Michael Mahood

A native Houstonian, Mike was born August 13, 1939 to Llewellyn Crane and David Mahood.

Mike spent his childhood in Riverside Terrace, the nearby ravine furnishing a perfect place for the neighborhood kids to play. The Third Ward was still semi-rural and as a small child, he sometimes surprised his mother by leading a cow or horse home. He recalled watching group baptisms in Brays Bayou.

He and his brother Steve were active members of Houston's oldest Boy Scout troop, at First Presbyterian. He played in the city's newly formed Little League, recalling that his team was coached by a former St. Louis Cardinal. He enjoyed belonging to the "knothole gang" at the Houston Buffs' stadium. He mentioned years later having been ticked off that his kid brother had won the ticket drawing for one of the gang to be pictured in the paper with Joe DiMaggio.

From a young age, he delivered the paper and collected subscriptions in Riverside, beginning each morning by trading a newspaper for two donuts and a coffee at Shipley's.

At 13, with a note from home, after a shakedown cruise to the coast, Mike and a friend rode their bikes the 310 miles from Houston to his grandmother's home in Raymondville. (It was on annual summer visits as a little boy to family in South Texas that he would start out with high hopes of making a tidy sum picking cotton, only to find his bag had not filled much by afternoon.) Lance Brenner, his lifelong friend, joined them for the return trip, which Mike recalled as being against the wind and requiring the dramatic jettisoning of cargo like the book he had brought to read. He remembered his companion discarded something he subsequently decided his mother would regret, leading to a near-mutiny about going back for it.

This trip resulted in an abrupt loss of interest in biking and a new goal of buying a car, which he soon did with a $300 loan from one of his banker father's competitors, and with the aid of a "hardship" license he expanded his paper route.

One of his customers, the head of Tenneco's Houston office, offered him a job, so he began working locally for Tenneco at 15, and thereafter was always one year older on their books.

He graduated from San Jacinto High School and received his petroleum engineering degree from the University of Oklahoma, where he was a member of Kappa Alpha. He continued to work for Tenneco during college summers in Texas and Wyoming.

In 1961 he married Jeanne Gonders of Oklahoma City, and their wedding trip was the drive to their new home: Durango, CO, where he surprised her with an Irish setter puppy from an ad in Field & Stream, shipped via train.

Their next stop for Tenneco was Midland. They then returned to Houston, where Mike became a stockbroker and investment adviser for Paine Webber, later UBS.

Mike enjoyed golf, hunting, reading, flying, and travel. He was a member of St. Charles Bay Club and Lakeside Country Club, where he enjoyed many good friendships.

He was preceded in death by his beloved brother, Steve Mahood.

He is survived by wife Jeanne, son David Mahood (Lynne), son Steve Mahood, daughter Elizabeth Bezanson (David), grandchildren Walter Bezanson, Grace Mahood, Mary Clift (Travis), and Ashley Mahood.

A service will be held at Grace Presbyterian Chapel at eleven o'clock, December 22nd, reception following. Interment at three o'clock at Memorial Oaks Cemetery.

If desired, memorials may be sent to Shriners Children’s Hospital, 815 Market Street, Galveston, TX 77550: donate.shrinerschildrens.org or to The Nature Conservancy of Texas: nature.org/donatetexas