Rufus Coomer

Rufus Coomer passed away unexpectedly January 13, 2025 at the home he built in Veal’s Station, Texas. He was born in Athol, Breathitt County, Kentucky on December 30, 1936 to Joe and Cerilda Coomer, the 4th of 8 children. He had fond memories of growing up in the Appalachian Mountains, hunting and fishing in the forests and rivers with his father and brothers. After WW2 the family moved to Austin, Indiana, where he went to high school, and joined the US Air Force after graduating. He was in the Strategic Air Command, 7th Wing, 9th Bomb Squadron, and was at first a tail-gunner and electrician in a B-36, and later a boom operator on KC-97s and KC-135s. His crew was chosen to fly the B-36 around the world to show off its capabilities. During the Cuban Missile crisis his fuel tanker crash-landed in the ocean of Newfoundland. Though his crew was rescued later that day, he floated in his raft for three days longer before being picked up by a helicopter. 

 In 1957 he married Linda Loyce Dennis of Fort Worth, whom he’d met on a blind date. They were married for 67 years and had three children: Joseph, Phillip and Sally. In 1964 he went to work for IBM a customer engineer repairing office machines in Fort Worth. When he left IBM seventeen years later, after many transfers to California, New Jersey, and Kentucky, he was a Vice-President of Research. In his thirties he graduated from Pace University in New York, the first person to graduate from college in his family. Over the ensuing years he opened several businesses: LaVon Beauty Supply in Fort Worth, Pinetree Systems in Arlington, Crosstie Lumber in Azle, and Coomer’s Craft Malls (42 stores all over the southern US). He could repair anything, from a car to a computer to a birdhouse, but his love was working with his hands, inventing and designing and building art objects of all kinds. He sculpted in clay, carved in wood, built furniture and whirligigs. Toward the end of his life he really enjoyed flint-knapping, making fine knives and arrowheads, and carving in bone, making jewelry out of the ordinary. He gave it all away the moment he made it.

 He traveled the world, first with the Air Force and IBM, but later on his own, driving an FMC RV (that he’d restored) many times across the country, from Alaska to Maine, but mostly to his beloved deserts of New Mexico and Arizona. When the RV didn't take him far enough, he learned to sail, and in Restless, his 44’ motorsailer, he cruised from West Palm Beach, Florida south to Cancun and Corpus Christi and Costa Rica, and north to Maine, enjoying many days in the islands of his heart. But first and foremost he was a husband and Patriarch, who kept his family close on the farm. All three of his children and many grandchildren still live there, under their parents’ and grandparents’ wings. He died at age 88, still with lots of plans, though he’d done so much already. Strange as it seems, the world moving along without him the next morning, when he seemed, and still seems, preciously indispensable. At this moment there are ducks from Canada swimming in the pond he built on the farm.

 He is survived by his wife, Linda Coomer, and his children: Joe Coomer, Phillip Coomer, and Sally Smith. Daughters-in-law: Isabelle Tokumaru, Ngan Coomer and son-in-law Forrest Smith. Sisters: Gerri Conn, Ida Heath and Patricia Coomer. Sisters-in-law: Melody Koenig, Linda Dennis, Juanette Coomer and Hazel Coomer. The six grandchildren: Rebecca Dickerson, Phil Coomer, Mary Brammer, Thomas Coomer, Bobby McDonald and Linsey Dyson, and their spouses, and 18 great-grandchildren. Many nieces and nephews, friends scattered across the world, dogs gone and dogs still lying at the feet of his empty chair. 

Even the wind seems restless now, unsure of where to go.

No funeral or memorial service will be held.