Philip A. Masquelette

He was born on the 16th of January 1926, to Philip Reddington Masquelette and Nelia Elizabeth Wilkins Masquelette in Port Arthur. In 1929, Philip and his parents lived briefly in Manila, Philippine Islands. The family moved to Wichita Falls in 1930. Philips’s father died in an automobile accident in 1930. Philip, his younger brother Frank and their mother then moved to Houston to reside with the boys' grandparents, Frank G. Masquelette and Sarah Olive Masquelette.

After attending St. Thomas College (now named St. Thomas High School) in Houston, Philip spent the next two years at Schreiner Institute in Kerrville, graduating in 1942. Philip was the valedictorian of his high school class. After two semesters in the Army ROTC at Texas A&M, Philip enlisted at age seventeen in the Navy and was assigned to the V-12 unit at Tulane University in New Orleans. In late 1944, he was ordered to the Navy Supply Corps Midshipmen-Officers Course at the Harvard Business School, where he was commissioned an ensign in March of 1945. In 1946, he served as supply and disbursing officer on the destroyer escort USS Douglas A. Munro (DE-422) and the amphibious landing craft repair ship USS Agenor (ARL-3). He was then released from active duty. He remained in the naval reserve until his discharge as a full lieutenant in 1957.

Philip received his BBA degree from Tulane University in 1945, his MBA degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 1947, and his LLB degree from the University of Houston in 1952. While working as a CPA in his grandfather's accounting firm, he was admitted to the Texas bar in 1952. In 1953, Philip was hired as an associate attorney in the Houston law firm Butler, Binion, Rice & Cook, becoming the eleventh attorney hired by that law firm. From 1957 to 1962, he was a vice president and then senior vice president of Bank of Texas in the Esperson Building in downtown Houston.

From 1962 to 1965, he was president and chief operating officer of Perpetual Corporation, a holding company controlled by Joe L. Allbritton. From then until 2006 he practiced law in Houston as a solo practitioner or in small law firms. From 2007 to 2013, he was Of Counsel to the law firm of Looper, Reed & McGraw, P.C., in Houston.

Philip was a fifth-generation member of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. He was an active layman at the parish, diocesan and national levels, serving as senior warden of two Houston congregations, St. John the Divine and St. Francis. He attended more than thirty annual Diocesan Council meetings.

He was elected to diocesan offices, including the Executive Board and the Standing Committee. At various times he served as a trustee of St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin, the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, and Protestant Episcopal Church Council of the Diocese of Texas, known as the Church Corporation.

Between 1967 and 1991, Philip attended triennial General Conventions of the Episcopal Church as either a lay deputy or seated alternate deputy from the Diocese of Texas. He served on the Executive Council of the national church from 1970 to 1976. He was a trustee of the national Episcopal Church Pension Fund from 1967 to 1994, and a director of its publishing and insurance companies.

In 1994, Philip was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from St. Augustine's College, Raleigh, North Carolina, for his work in the Episcopal Church. He also received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth with the title Knight’s Captain, Order of St. John for his charitable contributions to St. John’s Eye Hospital in Jerusalem.

Philip was a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Houston and American Bar Association. He was a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the Texas Bar Foundation, and the Houston Bar Foundation. He was an honorary life member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Philip was a president of the River Oaks property owner’s association and a Precinct Chairman for the voting precinct at Lamar High School on Westheimer Road in Houston.

Philip was predeceased by his wife, the Reverend Elizabeth Daggett Simmons Masquelette, in November of 2018, after a marriage of seventy years. He is survived by their four children, Laura Elizabeth Masquelette of Missouri City, Philip Edward Masquelette and his wife Melissa, of Hope, Rhode Island, Pamela Anne Masquelette, and David Simmons Masquelette and his wife Alice, of Houston. He is also survived by seven grandchildren, Elizabeth Anne Selig of Bellaire, Jonathan Edward Selig and his wife Emma, of Frisco, Christopher Robert Selig and his partner Christine Rinehart of Rockville, Maryland, Philip Masquelette Selig and his wife Heather, of Katy, Grace Fancher Masquelette Ramsdell and her husband Keith, of New York City, Mary Elizabeth Masquelette of Houston, and William David Masquelette and his wife Tatia Gagua-Masquelette of Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. Philip has two step-grandchildren, Adam Edward Illian and his wife Anna of Houston, and Renee Fontaine Illian and her partner James Taylor Inman of London, United Kingdom. Philip has eight great-grandchildren, Edward Alexander Selig, Valerie Jacqueline Selig, Brooke Elizabeth Stephens, John Gordon Stephens, Olivia Ciel Ramsdell, Hudson Abbott Ramsdell, Ford Arthur Ramsdell and Nicholas Raymond Selig.

A Requiem Eucharist will be celebrated at eleven o’clock in the morning on Saturday the 29th of January, at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 345 Piney Point Road in Houston, where the Reverend Stuart A. Bates will officiate.

Honored to serve as pallbearers during the service are Philip’s grandchildren and their spouses.

A private committal with the family will immediately follow at Memorial Oaks Cemetery in Houston.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that memorial contributions in his name be directed to St. Francis Episcopal Church, 345 Piney Point Road, Houston, Texas 77024; or to the charity of your choice.