- Date Of Birth: January 20, 1920
- Date Of Death: June 17, 2011
- State: Texas
Tom Dean Sandlin Tom Dean Sandlin was born 10 Jan 1920 in Hightower, TX to Seldon Bob and Eva Dean Sandlin. Tom was from a long line of Sandlins that first arrived in Maryland about 1680. The Sandlins were mainly farmers and migrated over the years from Maryland to North Carolina, then Georgia, then Louisiana, and finally arriving in Texas in the late 1800s. Tom graduated from high school in Texarkana, AR and joined the US Army Field Artillery in 1936. He said he joined the Army to keep from starving during the Great Depression. He married, in 1938, the “love of my life” Jewell (Judy) Lorene Fowler from Midlothian, TX. His enlistment was up in 1939 and he then worked for Interstate Oil Pipeline Company as a mechanic near Texarkana, AR. He joined the Army Air Force in 1942 and was an instructor pilot until the war ended, flying almost 1800 hours. He taught aviation cadets to fly AT-5, AT-6, AT-9, AT-10, AT-17, B-25, P-36, and P-51 aircraft. After the war, he was in the Texas Air National Guard until 1949 conducting aerial mapping of mid-western states. In 1949, he graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in mechanical engineering, the first of the male Sandlins to obtain a college degree (his mother was the first female Sandlin to obtain a degree). Now, as an engineer for Interstate Oil Pipeline Company, he built oil pipelines in Oklahoma and Louisiana. In 1953, he took a job with the Creole Petroleum Corporation in Venezuela to design and build oil pipelines, first near the capital city Caracas, then in western Venezuela, building what was at the time the largest oil pipeline in the world. In 1959, he returned his family to the US and bought a large ranch with farming acreage near Huntsville, AR to return to his heritage, farming, while raising beef cows. However, he decided that engineering was his real calling and began working near Kansas City, in 1961, for List & Clark Construction Company which specialized in building large dams from Texas to North Dakota. To visit the many scattered construction sites, Tom again got to fly, this time using company King Air, Baron, and Bonanza aircraft. Retiring at age 60, he and Judy traveled the western US and the world on many tours and cruises. Not liking cold weather, they settled down in a retirement community in Alamo, TX, staying there for 15 years. Two years ago, they moved to Cedar Hill, TX to be closer to their children and relatives. Tom quietly passed away on 17 June 2011 in Cedar Hill at age 91. He was preceded in death by his parents, and brother Jess Charles Sandlin, sister Jimmie Seldon Beck, and grandson Neil Moore.
