Roll Call Tribute

(Published in) The Gonzales Inquirer (on) June 30, 2014

Abraham Obadiah (A.O) Hamon

Abraham Obadiah (A.O) Hamon passed away June 27, 2014 at the age of 87 in Floresville. He was born Nov. 10, 1926 in eastern Gonzales County at Glaze City, which was then a new cotton gin complex managed by his father, A.O. Hamon. He was the only child of A.O. Hamon of the Hamon Community south of Gonzales and Anne Louise Perkins of Harwood. He went to school in Harwood and graduated from Gonzales High School in 1943.

Following the tragic and sudden death of his father that summer, he soldiered on and left for Texas A&M University. While at A&M he was part of a group of Aggies that left in service of their country during World War II. As the war concluded in 1945, he didn't make it in theatre and upon discharge from Fort Benning returned to Texas A&M whereupon he earned his degree in Petroleum Engineering and served as 2nd Battalion Artillery B Commander in the Texas A&M Corps graduating in 1948.

His entire professional career was spent abroad on numerous continents starting with Gulf Oil in Venezuela and later transitioning to the petro chemical industry in management for DuPont and ultimately serving as General Manager of USI Europe a subsidiary of National Distillers where he spent the years commuting between Antwerp, Belgium, New York City and his home in Greenwich, Conn.

While in Belgium, he oversaw the reactor expansion at the Brussels plant prior to its sale to Exxon Mobil in 1979. To this day, it remains the largest producer of low density polyethylene in all of Europe. He retired in 1980 and returned to Gonzales where he restarted the family farm near Harwood and bought the old Holmes Hospital, which he converted into apartments and ultimately sold in 2010 along with other rental properties in Gonzales and Luling while also working with geologists on some local oil and gas projects.

He met and married Olivia Hoffmann Harrison in 1956 in Santiago, Chile. He is survived by Olivia; their only child, Philip Edson Hamon born in New York City in 1962; daughter in law Julia Pacini Hamon and his grandchildren Anne Marie, Isabella Sophia and Philip Anthony, all of San Antonio.

He was not just a successful part of the greatest generation, he was a very generous man of great humility who rarely discussed his early life abroad and found true happiness back home in Gonzales in his later years spending time on his small farm with his cows, visiting with friends and neighbors and ever so proud of his beautiful grandkids. He is admired, loved and missed by his family very much.

Visitation will be at Seydler Hill Funeral Home on Wednesday July 2 from 6-8 p.m. A graveside service will be at the Gonzales Masonic Cemetery Thursday, July 3 at 10:30 a.m. with Fr. Randy Melton officiating. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to The A.O. Hamon Memorial Scholarship at Texas State University in care of The Development Foundation-JCK, 480 Texas State University, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666. Services are under the care and direction of Seydler-Hill Funeral Home.