Howard Payne Coghlan

IN LOVING HONOR AND MEMORY: HOWARD PAYNE COGHLAN April 14, 1927 – September 15, 2016 Howard Payne Coghlan, prominent Oil, Gas & Mineral Law attorney, civic leader, and beloved citizen of Longview, Texas, died peacefully after a brief illness on Thursday, September 15, 2016, at the age of 89. He was surrounded by his loving family, wife, Dr. Peggy Coghlan, son, Kelly Coghlan, daughter-in-law, Brenda Coghlan, and grandson, Kelly Jack Coghlan Jr. His daughter, Katie Coghlan, was also at his side as he began his ascension into Heaven. Howard was born in Shreveport, Louisiana April 14, 1927, to Emma Inez Watts Coghlan and Jack Vincent Coghlan, Sr. His mother was a fifth-generation Texan. His father, a native of Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, immigrated to New Orleans at the age of 19 and became a naturalized citizen. Howard moved to Marshall, Texas with his family, at age one and then to Longview, Texas, in 1936. He was a drummer in the first Judson Band and is the last Band member to die. When WWII was declared, Howard wanted to enlist, but his parents would not consent because of his age; therefore, he enlisted and served under Commanding Officer Wilmer Meredith in the Longview Branch of the Texas State Guard and served until he was discharged. He graduated from Longview High School in 1944 where he lettered in football, basketball, and track under Coach Pete Shotwell and was a class officer. After graduation, he entered Texas A&M University and was a member of the corps for two semesters whereupon he hitch-hiked to Dallas to join the Navy Air Force program. Upon arriving, the Navy program had closed, but the Coast Guard Air Force on the lower floor was still recruiting. He was “sworn in” that day along with two Longview classmates, Rush Haywood and Arthur Roland, now both deceased. (None of the recruits ever even saw a Coast Guard air plane.) Upon finishing boot camp at Curtis Bay, Maryland, he was transferred to Ellis Island and then transferred to the USS Monticello AP-41 (or AP-61) formerly an Italian luxury liner constructed in the early 1920s and confiscated by the US at the beginning of WWII. It was then the eighth largest troop transport in the world, which carried 6,000 troops, a crew of 600, a complete Army hospital along with Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Army personnel. He served as Helmsman under Captain Patch. The Monticello transported troops and prisoners back and forth in the Atlantic Theatre between the East coast and Naples, Italy, Marseilles, France, and LeHarve, France. When the Monticello was declared unseaworthy, it was decommissioned and Howard was transferred to the USS Air Egret, a sub-chaser along the East coast until he was discharged in June 1946, whereupon he returned to Longview and recommenced work in the East Texas oil fields for PanAmerican Production Co. Previously, at age 14, his first oil field job was for E. C. Johnston Co. in the Waskom Field as a roustabout and roughneck. He entered Kilgore College in 1946, where he served as President of the Student Body, President of the Veterans Club, and President of the Future Lawyers Club. He graduated with honors with an Associate of Arts Degree. Being an over-seas veteran, and because of the GI Bill, he was able to enter Southern Methodist University Law School with only 90 hours of pre-law. At that time, the Dean of the Law School was R. G. Storey, who was a principal participant in the Nuremburg trials. Dean Storey advised Coghlan that he should not enter law school with only 90 hours of pre-law (as opposed to the usual 120 hours). Coghlan’s response was that he could make it and vowed to finish with the highest scholastic average in his graduating class. He missed that goal by two tenths of a grade point to another veteran. However, the other veteran committed suicide within six months – which always bothered Coghlan. During his tenure at SMU, he served as a member of the Barristers, Order of the Coif, winner of the Case Club argument before the Texas Supreme Court, member of the Kappa Alpha Fraternity and attorney for the student body. To supplement his GI Bill, he mowed lawns for Methodist preachers who lived in the SMU area. His average pay was 25 cents an hour. He regularly sold blood to the Blood Bank at every interval he was allowed to do so, for $35 each visit plus orange juice and cookies. While