James Clyde Adolphus

b. 10 October 1929, d. 27 July 2003
  • James Clyde Adolphus was born on 10 October 1929 in Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama.
  • James Clyde Adolphus died on 27 July 2003 at age 73 in Sugar Land, Fort Bend County, Texas.
  • He was interred at Meye Cemetery, Richmond, Fort Bend County, Texas.
  • The following appeared on 29 July 2003 in the Houston Chronicle: James Clyde Adolphus, former county judge of Fort Bend County who once helped rescue a child from an abandoned water well in Hardin County, died Sunday of cancer. He was 73.
         Adolphus was deputy chief of the Mercy Corps in March 1967, when the 2-year-old child, Theresa Fregia, was rescued. Ransom Bill, head of the Mercy Corps, was lowered by rope into a 42-inch casing sunk alongside of the well for the rescue. Adolphus secured the gear holding Bill, who won the Carnegie Medal for his part in the rescue. Theresa escaped serious injury.
         For 17 years, Adolphus was deputy chief of the Mercy Corps, a free rescue, ambulance and first-aid service, staffed by volunteers. During his service, Adolphus delivered three babies, according to a family statement.
         Adolphus served three terms in the 1970s as city councilman in Missouri City and as justice of the peace in Precinct 4 in Fort Bend County from 1985 until 1997.
         Elected county judge in 1998 in an uphill campaign against an incumbent, Adolphus announced in the midst of his term that for health reasons he would not run again. At the time, he joked about leaving office: "The first thing I'm going to do is write 50 letters to the editors complaining about the Commissioners Court."
         Jim Richard, who with Adolphus' encouragement succeeded him as justice of the peace for Precinct 4, said that Adolphus had a keen interest in autopsies and inquests.
         "I suspect that if we ever get a medical examiner's office (in Fort Bend County), they probably will name the building for him," Richard said. (The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office performs autopsies for Fort Bend County.)
         Born Oct. 10, 1929, in Birmingham, Ala., Adolphus was the son of Joseph Clyde Adolphus and Hattie Harris Adolphus. In the early 1940s, the family moved to Galveston, where Adolphus grew up.
         He often said he was born with "a silver spoon" in his mouth that was yanked out after the stock market crash of 1929, which ushered in the Great Depression.
         Adolphus attended the University of Texas in Austin before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. After the war, he attended college in Alabama and later at the University of Houston.
         His first political job was as administrative assistant to R.E. "Bob" Turrentine, longtime county clerk of Harris County.
         A Republican who in his later years sometimes described himself as a populist, Adolphus was an election judge for 20 years, first in Harris County and later in Fort Bend. He also was a delegate to Harris and Fort Bend county GOP conventions and the party's state conventions.
         He served for 22 years in the Texas State Guard, retiring in 2002 as a lieutenant colonel.
         Adolphus was a past commander of the Albert Sidney Johnston chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a member of the Order of the Stars and Bars, and the Sons of the American Revolution.
         Adolphus worked in the oil business as scout, petroleum landman and independent oil operator and investor. He also was a partner in Plantation Oil and Gas and Antler Oil and Gas companies.
         Survivors include his wife of 35 years, Lynda Cooke Adolphus of Pecan Grove; two sons, Frederick Raymond Adolphus of McDonough, Ga., and Robert Harold Adolphus of Houston; and a sister, Harriet Conyers of Vestavia Hills, Ala.
         Visitors will be received from 9 to 9:30 a.m. today at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 4900 Jackwood. The funeral will follow at 10 a.m. in the church.
  • The following appeared on 29 July 2003 in the Houston Chronicle: County Judge James Clyde Adolphus, born October 10, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama, died July 27, 2003 in Sugar Land, TX. Jim served as a Missouri City Councilman, as Fort Bend County Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4, and recently retired as County Judge of Ft. Bend County. Visitors will be received at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Ingram Room, 4900 Jackwood, Houston, TX (next to the Meyerland Shopping Center) from 9:00 a.m. until 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, July 29, 2003, and the service will follow in the Church at 10:00 a.m. Interment will be at 12:00 noon in the Morton Cemetery, 401 North Third Street, Richmond, Tx. In lieu of flowers, the Adolphus family requests that donations be made to the Fort Bend American Cancer Association or the West Fort Bend Heart Association.
  • Last Edited: 8 Mar 2011