Memorial services for Byron Wiess, Jr. will be celebrated at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Oak Harbor, Monday, May 12 at 1 p.m. with the Rev. Carol Harlacher and Rev. Dean Scovell officiating. Cremation was held with private family inurnment following at Sunnyside Cemetery, Coupeville.

Byron Wiess, Jr. died suddenly at his home in Oak Harbor on May 7, 2003; he was 91. He was born at home in Beaumont, Texas, on March 4, 1912, to Byron Wiess, Sr. and Mada Slaymaker Wiess.

Byron attended grade school in Beaumont and then was sent to Culver Military Academy. He was assigned to the Black Horse Troop and became the ranking cadet first lieutenant during his senior year. After graduation, Byron attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, receiving his degree in mechanical engineering and petroleum engineering.

Byron began work with Sun Oil Company during his senior year of college, assigned to the new oil fields in Conroe, Texas. After graduation, he began work with a Rostabout Gang, making four cents per hour, working 12 hours per day, seven days per week. He eventually advanced to a roughneck gang.

Mr. Wiess left the Roughnecks and was reassigned to Houston as a night engineer. He spent his entire career working in the Gulf Coast area. He retired in 1971 as the engineer in charge of drilling and production for the West Coast operation of Sun Oil.

Byron enjoyed investing, working the stock market and real estate investment and sales. He was one third of the 789 real estate investment group of Coupeville. Over the years, he held properties in Even Down and Pheasant Run on Whidbey Island and College Way in Mount Vernon.

Mr. Wiess was a member of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church of Oak Harbor, Association of Petroleum Engineers, the Gulf Coast Engineers Society and Phi Sigma Kappa and Phi Kappa Alpha. He was married to the former Margot A. Bruning in Oak Harbor Aug.11, 2000.

Byron is survived by his wife Margot at the family home, Oak Harbor, by his son Stephen Perry and wife Alice and three grandchildren Adina, Amanda and Richard, all of Vacaville, Calif. His mother-in-law, Mae Bruning of Oak Harbor, nieces, Ann McLendon of Loveland, Colo., and Jean Boehm and her husband John of Houston, also survive him. He was preceded in death by his first wife Grace in 1999 and one sister Luetta Justice.

Memorials may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, the Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Shrine Hospital or ORBIS. Arrangements and cremation by Burley Funeral Chapel.