David Musslewhite 1937-2015
David Carroll Musslewhite, 78, died in his home in Edgewood Dec. 5, 2015, due to complications associated with lung cancer.
Mr. Musslewhite, born on June 28, 1937, to Robert Chilton Musslewhite and Mildred Guinn Musslewhite grew up in Lufkin. He received his BA degree from SMU in 1959, where he quarterbacked the varsity football team and served as President of the Student Council. Following graduation, he proceeded directly to SMU School of Law, where he was a Barrister and won the Texas Moot Court competition. After two years of study he departed to Oxford University where he had been awarded a scholarship by the Rhodes Scholarship committee. There he played rugby and received a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1963 before returning to SMU to complete his law study and receive his JD in 1964.
He achieved a long and successful law career, initially in Houston and then in Dallas, where he was a partner in his own firm, served as vice president of Zale Corporation, and was a senior litigation partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld.
After stepping back from full-time practice, he founded Legal Grounds, a law and coffee shop in Lakewood, and then became a Methodist minister, overseeing the congregations of Fruitvale and Union Chapel United Methodist Churches for seven years, before retiring.
Outside of his career, he dedicated a great deal of effort to Alcoholics Anonymous, founding the Crested Butte Annual Conference in 1984 and positively impacting the lives of many others through his 35 years of sobriety and recovery. He was deeply involved in his communities, most recently working hard with his wife Pattizo to develop and maintain the Heritage Park Museum of East Texas. He loved to sing and play the guitar, having pulled together several bands across the years. Above all, he was a devoted father who loved his kids and grandkids and spent time with them whenever he could.
He is survived by his wife, Pattizo Humphries of Edgewood; his two children, Robert Willem Musslewhite of Washington, D.C., and Elisabeth Mona (“Lysbet”) Zimmerman of Dallas and their mother Maria Mona Musslewhite; his five grandchildren, Nolan Willem Musslewhite, Campbell Marie Musslewhite, Parker Dare Musslewhite, Roxie Mae Zimmerman and Layne Michael Zimmerman; and his brother Charles Benton Musslewhite.
He is predeceased by his parents; and his brother, Robert Chilton Musslewhite Jr.
A memorial service will be held at Cheatham Memorial United Methodist Church in Edgewood at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, with a reception to follow at the church’s fellowship hall. Services are under the direction of Hiett’s LyBrand Funeral Home in Edgewood. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent in his memory to the Heritage Park Museum of East Texas at P.O. Box 765, Edgewood, 75117.
