Jimmy Ray Hickey

Jimmy Hickey Jimmy Ray, “Jim R” Hickey, 76, died Thursday, March 24, 2005 at a local hospital. Services will be held Tuesday, at 11:00 am at First Baptist Church of Waco with the Rev. Bryan Thornburg officiating. Burial will follow at Oakwood Cemetery . Jim Hickey was born on a farm near Hallsville, Harrison County, Texas on February 12, 1929, the third son of Ellis Edwin and Pauline Smith Hickey. From his parents he learned the values of hard work, persistence, and completing difficult jobs. He surrendered himself to Jesus and accepted the grace of salvation through the influence of his Christian parents. His mother, the daughter of a school teacher, impressed the value of learning and education on her children. Life on a depression era farm made it necessary for him to develop the mechanical talents which served him and others so well his entire life. After graduation from Hallsville High School and Kilgore Junior College he received his B.S. degree from East Texas State, Commerce, Texas, in 1953. After teaching mathematics at Talco High school in north east Texas for two years, he went to work for Shell Oil Company’s exploration division analyzing numeric data gathered by field exploration teams in the Houston office for a year before joining a field team and rising to the job of assistant seismologist. At Shell he met his future wife and they were married in 1956. The love of learning instilled in him by his mother led him to leave Shell and enter the graduate school at Baylor. He earned the M.S. degree in Mathematics and Physics from Baylor in 1959, and the Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1971. He joined the faculty of the Baylor mathematics department in 1959 as a graduate assistant and rose to the rank of full Professor before retiring in 1992 with 33 years of service. Although he did original research in receiving his degree, his talents were not in research in pure mathematics, but in the ability to understand intricate topics and make them clear to countless thousands of students. His classes were popular with all levels of students. During his tenure at Baylor he served on numerous committees and directed a number of masters’ theses. After retirement he was honored as a retiree of the year in 2001 by the Baylor Alumni Association. While on the faculty, Dr. Hickey was a member of several professional organizations. He was a member of the Baylor Alumni Association, the Baylor Bear Foundation, and The Athletic Director’s Club. He generously supported several sports booster clubs, especially the Lady Bear Tip Off Club. He had been an active member of the First Baptist Church, Waco and the Abner McCall Bible Class since the early 1960’s, and was President two different times. He served on various committees and delivered meals on wheels for a time after his retirement. He joined the Kiwanis Club of Waco Seniors February 4, 1998, received the Kiwanian of the Year Award in 2002 and was elected president for the 2004/2005 term. Jim was a wonderful loving husband, father, brother, and friend and will be missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife of 48 years Patricia Hickey, his daughter Brenda Ann Penn, son-in-law Randy Penn, his son James S. Hickey, his daughter-in-law Celeste Hickey, grandchildren Tonya, Samantha, Jeffrey, Toby, and Kevin Hickey, his brother and wife Ken and JoNell Hickey, his brother and wife Edwin and Wana Hickey, his sister Paula Alexander, an uncle Byron Hickey, and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the endowed scholarship funds established by Jim and Pat at Baylor in mathematics and women’s basketball or The Foundation Fund of First Baptist Church Waco. The family invites you to leave a message or memory in our “Memorial Guestbook” at www.wilkirsonhatchbailey.com. WILKIRSON HATCH BAILEY