Ezekiel "Zeke" E. Taylor

Ezekiel E. Taylor, 89, of Etcheverry Road, Carlsbad, N.M., passed away Saturday, May 26, 2012, at Landsun Manor. Visitation is scheduled for Thursday, May 31, 2012 from 830 AM to 9:45 AM with services following at 10:00 AM at Denton-Wood Funeral Home Chapel and Rev. Philip Huston of Epworth United Methodist Church officiating. EE (Zeke) Taylor was born in Garfield Arkansas on November 1, 1922. He grew up in Bartlesville Oklahoma and was working there as a stock clerk for RJ Kress when the Second World War began. Enlistments were closed, so he and his friend Clarence Knight bought an old car and drove to the west coast and boarded ship for Alaska. He ended up in Sitka and worked on the construction of a naval re-fueling station until March of 1943. He came back to Bartlesville and bought a home for his parents with money he had saved from his work and then enlisted in the Army Air Force. He served two years, eleven months, and one day as an airplane mechanic. He was supposed to be transferred to Germany as part of the occupation force, but the train with his orders derailed and burned and thus he became a free man. He entered the University of Oklahoma on the GI bill and graduated as a petroleum geologist. He married Patsy Ruth Briggs on August 4, 1948. He worked as a petroleum geologist for Cities Service Oil Company (the best damned oil company in the world) from August 2, 1950 until his retirement on December 31, 1985. He worked in Oil Hill Kansas at the start of his career and later worked in Calgary and Edmonton, Canada. He worked in France and Italy, as well as in Algeria. The last part of his career was spent as head of development geology out of the Midland, Texas office. He and his wife Pat had four children together, and were separated by her death in 1980. He married Julia Nicholson August 1, 1981 and they moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma upon his retirement. Julia passed away July 6, 2005 and he then moved to Carlsbad and lived with his son Clint and wife Daina until December of 2008. After being disabled by a fall he lived at Landsun Homes until his death on the morning of May 26, 2011. He was an avid fisherman all of his life and enjoyed camping in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado above all things. He struggled with several maladies in the last few months of his life, but died with an undiminished will to live. He is survived by his daughter Ellen and husband Eric Kunish, son Kendal (Casey) and wife Diane, son Clint and wife Daina, son David and wife Angela and stepson John Nicholson and wife Joann, as well as nine grandchildren. Denton-Wood Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Condolences may be expressed at dentonwood.com.