HomeMy WebLinkAboutJoe Pickle ObituaryAUSTIN - Joseph "Joe" Duke Pickle, who was known throughout West Texas for his work as a journalist and an advocate of a state water source for the region, has died at the age of 94,
June 18, 2005.
Pickle died Tuesday in Austin, nearly five months after the death of his brother, former U.S. Rep. Jake Pickle.
Joe Pickle worked for the Big Spring Herald for 43 years, 36 of those as managing editor. He joined the paper in 1932 after graduating from Baylor University.
"He was the best boss I ever had," Marj Carpenter of Big Spring said in a story in Friday's Abilene Reporter-News. "He was a reporter himself and he wanted us to get it right and he
wrote with a good heart."
During his career, Pickle served as president of both the West Texas Press Association and the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. He was awarded the Texas Headliner Award for lifetime
achievement. Pickle retired from the Herald in 1975.
He served as secretary-treasurer and spokesman of the Big Spring-based Colorado River Municipal Water District for more than 40 years before retiring in 1995.
"He was appointed secretary-treasurer in 1949 and in all those years of serving, he might have missed two meetings," district manager John Grant said. "If every community could have
more people like that, we'd be a lot better off."
Pickle wrote a book called Water in a Dry and Thirsty Land in collaboration with Ross McSwain of San Angelo, to tell the history of the first 50 years of the water district, which developed
three reservoirs.
Pickle moved to Austin in 1998 to be near family.
He is survived by three sons, a sister, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service was scheduled for today in Austin with the funeral Monday in Big Spring.