Jerrie Duane Pittman

Jerrie Duane Pittman left to meet his Lord and the love of his life, Marry Louise, on July 24, 2026, just days after celebrating his 99th birthday. He was born in Duncan, Oklahoma on Tuesday July 19, 1927, to Pearlene Landes Pittman and Edgar Emmon Pittman. He enjoyed various activities growing up in Duncan including throwing the newspaper, working as a soda jerk in the pharmacy his father worked in as a pharmacist and participating in track and football. He was very proud of the fact he was a lineman for the Duncan High School football team when they took state in 1943. He also very much enjoyed hunting and fishing with family and friends. With his parents’ permission after graduating high school at 17 years old, he joined the Marines. Because the 2nd World War was winding down, he was discharged before seeing any military action, joined the Marine reserves and was called up for active duty when the Korean conflict began. By the time they recruited him the conflict was nearly over and the tank he was supposed to be assigned to had still not been released for active duty, so he was discharged back to civilian life. He attended OSU which he fondly called “Silo Tech”, graduated top of his class in geology with an engineering degree and was immediately hired by Dean McGee who cofounded the Kerr McGee oil company. As fate would have it, he also met the love of his life, Mary Louise Stiefel, on a blind date at this time. He loved telling the story that within six months he proposed to her on the Lake Hefner Dam, obtained permission from her parents and eloped to New Orleans, the location of his new job. There they were married on October the 4, 1952 at the First Methodist Church. There he enjoyed doing geology work and managing the drilling of wells utilizing the first generation of offshore drilling platforms and evaluating possible productions areas across the entire gulf for oil and gas reserves. He was recognized as one of the leaders and front runners in offshore exploration and enjoyed the camaraderie with others in his and other companies in this endeavor While there in New Orleans he was credited with assisting in the discovery and development of several hundreds of millions of barrels of oil and several trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. Mr. McGee brought him back to Oklahoma City in 1966 in a special capacity to evaluate all their properties in addition to many other duties including testifying before various regulatory agencies. He later was promoted to senior evaluation engineer involved in special projects such as designing projects for geothermal energy as well as extraction of helium, carbon dioxide, and solution mining for minerals such as borax. He retired from Kerr McGee in November of 1977 starting his own oil and gas exploration company and continued in the evaluation and drilling of wells till breaking his hip in 2013.

He is also very proud of the time spent teaching adults in Sunday school for over 10 years, many years of coaching baseball and the fact he put together Boy Scout trips from Oklahoma to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico and Charles Sommers canoe base in Minnesota.

He is preceded in death by his parents, his wife of 53 years, Mary Louise, his older sister Shirley Peterson, his younger brother Rodne Starl Pittman, as well as a niece Debbie Pittman, and grandson Avery Pittman who died in tragic circumstances.

He is survived by his oldest son, Dr. John Roane Pittman and wife Debbie, and his family consisting of Dr. Kim Pittman and son Camac, David Pittman and wife Rebecca with their daughters Sloan and Reese; as well as youngest daughter, Rachel Berkman and husband Collin and their daughter Ellie. Also, by his youngest son, Robert Starl Pittman and wife Stephanie as well as the oldest son, Dr. and Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Parker Pittman and wife Janet, their son Avery and daughters Eleanor and Abigail.

In his memoirs he reported he has always felt that he has been truly blessed. He felt he had the most wonderful, loving, caring, honorable parents that ever walked this earth, a very wonderful sister and brother; a marvelous, beautiful, talented and caring wife; two very talented and caring sons and daughters-in-law and amazingly talented grandchildren. “ALL OF THEM THE VERY SALT OF THE EARTH.”

A Funeral Service will be held at 2:00 pm on August 9, 2026, at Chapel Hill Funeral Home, 8701 Northwest Expressway, Oklahoma City, OK 73162, US.