studying for the Bar Exam, Coghlan was employed by Judge Fred Erisman to type a book the Judge was writing concerning special issues. His pay was 50 cents an hour. He passed the Bar Exam in the top 5% of the class and returned to Longview to practice law. On the day that he was sworn in, the District Court appointed him to represent a man who had stolen $52 from his girlfriend. Jury selection commenced immediately after he was sworn in. The going rate to represent an indigent was $10 per case. The foreman of the jury had been Howard’s Sunday School teacher at the First Baptist Church. However, the jury found the man guilty and because he had two prior felony convictions, he got life in prison. If he had stolen from his girlfriend two dollars less, then it would have been a misdemeanor. The jury asked Coghlan why he didn’t tell them because they would have found him not guilty. Coghlan’s response was that he would have lost his license to practice if he had told them. Howard always said that the best thing that ever happened to him is when he entered Kilgore College after being discharged where he met the love of his life, his best friend, and his future bride, Peggy Crowder Coghlan, who had graduated from Kilgore High School in 1946. Peggy was a Kilgore College Rangerette and they had classes together and they fell in love and dated during their tenure at Kilgore College, and Peggy’s tenure at North Texas State University, and Howard’s tenure at SMU Law School. Howard practiced law out of his briefcase for several months until one day Mr. Phillip Brin asked him where his office was. When he learned that Howard did not have an office, he invited Howard to share his office in the Bramlette Building where Phillip Brin and Angus Wynne had practiced together. Howard stated that Mr. Brin was the smartest lawyer he ever knew and that Howard learned more from him than what he learned in law school. During this time, E. C. Johnston, Sr. died in 1950 and his Oil, Gas, Mining, Pipeline and Refinery operations in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were being handled by Mr. Jim Saye, a prominent Longview attorney. Mr. Saye became ill and Coghlan was assisting him in representing the Johnston interests. When Mr. Saye died, the Johnston family made an offer to Coghlan to be their full-time attorney and assistant manager until the estate and all ancillary probates had been completed. Coghlan promptly accepted because this meant that he could afford to marry Peggy. Peggy and Howard were married August 26, 1951. After almost 20 years with the Johnston Companies, Coghlan re-entered private law practice as a partner in the law firm of Kenley, Boyland, Hawthorn, Starr & Coghlan – then the oldest continually operated law firm in East Texas. In 1978, Coghlan formed his own law firm and in 1986 moved to the Energy Centre building, where he practiced Oil, Gas & Mineral Law until he began retirement in 2000. The law firm continues to operate as Coghlan Crowson, LLP even though Crowson died at age 53 and Coghlan retired. The firm honored them both by naming the firm after them. In year 2000, Coghlan moved his office to their new home, Emerald Hill Farm, north of Longview. Most of his legal work has been pro bono for old friends and former clients, who didn’t know he had retired. One of his favorite hobbies has been his 79 tree peach orchard at Emerald Hill Farm. He has given peaches each year to most every widow in the Methodist Church, his preachers, neighbors, doctors and friends. His very favorite hobby was calling and hunting wild turkey during each spring season. His first wild turkey was killed near Demopolis, Alabama, along the banks of the Tombigbee River in 1942. Except for his time in the service, he hunted each year in South Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and far Northeast Kansas. Peggy and Howard are the parents of two children, being Kelly Jack Coghlan, an honor graduate of Southern Methodist University School of Law, who practices law in Houston, primarily as a Constitutional attorney concentrating on religious liberties. Kelly and his wife Brenda Coghlan are the parents of Kelly Jack Coghlan, Jr. Peggy and Howard are also the parents of Katie Howard Coghlan, a resident of Crystal Beach, Texas, for many decades and who has played a leadership role in all charitable and benevolent endeavors of her civic organization. Coghlan