William Byrd “Bill” Hataway

William Byrd (“Bill”) Hataway was born November 30, 1926, in Eldorado, Arkansas, to Willia Mcleish and Garrett Arthur Hataway, Sr. Bill’s father was a drilling contractor, drilling in Smackover, Arkansas. Bill’s father died of a heart condition in 1933, and a year later in 1934, Bill’s mother was killed in an automobile accident.  After that, Bill and his brother, Garrett, Jr., (5 years older) lived with one of their mother’s sisters and her husband (Henrie and Abe Martin), who were also in the oil business, which required them to move around frequently. So, Bill attended 14 different schools in 12 years.

Bill served in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of T-5 from 1945-47. He married Joan Hataway in 1952 and graduated from the University of Texas in 1955 with a bachelor of science degree in petroleum engineering. His brother Garrett, an anesthesiologist, died of pancreatic cancer in 1956.

Bill and Joan moved to longview in 1955 as Bill accepted a job as junior engineer with the Stanolind Oil & Gas Co. He was transferred to Wink, Texas in November 1955 and then transferred to the district office in Lubbock in 1957.

In 1959 Bill resigned from Stanolind and moved to Beaumont to establish his own business. As a consultant, he drilled several wells around the Gulf Coast. In 1960, he became a certified marine chemist through the American Bureau of Shipping, forming W. B. Hataway & Co. In 1977, he incorporated as Marine Chemists, Inc. of Texas.

As a marine chemist, Bill traveled around the world inspecting ships, barges and offshore drill rigs. In 45 years, he inspected more than 25,000 vessels. In his professional life, Bill was a professional engineer, chair of gulf coast marine chemists, chair of national marine chemists association, served on the gas hazards rules committee for 12 years and was honored as a legion of honor member of the society of petroleum engineers.

Bill was also active in the methodist church, having served as chair of the administrative board, chair of the trustees, chair of staff parish, chair of finance, chair of evangelism, lay leader and taught church school at First United Methodist Church. As well as chair of lay speakers, chair of district superintendency committee, and served on the board of missions, and Wesley Foundation at Lamar University.

Bill was the first president of the Beaumont International Seamen’s Center and served on the board for thirteen years. He served on the methodist conference level as chair of the episcopacy committee, chair of Texas conference council, board of trustees, board of pensions, council of finance and administration, chair of united methodist foundation, archives and history committee. He was elected delegate to general and jurisdictional conferences and also served on the jurisdictional council of ministries. Both Bill and Joan were delegates to world methodist conferences in Hawaii 1982, Nairobi, Kenya 1986, Singapore 1991, and Rio de Janeiro 1996. They were also delegates to the christian heritage in government at Wesley’s Chapel in London in 1981. They received the Judge  Woodrow Seals Laity award at Perkins School of Theology at SMU in 1993.

Locally, Bill has been president of the Beaumont Heritage Society, president of Some Other Place board of directors, president of the Gulf Coast Historical Society and secretary of the American Legion.  He was a member of the Jefferson County 136th District Court Grand Jury in 1961, which helped in the “clean-up” of Jefferson County.

Bill was a dedicated conservative, having worked most of his life. His first job was selling magazines on the street at age 6 in Henderson, Texas. Growing up, he had a paper route, delivered milk and sacked groceries at Safeway. In 1938, he registered for Social Security when delivering telegrams for postal telegraph. He also washed trucks in service stations while in high school.

After WWII, in 1947 he enrolled at the University of Texas. While there he dug graves, worked at service stations, repaired vacuum cleaners, worked in a machine shop, taught labs in the petroleum engineering dept., graded papers and roughnecked in the oil field.

Bill  was preceded in death by his daughter, Susan Hataway Lejunie.

He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Joan Mayfield Hataway; son, Bill Hataway, Jr., and his wife, Maria, of Dripping Springs; grandchildren, Katrina Noah of Cypress; Nicole Morgan, Mariah Morgan, and Jaxson Hataway, of Dripping Springs; Ashley Timmons of Serepta, Louisiana; Joshua Lejunie, Adam Lejunie, and Jenafer Lejunie; great-granddaughters, Madchen Morgan, of Dripping Springs, and Maelynn and Raelynn Lejunie.

Memorial contributions for Mr. Hataway may be made to Some Other Place, P.O. Box 0843, Beaumont, Texas 77704.

A gathering of Mr. Hataway’s family and friends will be from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin Avenue, Beaumont.