Douglass Brazell

Douglass Lee Brazell died peacefully in his sleep November 25, 2009 at the age of 88. Funeral services are scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at the Neekamp-Luginbuel Colonial Chapel with Dr. Robert D. Montgomery officiating. Final committal rites will be accorded Mr. Brazell in the Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be held at the Neekamp-Luginbuel Funeral Home on Monday from 8:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.; the family will be present between the hours of 6 to 8 to receive friends. Online condolences may be left for the Brazell family at www.honoringmemories.com He was born November 7, 1921 in Denton County, Texas, to Isaac David (Dee) Brazell and Elizabeth Jane Jordan Brazell (later Haralson). The family lived in the area north of Dallas until Doug began school. The first year of school he attended three different schools. He started in Little Elm. Then the family moved to Ft. Worth for a short stay, and the third school was in Celeste, Texas. Doug's father died when Doug was four, and his mother maintained herself and three children by operating the telephone systems of the Three States Telephone Company in small towns, sometimes as manager and sole operator. Those telephone offices occupied part of a residence. Doug lived and attended school in Celeste up to the fourth grade when his mother was transferred to Irene, in Hill County, Texas. The family lived there for three years until his mother was transferred to the telephone office in Marquez, Texas. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Brazell married Jarret W. Haralson and the family relocated to Hubbard, in Hill County, Texas. Doug remained there until he graduated from high school in 1940. That year he enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin. Initially he financed his college education entirely by his own efforts. In 1942 Doug went into what was then called the Army Air Corps. He trained at Wichita Falls, Texas, and at Denver Colorado. Following that, he was stationed at Carlsbad, New Mexico. His training had qualified him as a Norden bombsight technician, and he remained at Carlsbad keeping bombsights in trim for the Bombardier Training Station. In 1945 he was selected to go overseas. When the train on which he was traveling reached Amarillo, Texas, he learned that the War in Europe had ended. His group was held in Greensboro, North Carolina, for a month while a decision was made about their future assignment. They were then sent to North Africa to work with closing down military air bases and to replace men who had been overseas since November 1942. He went first to a base in Egypt, Paine Field. Then he was sent to Casablanca, in Morocco, where they repeated the process. He was overseas for approximately a year before being returned home and separated from service. Doug returned to the University of Texas and was graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1948. He accepted a job with Phillips Petroleum Company in Odessa, Texas. On December 16, 1950, he was married to Charlene Walker in Midland, Texas. They made their home in Odessa until late 1954 when he received a transfer to Borger, Texas. In late 1955 another transfer took him to Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He remained there until 1959 when he again had an assignment in Borger for two years before returning to Bartlesville. Toward the end of 1969 he went into the International Department and received an assignment in Italy to work with a company called SPI, Societa Petrolifera Italiana, which was a joint enterprise company between Phillips Petroleum Company and Italian investors. The family moved to Parma, Italy, in January of 1970. After something over two years, Phillips sold its interest in SPI and Doug took an assignment to another joint enterprise company in Northern England. This company was called PIP, Phillips Imperial Petroleum, and was formed by Phillips Petroleum and ICI, Imperial Chemical & Industries, of Great Britain. The family lived in northeast England until late 1979 when they returned to Bartlesville. Doug continued to work for Phillips in Bartlesville until retirement in 1985. Doug had 37 years with the company. The family continued its home in Bartlesville in retirement. Doug was preceded in death by his parents and by sisters Jean Montgomery and Margarette Galnor. He is survived by his wife, Charlene, of the home and his two sons, Kyle Lee Brazell and Gregory Alan Brazell and his daughter in law Cynthia Nash Brazell, wife of Gregory and his grandsons Samuel Lee Brazell, Joseph Glenn Brazell, and Daniel Alan Brazell. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Neekamp-Luginbuel Funeral Home.

Service Details

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 2:00pm, Neekamp-Luginbuel Funeral Home

Interment Details

Memorial Park Cemetery Bartlesville