LeTOURNEAU, Richard H(oward) 1925-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born January 3, 1925, in Stockton, CA; died August 3, 2004, in Longview, TX. Businessman, educator, and author. LeTourneau was the former president of the offshore drilling platform and heavy equipment manufacturer R. G. LeTourneau, Inc., as well as president of LeTourneau University. The son of the founders of the R. G. LeTourneau company and what was then the LeTourneau Technical Institute, LeTourneau studied industrial engineering at Texas A & M University, where he received his master's in 1961. He would later complete a doctorate at Oklahoma State University in 1970. Like his father, the younger LeTourneau split his career between the manufacturing business and the educational institution. At his father's company, he worked in various capacities, rising to the post of president in 1966. When the company merged with Marathon Manufacturing Company in 1971, he stayed on as senior vice president, and then, during the early 1970s, as director. From 1972 to 1973 he was also briefly the president of Mosley Machinery Co. Meanwhile, LeTourneau was deeply involved in his father's technical institution. He served two terms as president there: from 1962 to 1968 and from 1975 to 1985. During this time, he helped the institute grow into a college that included liberal arts and other programs, and then into a university. Retiring in 1985, LeTourneau spent his remaining years as a consultant and business teacher. He was the author of several books on business and other subjects, including Success without Succeeding (1976), Laws of Success for Christians (1985), and the autobiography Finding Your Niche in Life (1985).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

ONLINE

LeTourneau University,http://www.letu.edu/ (August 4, 2004).