Life Story

Robert George Hadden

(1924-2010)

Robert George Hadden was born to Joe W. and Amma Pridmore Hadden on February 23, 1924, in Clayton, New Mexico, and passed away on October 24, 2010, in Corpus Christi, Texas. He was named for a beloved uncle and known affectionately as “Bobby George” until he became “Bob” as an adult. He grew up in Kenton, Oklahoma, near the Black Mesa in Cimarron County, where his parents homesteaded in the early part of the twentieth century. He graduated from high school in Santa Ynez, California in 1941. When World War II began, Mr. Hadden served his country in the Coast Guard, finishing his service as a Signalman Second Class. During a typhoon in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, he was instrumental in securing the rescue of all personnel aboard his ship, the PC-590. Having lost wireless communications during the storm through high waves breaking over the deck, he made his way aft to the stern, where he used an aldis lamp to spot a rescue ship, exchanging vital information and directions to effect the rescue of all on board as the PC 590 was breaking in half and sinking. His final message was sent with an ordinary flashlight. He was awarded the Navy/Marine Corps Medal for Heroism as well as a battle star for action at Iwo Jima. Like many members of the Greatest Generation, he wore his honors with humility and respect for his country.

Bob began his formal college education at Oklahoma Baptist University, where he met the love of his life, Mary L. Loper. He escorted her to the Hanging of the Green at OBU and was smitten by how beautiful she looked in her elegant black evening gown with the red rose corsage he had given her. “That’s why I married her,” he remarked later. “She was beautiful!” The young couple moved soon after their marriage on June 22, 1947, to Oklahoma City, where he completed his degree in chemistry at Oklahoma City University. After working briefly at Oklahoma Testing Laboratory in Oklahoma City, he moved with his growing family to Wynnewood, Oklahoma, to work for Kerr McGee Oil Refineries. In 1968 the family moved again to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he worked for Coastal States Oil Refineries as Manager of Products Control.

Bob Hadden had two passions: his family and his Lord Jesus Christ. He was a Baptist deacon and a beloved Sunday School teacher for most of his adult life. His favorite hymn, Charles Wesley’s “And Can It Be That I Should Gain?” expresses well his continued sense of awe at the love of God: “Amazing love! How can it be/ That Thou, my God, should die for me?” At the time of his death, he left  to celebrate his life his wife of sixty-three years, Mary L. Hadden of Corpus Christi, Texas, and three children and their spouses: June Hadden Hobbs of Boiling Springs, North Carolina; Robert G. Hadden, Jr., and his wife, Cheryl, of Corpus Christi, Texas; and Michael David Hadden and his wife, Michelle, of Corpus Christi, Texas. He also left eleven grandchildren; five great-grandchildren, four step great-grand-children; a brother, Edward F. Hadden of Topeka, Kansas; and a host of nieces, nephews, and friends. His family is proud of his eighty-six well-lived years.