Adelphi Class Past Presidents 1958 to 1972

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William was born in Houston to the late William & Margaret Murdock, Sr., he work  for ARMCO Steel for 35 years and was an active member of the Asbury  Methodist Church serving in the Methodist Men's Club, Marriage  Encounter, and was active in many committees. He also loved to BBQ and  was a devoted family man and a friend to many. Survivors include his  wife of 50 years, Evadell Murdock. Sons, William C. Murdock, III and his  wife Suzanne and Samuel D. Murdock and his wife Dana. Sister-in-law,  Kay Lunsford. 

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Nov 12, 1929 - Jan 17 2024

Claude grew up in the oil field near El Dorado and Smackover, Arkansas where his father was an oil field worker. His family moved to Kilgore, Texas in 1946 and he graduated from Kilgore High in 1947. He attended Louisiana Tech University, graduating with honors in physics (BS degree) in 1951. He moved to Austin to attend The University of Texas and earned a Master’s degree, followed by a PhD in Physics (1954). He was a member of Kappa Alpha social fraternity. Claude enjoyed music all his life and played in school bands through undergraduate college years.

He began a long career in research and development in the oil industry. He worked at Magnolia Petroleum Company in  Dallas where he met his future bride, Joyce Milton. They married in 1954 and moved to Houston  where he began his career as a research physicist at the Humble Oil research laboratory. Claude was named as an inventor on about 30 patents and published pioneering papers in several technologies related to oil and gas production. 

Claude was named a “Legend of Hydraulic Fracturing” by the Society of Petroleum Engineers in 2006, and served on the Board of Directors of CARBO Ceramics Inc., the major manufacturer of ceramic proppant, for 13 years.

At age 40, Claude enrolled in night law school, and graduated from the University of Houston Law School in 1974.

In 1977, Joyce and Claude hosted a foreign exchange student from Iran (Rita) to attend the senior year of high school with their daughter Janis. Rita was a third daughter to them and later overcame enormous challenges to return to this country and become a proud U.S. citizen.

In 1985, Claude was recognized by the Houston Intellectual Property Law Association as “Outstanding Inventor of the Year.” In 2016, he was elected to the “Fluids Hall of Fame” by the American Association of Drilling Engineers, and in 2017 he was named as the Distinguished Alumnus in Physics by Louisiana Tech University.

After retiring from Exxon, he became a licensed patent attorney in 1989. His patent law practice included prosecution of patents, preparation of patents for his own inventions, and serving as an expert witness in patent and trade secret litigation, mostly in oil and gas-related technologies.

Claude loved to travel, eventually visiting every continent.

For about 50 years he was a member of First Methodist Church of Houston, serving in many lay positions within the church. 

In 2021, he authored and published his autobiography, entitled Thanks for the Lift: Life of an Oil Field Kid, which may be available on Amazon.

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Stuart was born in Port Arthur, Texas on September 23, 1928, the son of  Elton and Katharine Riggs and grew up in McKinney, Texas where he became  an Eagle Scout. His father built and operated the Crystal Ice Company  in McKinney in the years before electric refrigeration and Stuart spent  his youth delivering ice, and studying science and music. He graduated  from Boyd High School in 1946 and attended the College of William and  Mary and Rice University before attending University of Texas Medical  Branch in Galveston. In 1951, while a medical student at UTMB he married  a beautiful nursing student, Harriett Lee Davis. He graduated from UTMB  in 1953 and completed Internal Medicine residency training at the  University of Iowa. From 1957 to 1959 he served as a navy medical  officer at the US Naval Hospital in Beaufort, SC. and then moved his  family back to UTMB in Galveston and later to Dallas where he completed a  fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas  Southwestern School of Medicine. In 1962 Stuart and his young family  moved to Houston where he served on the faculty of Baylor College from  1962 until his retirement in 1995. He was also the section chief of  Infectious Diseases for Kelsey-Seybold Clinic from 1969 to 1995. 

During the four decades that he practiced  medicine he held staff appointments at John Sealy Hospital, Parkland  Memorial Hospital, Ben Taub General Hospital, The Methodist Hospital and  St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. Stuart greatly enjoyed the comradeship  of his fellow physicians and was an active member of the Texas  Infectious Diseases Society, American Society of Internal Medicine, and  American College of Physicians, and published numerous articles in the  most prestigious medical journals. He dearly loved his patients and  colleagues at the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic where his practice focused  heavily on HIV during the early years of the AIDS epidemic.  

Although his professional accomplishments  were numerous, his hunger for knowledge and new achievements were not  confined to medicine. In middle age he became fluent in Spanish, and  proficient in German, French, Italian and Russian. He was an expert  photographer, traveling the world to take photographs that won many of  the Houston Photographic Society contests. He studied and scrupulously  recorded his family's genealogy, was an amateur pilot since the age of  16 and an 80's golfer. It would have been easy to feel inadequate around  such a gifted man were it not for his great humility.  

He joined First Methodist Church while a  student at Rice University and was an active member of the Adelphi Class  for many years, though more recently he and Harriett joined Bellaire  United Methodist Church as members of the Seekers class. His greatest  enjoyment came from sharing his insights into love, humanity and nature  with friends and family. He taught his sons their love of learning,  exploring the outdoors, and most importantly how to be a father and  husband. Having overcome countless troubles and shared boundless joy,  Stuart and Harriett's endless devotion serves as an eternal lesson to  everyone who has known them. 

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