Robert M. Bennett, Jr. – January 5, 2014

BENNETT OBIT PICRobert M. Bennett, Jr., a longtime Amarillo business executive, passed away on Sunday, January 5, 2014.
 
Private services will be held.  Arrangements are by Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors, 2800 Paramount Blvd.
 
Born March 3, 1924, in Amarillo, Texas to Dr. Robert M. Bennett, Sr. and the former Lulu Dixon.  He attended Wolflin Elementary, Nixon Jr High and Amarillo High in Amarillo.  He also attended New Mexico Military Institute 1940-1943, where his roommate was the brother of his future wife.
 
In 1941, he entered Officer Candidate School.  He served in the Army in WWII, in the Pacific Theater.  He left the Army in 1946, as a Captain and moved to Syracuse, New York to start a silver business.  While in New York, he became reacquainted with the woman who would become his wife, Ann Tonia Clark.
 
He returned to Amarillo in 1950. He and Tonia were married in late1950.
 
He worked for his step-father, Alvin Hill, at Hill Lines, an Amarillo transfer and trucking company.  He purchased Panhandle White Truck franchise in 1952 and established the business on Amarillo Blvd.   He purchased West Texas Equipment Co., a Caterpillar dealer in Amarillo and Lubbock, in 1969. He constructed the WTEC building east of Amarillo in 1970.  In 1986 he sold WTEC to Warren Equipment and started Satana Corp., a lender based in Downtown Amarillo which he ran until his death.
 
He was president of the Amarillo Club three times and a member for over 50 years.
He was an avid wing shooter, winning numerous awards and shooting all over the world.
 
He provided several young people in Amarillo with private scholarships to pursue Higher Education.
 
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Toni; three sons, Christopher of Central TX, Shannon of CO and Patrick and his wife Trisha of Amarillo TX; a sister Betty Eberhart of New Hampshire and her family and a sister-in-law, Mary Jane Clark and family of Durango CO.

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