Paul M. Hinton

SERVICES: A choral eucharist service for the committal of his ashes will be held at 1:00 PM Saturday, May 8, 2010, at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, with Rev. Linda Kelly, rector, officiating. Cremation and arrangements are under the direction of Carmichael-Whatley Funeral Directors. BIOGRAPHY: Paul M. Hinton was a cattleman at heart, always ready with his horse to help his rancher friends, and in fact raised cattle on land north of Skellytown in the 1960s, but his career in the oilpatch defined his working life.Paul was born on April 17, 1918, on the Hinton farm west of Mannford, Oklahoma. He was the second-youngest and last-surviving of eleven children of Creek County pioneers. At the age of 92, he was also the longest-lived of his family. He graduated from Mannford High School in 1937 and worked the wheat harvest, cowboyed on a ranch hear Abilene, Texas, and enrolled in Oklahoma A&M at Stillwater, where he played on the freshman football team. He moved to Pampa in 1938 and his first job here was as a milkman. In 1939 he worked as a government agriculture surveyor in Oklahoma and returned to Pampa where he worked at the Cabot shops before enlisting in the US Navy in the fall of 1941.He saw active duty in the South Pacific on the USS Wharton and on the destroyer USS Endicott on the North Atlantic convoy escort, in escorts for shipping in preparations for the invasion of Southern France, and a pivotal combat role in that invasion. Continuing support in the Mediterranean after the invasion's success, he later was on board the Endicott when it escorted the Quincy carrying FDR to the Yalta Conference. He received a Presidential citation.He married Sonya Perey of New York City in June 1945 at Charleston, South Carolina. After his discharge that fall, he returned to Pampa with his wife, and he first worked in the Panhandle oil business as a roustabout, cable-tool dresser and driller. In July 1948 Cabot drilled their first well on M.K. Brown's Two Bar Ranch west of Skellytown and Paul resumed his employment with Cabot in a newly-organized oil department, thus insuring his part in the M.K. Brown history. He spent the next 35 years in completion and production and retired as production foreman for the region in 1983. He was elected to White Deer-Skellytown Schools' Board of Education for 9 years, served as its president for 4 years, and he was a member of the Board of Equalization 10 years. While serving on the school board, his initiative introduced the first official awards in recognition of academic achievement for high school students.He and his wife first worshipped at St Matthew's Episcopal Church in 1946. He was vestryman for 16 years, junior warden for 3 years, senior warden 3 years, diocesan council delegate 15 times, St Matthew's Day School Board member 7 years, served on several diocesan committees, member of the Men's Club, Troop 24 assistant scoutmaster, bowled for the Holy Rollers team, and worked at the annual Pancake Supper for 40 years. He once raised a beef calf as a fund-raiser for the parish.He and his wife made their home on the Two Bar from 1949. They celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1995 at the house west of Skellytown with an anniversary dinner and Hinton family reunion the following day. In 1997 they moved back to Pampa; his wife predeceased him in 1998. He marked the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2008 at a celebratory luncheon at St Matthew's. He is survived by his children Paulette Gentry of Valrico, Florida, and Douglas Hinton of Wotton-under-Edge, England, and his grandson Christopher Gentry of Austin; his son-in-law John Gentry, and his grandson's wife Andrea.The family suggests memorials to St Matthew's Episcopal Day School Scholarship Fund, 727 W. Browning, Pampa, Texas 79065.