OLIVER
Senior member of our little branch of the Axtell family tree
PAST
Born in 1926, Oliver, an only child, grew up on a farm in Webster County,
Nebraska, near Red Cloud, during a period when his family was suffering from the Great Depression
and Nebraska was suffering from a prolonged drought. He attended a one room school until 1936,
when the family made a new start in Houston, Texas. He has told many tales about his past -- some
of them are even true -- but all have become favorites in the lore of the Axtell family.
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OLIVER AXTELL
With some of his grandkids, left, circa 1991
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Oliver attended Reagan High School and Rice University, both in Houston. (In those days it was Rice
Institute, and it was tuition free to any student from the Houston high schools who met the admission
requirements.) Oliver earned a B.S. degree in chemical engineering at Rice and then went to MIT, where
he earned an S.M. degree in chemical engineering. From there he went to the University of Maine in
Orono, where he taught chemical engineering for two years.
He left academia and returned to Texas in order to join Celanese Corporation, a fiber and petrochemical
producer, as a research engineer at its Corpus Christi laboratory. In due time he bought a red Ford
convertible, met Pat, and married her. Soon after their daughter Bonnie was born, Celanese transferred
Oliver to its headquarters in New York. For twenty years they lived in New Jersey and Oliver took the
train to New York each day. Their son Steve was born not long after they moved to New Jersey.
The same year that Bonnie graduated from the University of Richmond and Steve completed his freshman
year at Widener College, Celanese moved its headquarters to Dallas, Texas. Pat and Oliver moved to
Dallas. Bonnie and Steve went along. Bonnie married an engineer with Texas Instruments. Ormond and
she have three boys. They live in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Steve earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Texas at Austin, went to
Wichita, Kansas, to work in the aircraft industry, and married a Kansas girl. He and Janeen
have two boys and a girl. They live in Wichita.
PRESENT
Oliver took early retirement from Celanese in 1982 but after that spent many
years as a consultant to Celanese. He is now almost fully retired from the company, although from
time to time he teaches a “Chemistry for Non-Chemists” course there.
Pat and Oliver celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2005. They share an enthusiasm for
birding and like to use that as a springboard for travel.
Oliver is writing a book with the same name as the course. He and Jim Robertson are co-authors
of a book called “Principles of Economic Evaluation in the Chemical Process Industries.” (He says
he and Jim have about given up hope that someone will want to negotiate with them for the movie rights.)
Oliver stays busy with church work, especially in the Hispanic Ministry, and also with Neighborhood
Service Council, which provides free after school and summer day camp programs for disadvantaged kids.
He has been on a mission trip to Brazil and is planning to go on a mission trip to Mexico this summer.
Oliver welcomes old and new friends. You can contact him by email
here.
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