Roll Call Tribute

Douglas Glenn Symmank

July 28, 1933 - January 5, 2023

Doug grew up in Giddings, Texas attending Immanuel Lutheran and Giddings high school graduating in 1950. He was active in the FFA and received the Lone Star Farmer award. He showed beef and dairy cattle in Lee and surrounding counties and the Houston Fat Stock show and his favorite Guernsey heifer/cow earned a reserve championship at the latter. He applied for the Lee Cowling award at the Houston show and was runner-up the first year winning a highly prized Holstein heifer presented at a banquet by Roy Rogers and Monty Hale on the second floor of Leslie's Fried chicken shack. The next year he applied again for this four-year scholarship to Texas A&M and won. He was an Eagle Scout and a proud member of the fighting Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets and graduated in 1954 with a degree in Ag education and a minor in Agronomy. He created a Charitable Remainder Trust with the Texas A&M Foundation and donated his home and 5 acres for creating scholarships for students in the Corp of Cadets at Texas A&M University. A second Trust was formed with the balance of the farm given to the Texas A&M foundation to benefit the department of Engineering / Medicine and the Texas Partners in Christ of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

He began his professional career as a Soil Scientist With USDA-SCS and was assigned to their area office in Harlingen, Texas. While there he was a member of St Paul Lutheran Church and served as Scoutmaster of their troop and as Vice and then President of the congregation at age 22. He was transferred to Edna, Texas where he met and married his spouse, Pearl at St Paul Lutheran Church. After being transferred to Beaumont, he mapped and classified soils for the majority of Jefferson County before making a major career change and became an administrative trainee in the state office at Temple. Upon completion he was transferred to the USDA-SCS State office of Alabama located on the campus of Auburn University where he became a supervisory contract specialist with responsibility of letting and administering contracts for the construction and vegetation of floodwater retarding structures. To get back to Texas, to be closer to family, he transferred to the defense contract administrative services region of the DSA in Dallas where he became a warranted administrative contracting officer administering multimillion contracts for the Army, Navy, and Air Force in the metroplex and West Texas. To get back to a civilian federal agency he transferred to the regional office of GSA In Fort Worth as a procurement officer of the federal supply service and subsequently to the public building service as a realty officer where he disposed of surplus federal properties and leased buildings to be built or renovated to fulfill the needs of federal agencies within the region. He was promoted to the regional acquisition management staff of GSA in an oversight capacity to review major dollar value contracts of the FSS, PBS, and ADTS branches of the GSA for compliance with laws, regulations, and good business acumen. He was utilized by the national office of GSA in Washington, DC to make inspections and reviews of other regional offices' procurement activities and taught their Price and Cost Analysis courses throughout the nation. After retirement, he continued to teach this and other procurement courses on a contract basis to all federal agencies.

During his 39-year career, he received numerous performance awards in the form of quality step increases, outstanding ratings, and recognition by the national office of GSA as a contracting expert and also received an exceptional service award by the agency administrator of GSA. He was a member of many professional organizations and received state and national certifications as follows: National Association of procurement managers – CPM, building owners, and managers Association – RPA, Real estate broker for the state of Texas – license, Toastmasters international certification.

He coached three soccer teams that his children were involved in and was active in LCMS churches wherever he lived. He was instrumental in planting new churches in Beaumont and Coppell and became President of their congregations. He served as the chairman of the board of elders and evangelism at Prince of Peace in Carollton,Texas, and was a counselor with the Billy Graham crusade. While in Giddings he served as chairman of the board of evangelism and on the board of elders. He taught Sunday school and Bible classes and was the leader of small groups at four congregations and chairman of two building committees. After the successful completion of a student chapel, fellowship hall, and Sunday school rooms for the town and gown church in Auburn, he became president of their congregation. He was a member of the Fellowship of Christian athletes, and the navigators ( An international nondenominational Christian outreach organization that emphasizes bringing others to Christ and meeting with them one on one until they in turn become disciples and bring others to Christ ). He was trained in the evangelism explosion, Stephen ministry, Serendipity, Basic youth conflicts, and biblical leadership programs and visited many in their homes to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. In addition, he and his spouse assisted in conducting weekly Lutheran services at the MedSTAR and Giddings residence and Rehab facilities in Giddings.

He served the Lee County community for many years as election judge of precinct 101 and Director of the Lee County wildlife Association and Lee County soil and water conservation district. He initiated a petition drive requiring the commissioners Court to allow the voters of Lee County to decide whether to freeze taxes for senior and handicapped citizens. This passed by a margin of 70%. Upon moving back to Lee County he became his own general contractor and constructed an energy-efficient geodesic dome home on the family farm. He developed a 20-acre Pine Forest that was certified by the national tree farm system and an 80-acre hay meadow.

He is survived by his spouse, Pearl, of 65 years, daughter Tina and Son-in-law Kirk Miller of Westminster, Colorado, daughter Peggy and son-in-law Carl Grant of Magnolia, Texas, son Tobin Kyle and daughter-in-law Cecile Ting of Orange County, Ca. Granddaughter Bethany and husband Riley Brenes and their children Odessa and Noak of Mobile, Al. He was preceded in death by his parents O.W. And Erna Symmank, brother Leonard and sister-in-law Marilyn as well as ( sister/ cousin) Mable Grace and 3 brothers-in-law and 2 sisters-in-law.

Doug passed away on Jan 5, 2023, at Scott and White hospital in Bryan and his ashes will be interred at the Mausoleum in the Giddings Cemetery. A committal service will be held at the Giddings Cemetery at 3: 00 pm Monday, Jan 23 after having a Celebration of Life in Bryan at Bethel Lutheran Church at 11:00 am
In Lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to TPIM (Texas Partners in Mission).