has been an active member of First United Methodist Church, Longview, since 1953. He has served as Chairman of the Official Board; Chairman of Finance Commission; Superintendent of the Church School; Vice Chairman of Trustees; Member of the Board of Trustees; co-organizer and teacher of the College Sunday School class; and Lay Delegate to the Annual Conference. For more than 30 years, he served pro bono as the attorney for the church which included the acquisition of adjoining lands necessary for the construction of the expanded church facilities, as well as attorney for the Trustees and the handling of all Wills and probate wherein the church was the beneficiary. Howard served as President of the Longview Jaycees, which at the time initiated the Gregg County Fair. He was President also of the Longview Rotary Club, where he was awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship on three occasions. He was President of the Longview Chamber of Commerce, and Chairman of the Oil & Gas Section of the Chamber of Commerce. During his tenure, he was responsible for the building of the Maude Cobb Activity Center. Maude Cobb was a friend of his, and her daughter, Cecile Moeschle, was one of Coghlan’s clients. He served on the LeTourneau University Board with Billy Graham. He always felt that was a privilege. Among his awards and honors, he served for 18 years as a Director of Kansas-Nebraska Natural Gas Co., which later became K N Energy and Kinder Morgan, one of the largest natural gas pipeline companies in the United States; a Director and Board member of the Texas Historical Foundation, chosen by Gov. John Connally as a member of the Texas State Historical Commission; Chairman of the Longview Centennial Celebration; Chairman of the Oil, Gas & Mineral Law Section of the State Bar of Texas; Vice Chairman of Texas State Bar Presidents; was Board Certified in Oil, Gas & Mineral Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization; a Fellow by the Texas Bar Foundation; Editor of the Southwestern Law Journal; Director of Longview Bank & Trust Co., later Texas Bank & Trust Co. He was selected as Outstanding Fifty-Year Lawyer by the State Bar of Texas Foundation. In 2003, he was awarded with the naming of a Kilgore oil derrick in his honor in Kilgore, Texas. Among his awards and honors were: The Longview Chamber of Commerce President’s Award; Distinguished Citizen Good-Turn Award from the Boy Scouts of America, Gregg County Outstanding Lawyer Award from the Gregg County Legal Secretaries Association, Crisman School Ruby Award for civic leadership, Gregg County Historical Society Landmark Award, and was named a Distinguished Alumni of Kilgore College. He recently received The Wall of Honor Award presented by Longview High School noting him as a WWII veteran and adding his name to a brick in the Wall of Honor, He was predeceased by his parents, his brother, Lt. Col. Jack Coghlan and his wife, Mary, and his brother-in-law, J. J. Crowder of Houston. Surviving him are his wife of 65 years, Dr. Peggy Coghlan, son, Kelly and wife Brenda and grandson, Kelly Jack, Jr., his daughter, Katie Howard Coghlan, sister-in-law, Jean Crowder and a special extended Crowder family in Houston, also, his brother’s four sons, Vincent, Patrick, Michael, and Dennis Coghlan, and a beloved extended family of Coghlans, Carolyn McClain, special family friend of Atlanta, Georgia, Sharon Beall, his legal assistant for 45 years, and devoted employees, Rolando Nieto, Juanita Pippins, and Lisa Pippins. Howard Coghlan was a man filled with joy and love, a brilliant lawyer, a devoted husband, father, and friend, a gentleman of the highest order, and a true man of God. His legacy of generosity, civic leadership, and good works will live on. Services are under the direction of Rader Funeral Home of Longview and will be at First United Methodist Church, 400 N. Fredonia, Longview, TX 75601, at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, September 23, 2016. There will be no formal visitation, but viewing may be made at the funeral home. There will also be viewing at 1:00 p.m. prior to the 2:00 p.m. funeral service at the church. His burial will be at Rosewood Cemetery on FM 1844 following the church service. If desired, memorials may be made to: First United Methodist Church Chancel Choir, 400 N. Fredonia, Longview, Texas.

Howard Payne Coghlan

April 14, 1927 - September 15, 2016