James Sheeler, Jr.

When Jim Sheeler first tried out for the track team in high school, the coach was skeptical of the scrawny 5-foot-6, 127-pound junior.

He had tried playing football on the Odessa High School team, only to break an arm playing against linebackers nearly twice his size. But he knew he could run, so he asked for a tryout on the track team.

At that point, the 17 year-old didn’t have a plan for his life. He figured maybe he would work in the oil patch just as his father, probably under one of the big oil companies. At that point, he simply wanted to run.

After he immediately impressed the track coach with his speed in the 100-yard dash, the coach told him to try hurdles. He had never jumped one. Like most of the obstacles he would face during his life, he ran towards it, kept his head up, and leaped.

James Expedite Robert Sheeler, Jr. died at his home in Brenham, of complications from metastatic melanoma, on Dec. 9, 2018. He was 79.

He was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the son of Louise Elizabeth “Betty” Schneider and J.E.R. Sheeler. The family moved from New Orleans to Odessa, Texas when Jim was in 8th grade, and he graduated from Odessa High School in 1957.

An altar boy, devout Catholic and football fan, he dreamed of attending the University of Notre Dame and when the acceptance arrived he was over the moon. Once on campus, he was immediately nicknamed Tex as he arrived wearing his boots, hand-tooled belt and oversized cowboy hat. He distinctly remembered one day as he was walking across the quad in his getup when one of the upperclassmen hollered at him:

“Hey Hat!” the kid taunted as he watched the freshman dwarfed by the oversized Stetson. “Hey Hat, Where you going with that boy?”

He toned down his Texas getup but never lost the accent or his love for the state. He soon excelled in Electrical Engineering, but he still yearned to run. During his sophomore year he was accepted onto the Notre Dame track squad as a walk-on. By his junior year, he was one of the standouts of the team in sprints, hurdles and relays, earning a scholarship and athletic letters his last two years, joining the ranks of the prestigious Monogram Club.

During summers back in West Texas he worked with his father for Shell Oil Company working as a roustabout in the oil fields, learning all he could about the business, lessons that would prove invaluable as he would mix his real-world knowhow of compressors and drilling rigs with what seemed an innate business acumen.

In 1965, he married the woman who would remain his partner for life, Brenda Sue Cammack of Humble. As they began their journey from a tiny apartment in Sharpstown, the young couple couldn’t have had any idea of the adventure ahead.

In 1969 he co-founded Creole Production Services, Inc. in Houston and helped build it into an internationally-renowned oil services company. He sold his share of the company just before the oil bust of the 1980s, and struck out on his own. After the oil patch rebounded he formed Operational Services Incorporated (OSI). In 1986 Inc. 500 named OSI the 247th fastest-growing private company in the United States. In April of 2000 he sold the company to Schlumberger. Though he logged millions of miles on business trips building the companies, he never neglected his role helping Sue build a family, doting on his children.

In 1976 the couple bought a spread of land in Brenham and dubbed it “Rolling Hills Ranch.” A “gentleman rancher” in the best definitions of both words, he had plenty to learn, but was a quick study. He would run the financial books with the same keen eye for numbers he had all his life, but he would also get down in the mud to help work cattle, and help tame horses (even when one fell on his knee, crushing it). He spent several years in the cattle business, and with the help of Doug Hollar enjoyed some of his most memorable times as a rancher, even raising a bull crowned champion at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. He eventually decided to leave the cattle business to the cattlemen and focus on his horses.

During one of his many business trips he had the privilege of enjoying a fine bottle of wine and it started a passion for wine collecting (and, of course, tasting) that lasted the rest of his life.

He enjoyed playing golf at Lakeside Country Club with “The Wolf Group” and later in Brenham with his foursome at Brenham Country Club. In 2010, after thousands of rounds, he finally landed a hole in one.

In 2003 the couple moved permanently to Brenham. They traveled occasionally in Europe — with one especially memorable Vespa trip to Italy with friends — but always returned to the place in Brenham where they felt most comfortable, watching sunsets from rocking chairs on the porch.

Jim Sheeler could be tough — ask any competitor who every sat across the table from him, any businessperson trying to negotiate with him, or, later in life, most any doctor. In the hospital he was the definition of an impatient patient, even though he endured many extremely invasive surgeries.

Deep down, however, he harbored a distinct tenderness.

In 2013 the sudden death of his soulmate shattered him. When he used to run relays, he was the starter – always fast off the blocks, the one who would set the pace. Sue was his anchor, the one who could always pull him back if he fell behind. Without her, he struggled to find his footing, but many visits from close friends from Brenham, Houston, and Steamboat Springs, Colo. helped him slowly learn to smile again.

Alone on the ranch, he made periodic trips to the rosebushes she had raised and tended. Each week, he carefully snipped a bundle by hand, and placed fresh roses in a vase near her ashes and a makeshift memorial he kept in her honor. That memorial was likely the last thing he saw before closing his eyes on Sunday. The roses were still fresh when his three children who had cared for him gathered at his bedside in the same room Sue had died five years earlier. As his children held his hands and whispered to him, he took his last breath.

He is survived by his children and their spouses, J.E.R. Sheeler III (Jimmy) and his wife Annick Sauvageot, Cassie Lawrence and husband Chris, and Amy Sheeler and her partner Thomas McNeese; grandchildren J.E.R. Sheeler IV (James), Christina Lawrence, John Thomas Lawrence (JT), Caroline Lawrence, Blake Hunter, Courtney Hunter, and Jesse Hunter; sisters Ann Holleran and Cookie Wetendorf.

For years, a wooden relay baton sat on his shelf in green and white Notre Dame colors. Thanks to his lifelong lessons, we all know how to carefully take the handoff, aim our eyes for the hurdles ahead, and leap.

A funeral mass and memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 14 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 701 Church St., Brenham. In lieu of flowers, donations in his name may be made to Hospice of Brazos Valley, 302 E. Blue Bell Rd., Brenham, TX 77833 or CASA for Kids of South Central Texas, 1500 S. Day St., Brenham, TX 77833.

Funeral arrangements for James E. Sheeler, Jr. are entrusted to Memorial Oaks Chapel, 1306 W. Main. To post a tribute to the family, visit www.memorialoakschapel.com.

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