Buddy Meyer

Clarence C. “Buddy” Meyer, Jr. went to be with his Lord and Savior the morning of Saturday, January 4, 2025. He died peacefully at home, holding the hand of his loving wife as he crossed the finish line of a 7-year marathon against Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Buddy entered this world during May 1953. He was born in Houston, Texas to Clarence C. and Joann Helwig Meyer, the second of their three children.

Buddy was a lifelong Lutheran. Baptized as an infant, he was confirmed at Faith Lutheran Church in Bellaire in 1968. His childhood centered around his church, especially the Boy Scout troop and the many trips he took touring the US with his scouting friends. Buddy’s time in Scouts taught him to learn from mistakes and helped set the foundation for his ethos of hard work, do it yourself perseverance. As a child, he spent countless weekends with his dad out at his grandparents’ farm in Damon, further cementing this idea of hard work and persistence. Buddy’s love for working and managing the farm continued until the day he died.

After graduating from Bellaire High School in 1971, Buddy attended Texas Lutheran University, née College, in Seguin, where he met his sweetheart, Joanne, on the first day of classes. They both transferred to The University of Texas at Austin, where Buddy earned a degree in mechanical engineering and a love of the Texas Longhorns to last ‘til Gabriel blows his horn. Buddy and Joanne married at First Lutheran Church, Galveston in 1976.

His 43-year career as a company man for MW Kellogg (later KBR) started in an engineering cubicle. Many stops later he led business development, and though he held a VP title, he was an engineer at heart. Buddy especially enjoyed mentoring the next generation of engineers. His love for tinkering and understanding how and why things worked followed him everywhere. On retirement, he fulfilled his lifelong dream of building a 1965 Shelby Cobra replica, which he and Joanne drove as much as possible before illness took over.

New Hope Lutheran Church in Missouri City was a second home for Buddy and his family. He served in nearly every capacity, from mowing the grass to leading stewardship commissions, but his favorite was teaching Sunday School for Confirmation age kids.

He gave himself to myriad pursuits, from coaching and chaperoning every possible Special Olympics sport, to fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, to mentoring others with LLS’ Team in Training, to his own triathlon career (which resulted in numerous podium finishes). He played golf as often as possible and spent countless weekends out at the farm. He loved being in nature, taking in God’s marvelous creation.

Buddy was preceded in death by his parents Clarence and Joann Meyer, in-laws Harold and Marian Reinhart, sister Jo Helen, brother Ernie, brother-in-law John, and dear friend Steve Ramsey. He leaves to carry on his legacy his wife Joanne, son Stevie, son Andy and wife Ashley, daughter Julie and husband Andrew “Sev”, and his most precious grandchildren Augie, Ellie, Evie, and Lilia. Also, his in-laws Dwight, Jane and Jose, Jim, Becky, and Vicki, nieces and nephews Lizzie and Marc, Chris and Izzy, Jennifer and Andy, Joe, Josh, Joanna, Shannon, Alex, and Leanne, and numerous great nieces and nephews.

His advice to all young couples was to attend church together, be good stewards of God’s gifts, work hard, and live beneath your means. Buddy was an amazing father and patient teacher, never so evident as in his raising a child with autism. In his own words, he prayed for a miracle, but the miracle wasn’t that God cured his child, but rather that God guided him to change and become the father his child needed.

It's impossible to encapsulate a life in such brief words, and innumerable stories have gone untold here, memories of things near and dear to Buddy like Manfest, Warnecke Warriors, and the ways in which Buddy was a father figure to so many. The family would relish an opportunity to revisit the ways Buddy touched your lives and asks that you add your memories, stories, and photos for their memory book. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/sugar-land-tx/buddy-meyer-12156011/add-memory

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial donations be given to Special Olympics by way of ARC of Fort Bend https://arcoffortbend.org/donate/ or to the Joanne and Dwight Vorpahl Endowed Scholarship at Texas Lutheran University (www.tlu.edu, 1000 W. Court St., Seguin, TX 78155).