My grandparents - Isabelle and Abe Pounds

From the Texas Bankers Record, May, 1959

William Abraham Pounds is the way it is written on the "birth" page of the old family Bible. The locale of this naming is the little city of Center, Texas, capital of Shelby County. His father, a prominent circuit-riding minister of the Methodist Church, was responsible for the Biblical name of top significance Abraham. And the son, Abe, has carried on the denominational tradition of the Wesley brothers by following the Methodist doctrines. For thirty seven years now Abe Pounds has served as treasurer of the Texas Conference of Methodist Churches.

The beginning of Abe Pounds' banking career stretches backward many years from his present post as president of the Tyler Bank and Trust Company of Tyler. In fact, the beginning year was 1913, when all secretaries and almost all stenographers in the business world were young men. Abe's very first work in banking was with R.L. Brown and Company, a private Bank, located in the little hamlet of Lavon, Collin County. He began as a stenographer to the head of that firm. One year later (1914) he removed to Tyler where he has made his residence ever since.

Abe Pounds' first work in a Smith County bank was with the old Guaranty State Bank of Tyler. He began as secretary-stenographer to the late T.B. Butler, president of the old Guaranty Bank. Abe's rise was rapid. By 1917 he was cashier of this institution. Three years later this Bank merged with the Citizens National Bank, Tyler (now Citizens First National), and the young man continued with the Citizens Bank for nine years. Then, in 1929 Abe Pounds was chosen cashier of the Tyler State Bank and Trust Company (for sometime now the Tyler Bank and Trust Company). This Bank was organized in 1924, and Abe was associated with such stalwarts in the Tyler banking field as Charley Brogan and Dee Stringer. In the mid-1930's he was advanced to the post of vice-president, directing the Bank's management. In January, 1941, Abe was named president of the institution, the position he currently holds.

The hero of this sketch has a string of worthwhile accomplishments to his credit - regular Who's Who feats. But far and away his topmost achievement was the day he persuaded the charming and artistic Isabelle Windham to become Mrs. W.A. Pounds. She is a member of a prominent pioneer East Texas family - that of Rufus Parks Windham of Center. Isabelle Pounds, gracious and lovable, removed to Tyler as a young bride. Here she has aggressively identified herself with the religious, cultural, and civic life of the community. Her favorite organization is the Tyler Garden Club. Her regard for beauty and her creative capability are reflected in her lovely home and spectacular garden. The Pounds home has long been acclaimed one of Tyler's outstanding beauty spots. Isabelle has kept stride with her husband in his many local activities. Attractive and vivacious, she has helped Abe in advancing his usefulness and influence. To the couple came two sons: Jack Pounds and W.A. Pounds, Jr. During the important work of instructing air pilots in World War II Jack was killed in a plane crash. Pounds Airport, Tyler, is this fine young man's namesake and memorial. W.A. Pounds Jr. is treasurer and director of the East Texas Savings & Loan Association. Tyler civic activity from president of the East Texas Chamber of Commerce on down. In recent years he has had a prominent role in the industrialization of the Tyler area. He has headed up every organization having to do with betterment and progress for Tyler, Smith County, even East Texas. Once he was cited as "Man of the Year," in the Tyler territory; another time he received a reward of honor as "Tyler's Outstanding Citizen." He served a six-year term as a member of the Texas Finance Commission, which directs the State Banking Department. Abe Pounds has never shirked civic responsibility. A natural and willing "wheel-horse," he has taken on any and all jobs that his progressive community can find to pile upon him.

As busy as Abe Pounds is, he finds time for play. He has his Greenbriar Lake House and environs for everyday fun most of the year round: fly-fishing for bream, boating, entertaining friends with chicken barbecues, even lolling in the shade of the giant lake trees - this place just five minutes from downtown Tyler. And about once a year he travels with his outing-buddies as far away as Alaska for fishing and hunting. He and comrades generally come back loaded with geese, ducks, bear, and King Salmon. The trips are outings after the story-book manner, and Abe Pounds thoroughly enjoys them.

The Texas Bankers Association has gained by the work of this 65-year-old Tylerite. He has been chairman of the Dallas District, T.B.A.; a member of the Administrative Council for three years; and T.B.A. Treasurer in 1946-47. And now, as a climax to these terms of service and places of responsibility, Abe Pounds heads up the Texas Bankers Association for the year 1959-60 as president. He was so named during the closing hours of the San Antonio Convention, recently adjourned. This act alone puts banker approval on Abe Pounds as no other event can. It is the highest honor in the power of Texas bankers to confer. And, as always in his extra-outside-bank responsibilities, President Pounds will direct an administration of the Association's affairs with his unwavering and conservative leadership.

Abe Pounds obituary - My grandfather

Abe Pounds -- His Dedication, Service Will be Remembered

East Texas lost a great man Tuesday; a dedicated church member who gave most of his life to community service, one whose kind are remembered but never replaced.

W.A. (Abe) Pounds died shortly after noon Tuesday in a Tyler hospital at the age of 80. His death was felt deeply in Tyler where he had served so well and so long. He will be greatly missed by the many, many Tylerites who had come to know him throughout his life of service.

