Calvin Chimene
1927-2016
Calvin Alphonse Chimene, 89, passed away on Friday, December 23, 2016, at the home of his son, Andre Chimene, in Rhode Island.
He leaves behind his three sons, J.B., Andre, and Beau, and eight grandchildren, Daniel, Gabrielle, David, Zachary, Beverly, Cooper, Coby, and Daisy. His first wife, Katie Allen Chimene, and his second wife, Ann Carol, both preceded him in death.
A fifth generation Houstonian and native Texan, Calvin spent almost all of his life in and around Houston, Texas. The son of Julius and Fannie Chimene, Calvin grew up in Houston's Third Ward and later in West University, where he went to Lamar High School. He attended the University of Texas at age 17, then left to join the US Army for World War II. After serving in the occupation of Japan, he returned to the University of Texas where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology. He then attended the University of Houston, where he acquired a Master of Science degree in Geology with a minor in Physics. He was selected as a member of the SGE, the national geology honors fraternity.
Some of Calvin's papers on exploration have been published in articles by The Oil & Gas Journal, other Exploration periodicals, the Journal of Sedimentary Petrology and Paleontology, and two separate Memoirs of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He has lectured extensively at AAPG conventions, Houston Geological Society, and meetings of the Houston Mesozoic Geologists Group. He was selected to present one of his papers during the World Geological Congress in Washington DC, 1989. His Master's Thesis in 1952 was the first one published from the University of Houston by any outside publishing company.
Following his employment with the Quebec Minister of Mines he worked in the corporate world for 33 years, rising to the position of VP in charge of domestic exploration for hydrocarbons of a large American corporation, heading a staff of roughly 100. Retired in 1985, he formed a family corporation to carry on his interests in oil and gas exploration and raising pecans.
Calvin also spent his working years raising three sons with Katie Chimene, providing them with life skills from dinosaur bone and rock identification to floundering (a form of gig fishing) to working with all types of tools. All three sons followed their father to the University of Texas, and shared his passion for Texas football and Austin.
He began writing fiction in 1988 and has published three volumes of short stories and one novel. He was also an artist, creating charcoal drawings of fossils. Calvin played handball and table tennis into his eighties, and won several medals in competition at the local Senior Olympics.