Lydia Pate Dugan

Lydia Pate Dugan, passed away on Tuesday, the 25th of March 2025, at home in Houston. She was 93 years of age. When her husband, Albert W. “Al” Dugan, Jr., passed in 2011 she succeeded him as President of Nortex Corporation, a private oil and gas company that he founded in 1957. For many years, she worked within the family oil and gas business as well as attended to many other types of business activities and projects that she and her husband became involved in, including real estate, mining, and ecotourism.

Lydia was born on the 10th of June 1931, in Wilson, North Carolina. Lydia and her husband Al originally met on Carolina Beach, North Carolina in 1948 when she was only seventeen and he was twenty. At the time, Al was promoting concerts and dances featuring the big bands of the era, including Spike Jones and Gene Krupa. They eloped in 1949 and ultimately were married for sixty-two years.

Lydia was known to many in Houston through her involvement in and support of individuals and groups exploring transformational practices such as prayer, affirmation, meditation, yoga, and other techniques designed to develop human potential and awareness. She was a passionate supporter of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, which since it’s inception in 1962 has been a leading center for the exploration of human potential, psychology, and spirituality. She also supported and was on the Board of the Jung Center in Houston and ITP-International. ITP-International and the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) held their local meetings at her home. Ultimately, these groups, individuals and organizations began using her Memorial area home for their meetings, speakers, and workshops. Over the years her home became a focal point for many in their own journey for personal transformation. It was a unique phenomenon of open door and open heart that led her to be dubbed Houston’s First Lady of Transformation.

Lydia was preceded in death by her husband, Albert W. Dugan, Jr., her parents, sister, and brother, and by her loving son, the late James Edward Dugan.

She will be greatly missed by her son, Patrick W. Dugan; her grandson, Alex Dugan and wife Sophie; her step-grandson, Harrison Willett and family; her brother-in-law, Joel Dugan and wife Ellen; her nephew, Robert Wilson; and her niece, Lydia Belger and family.

A memorial service is to be conducted at one o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday, the 5th of April, in the Center for Glenwood, 2525 Washington Avenue in Houston, where the Rev. Howard Ceasar is to officiate. Complimentary valet will be provided.

The committal service will follow in Glenwood Cemetery.

Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception at a venue to be announced during the service.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests that donations in her memory be directed to ITP International at itp-international.org (select the link for “Membership+Giving”) or The Jung Center at junghouston.org (select the link for “Support Our Work.”) You may select their respective icons below under “Donations."

We also invite you to take a moment to share fond memories and words of comfort and condolence with her family by selecting the “Add a Memory” icon.