was 37 years old and, as President, was responsible for a company producing $800 million in revenue, employing 8,000 people, with major operations in the United States, Canada, UK and Germany. Upon becoming President of Cooper-Bessemer, Dick was the youngest known president of a major, first-tier manufacturing company in the United States.

Dick was seldom satisfied with the status quo. The same work ethic and constant attention to problem solving that drove Dick as a boy, led him to identify a service niche in the burgeoning Middle East oil and gas markets that he could not interest OEM Cooper Industries in addressing. As the countries in the Middle East began to recognize and then nationalize their natural resources and the facilities which had been developed to exploit those resources, Dick saw a tremendous opportunity for providing operations and maintenance. He envisioned a service company comprised of engineers and skilled technicians who on extremely short notice could mobilize, fully equipped in terms of expertise, skill, tools, and equipment, and drop into a location, however remote, and diagnose, repair, replace and ultimately operate, if necessary, compressor stations, pumping stations, and virtually any other aspect of a pipeline operation. His company would complement the original equipment manufacturers such as Cooper Industries. At the same time, his company would be a “small” independent, unburdened by old alliances, out of favor relationships and the like and nimble and quick to respond on a turnkey basis even in seemingly impossibly remote areas.

As exciting as this idea was, and as driven as Dick was to run his own company, his way, he and Shirley faced a difficult choice—continue working at Cooper, which promised a secure financial future for their family, or follow his dreams in the face of uncertainty and associated risks. And there were those five children. Shirley believed in Dick and Dick knew his idea was sound. Intuitively, they knew it would be a mistake to deny his entrepreneurial spirit. So, in 1969 Dick and Shirley left Cooper, and moved the whole family back to Houston where Dick co-founded the Creole Companies around the flagship operating entity, Creole Production Services, Inc. Quietly pleased he would no longer need to swim against the tide trying to convince uniformed and complacent colleagues that his strategies/plans had merit and great commercial potential, Dick could now simply implement his strategies.

Creole grew into a multifaceted provider of manpower and engineering services to businesses in the oil and gas industry, including most major E&P companies, refineries, oilfield equipment businesses, oilfield infrastructure businesses, and onshore and offshore platforms. The Company grew to $20 million in sales in its third year, and continued its growth over the next three decades, generating $100’s of millions in revenue with offices in Houston, New Orleans, Cairo, Dubai, Lagos, London, Shenzhen, Libya, Kuwait City and the most exotic place of all (he would say) Bakersfield, California.

Creole performed a multitude of engineering and manpower projects: including the Alaskan Pipeline; recommissioning refineries in Africa; platform operations and maintenance in the South China Sea; and designing, building, and operating compression packages in Azerbaijan and Russia to name only a few. Exxon, Texaco, AGIP, Mobile, Amoco, Occidental, Getty, Petrobras and BP were just a few of Creole’s many customers; the full list would fill binders. Because of Dick’s leadership and expert engineering acumen, the Company could offer customized and unique solutions for the projects it was awarded - at the time, Creole was the only company in the industry with such unique offerings which would not only promise success but would take a risk position to guarantee the customer that Creole’s strategies and/or plans would be successful and achieve the desired result on time and within budget. Clearly, philosophy and Creole’s ability to perform propelled Dick’s company to unprecedented growth.

Dick was most of all a devoted family man and would credit Shirley’s leadership at home for making his success at Creole possible. On weekends and vacations Dick and Shirley took the five children on countless road trips, on jeep rides in the hill country, blackberry picking in the spring, nature walks along the bayou, outings to the drive-in movie and Youngbloods Fried Chicken for Sunday dinner. They snow skied in the winter and water skied in the summers. They toured Europe and for those interested, had the option to attend Dick’s financial skill-building seminars on select campuses in places like Tahoe, Reno and Las Vegas. There was a cruise for the entire family for Dick and Shirley’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. For decades there was an annual road trip to Shreveport. Another mandatory activity on this road trip, occurred while driving through a small town he would let all five kids out at a stop light to run the block at the end of which they would pile back into the car – hopefully a little exhausted. When stopping at a gas station along the way there was nothing he liked better than adding salty peanuts to an ice cold bottle of Coke. There were plenty of fancy vacations, but these simple pleasures hark back to Dick’s childhood and brought him and his family the most joy and provided the sweetest memories. When the children were older, for many years, trips to the Lake Travis vacation house were on the schedule. After stopping at the grocery to load up on every imaginable treat, the family enjoyed Easter, the 4th of July and long action-filled summer days.

Not believing in hiring a repairman for household repairs, weekends found Dick working around the house. From the smallest project to the largest, whether it was fixing a leaking sink, replacing roof shingles or hanging professional looking Christmas lights Dick could and did do it all. When the weekend work was done, he was eager to take Shirley to Saturday night dinner at Tony’s, Joyce's Seafood & Steaks, Masraff’s, the Petroleum Club or any one of their favorite restaurants; always starting the meal with his favorite cocktail, a cold shaken vodka martini and the toast “Here’s to us good folks. There aren’t many of us left.” Sunday mornings found Shirley and Dick sitting on the right side of St. Michael’s chapel for 11 AM mass.

Throughout his life, but especially after his retirement, Dick’s passion was woodworking. Dick was self-taught but was a true artist in his woodshop. He created gifts for his children, their spouses, his grandchildren, great grandchildren and friends – full-size carousel horses, fancy canes, period furniture, ornate cradles, busts, knives with carved handles, animal sculptures, and toys are just a few examples of his awe inspiring, extraordinary work.

Dick was an avid bird hunter and was especially fond of an annual family dove hunt that he started thirty-five years ago. Never missing a hunt, he was the best shot in the group well into his 80’s. However, what he loved the most about the hunt was enjoying the comradery of his sons, sons-in-law and grandsons. His hearty laugh and great story-telling will be missed by all, but the trip will carry on, always in his honor.

Dick is survived by the love of his life and wife of nearly sixty-six years, Shirley Flowers; his children Colette Leonard and her husband Michael, Richard L. Flowers Jr., Ann Doggett and her husband Leslie, Robert “Bob” Flowers, and his wife Catherine, James “Jim” Flowers, and his wife Lissa, grandchildren; David Leonard Jr. and his wife Kelly, William Doggett Jr. and his wife Rebecca, Amy Doggett Schramm and her husband Payton, Stephen Flowers and his wife Ashely, Marshall Flowers, Katherine Flowers, and Caroline Flowers and her fiancé Ryan Kostrzewa, and great-grandchildren Lawson Flowers, Wesley Flowers, David “Dee” Leonard III, Will Doggett III, and Katie Doggett.

Dick is predeceased by his parents Mr. & Mrs. Joseph James Flowers Sr., two sisters, three brothers and precious granddaughter Christina Mary Doggett.

Friends are cordially invited to gather with the family and share remembrances of Dick during a reception to be held from five o’clock this afternoon until seven o’clock this evening Thursday, the 21st of June, in the grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

The memorial service is to be conducted at ten o’clock in the morning on Friday, the 22nd of June, at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, 1801 Sage Road in Houston, where the Rev. Wayne W. Wilkerson, Pastor, is to officiate.

Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the adjacent Parish Life Center.

In the words of Frank Sinatra, “And now, the end is near, And so I face the final curtain. My friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain, I’ve lived a life that’s full, I traveled each and every highway, And more, much more than this, I DID IT MY WAY.”