Abe Pounds was an able leader on many fronts and had held various positions of key responsibility. He was very dedicated to his church, Marvin United Methodist Church, and was honored in February, 1972, with a special dinner. The year 1972 was the 50 year mark of his service as treasurer of the Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Church. This long tenure and record of service has never been equaled anywhere throughout the entire Methodist Church and Methodists throughout the state came to honor him.

Mr. Pounds also had a long and industrious banking career which dated back to 1914 when the late Judge T.B. Butler employed him as secretary. When he began his employment with Mr. Butler, a banker and the founder of this publishing company, the first office equipment included a typewriter and a broom. The young man from Center once recalled that he was familiar with the operation of both.

Mr. Pounds joined Tyler Bank and Trusts Co. in 1929 as a cashier and steadily worked his way up in the bank.

He was later promoted to vice president and then president of the bank in 1941. He retired as chairman of the board as as Tyler Bank and Trust Company's chief executive officer in 1968, ending a 55-year career in banking.

Inside his own banking organization and other businesses where he was influential, Abe Pounds had one impressive record that doesn't show in the written pages, but is written in the ultimate achievement. A starred characteristic of his banking record was the ever-ready willingness to help the person who needed it the most, and who had small resources to pledge.

In the field of community and civic affairs, he was a tireless worker in nearly every worthwhile group from the local to the statewide level. He had served as president of most of them. He was recognized as Tyler's Most Outstanding Citizen in 1940 and in 1956 he was honored for having done more for Texas churches than any other man in the state. The same year, 1956, he was named man of the year for June by the East Texas Chamber of Commerce, an organization he had once served as president.

His sacrifices were many and involved much more than just his time and effort to his community. Pounds Field Airport was named after World War II in honor of his, Lieutenant Jack Pounds, a flight instructor who died in an air crash early in the war.

It would be easy to mention additional achievements in the life of Abe Pounds as they are almost infinite. He had rubbed shoulders with so many people and had helped make things better whenever and however he could. His tangible achievements remain, alongside his intangible legacy of unwavering frie3dnship, loyalty and courage.

Pounds - Windham Wedding

On Friday evening of last week, one of our most promising young businessmen, W.A. Pounds, Jr., threw aside his work to follow the magic strain of the harp of cupid to Shelbyville, Texas, where a certain young lady was waiting.

Sunday afternoon at five o'clock, Rev. W.A. Pounds, (the groom's father) pronounced Isabelle, the pretty daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.P. Windham and Mr. W.A. Pounds, Jr., man and wife.

The church was beautifully decorated for the occasion, and the bride could not have dreamed of a lovelier church wedding with the little smiling, black-eyed ring bearer looking so angelic. The Methodist Church was crowded with loving friends from the Shelbyville, Center, and other neighboring towns. The bridal party proceeded to the home of the bride immediately after the ceremony where an elegant dinner awaited them. The dinner party over, midst showers of rice and good wishes, the happy couple left for Center where they boarded the train for Tyler., stopping over with his brother S.A. Pounds, for a few hours at Lufkin, arriving home Monday night.

The bride is the youngest daughter of Mr. R.P. Windham, a wealthy planter known throughout the eastern portion of the State; while the groom is a son of Rev W.A. Pounds, Pastor of the E. Tyler Methodist Church, is a brilliant young man connected with the Guaranty State Bank. This happy couple will be at home to their many friends after January 1st, at 125 S. Broadway.

My father was in Prague when the Russians invaded

Tylerite Saw Big Change with Russians in Prague

"Everything was so peaceful there in Prague, Czechoslovakia, before the Russians came," related W. Abe Pounds Jr., a Tyler man who was there on Aug. 20 when the capital city came under siege. "Actually, the Czechs just didn't believe it would happen."

"Suddenly, the city changed. It became a hotbed of gunfire, disruption and emotional tears shed by citizens of the beautiful city."

POunds arrived in Prague on a Sunday night and went immediately to a room he had reserved with Czech friends across the Labe River. He was on a two months tour of the country in connection with studies for a Doctorate Degree in languages. He had already been to Russia and other Communist areas and planned to do some work in Prague.

Then, suddenly late Tuesday, Prague took on the image of a city in mourning, Pounds said. The Czechs reacted more with sadness and despair than with hatred or war-like attitudes. In addition to lowering their flags to half mast, they taped the mouths of their famous statues and placed small flags over the eyes of stone images. He noted the eyes of most residents were wet as they cried constantly.

Meanwhile, Czech's military had been imprisoned, police guns stripped away, stores closed and a scene of almost total industrial inactivity permeated the city. Public transportation came to a halt as Russian tanks either blocked traffic or their heavy tracks damages streets and rail lines beyond use. News media, including radio, television and newspapers, went to the underground and managed to keep the public fairly, but not completely, informed.

Food supplies became short, Pounds said, as stores only opened for a short while each day, selling only to regular Czech customers. Cafes and hotels closed down. Czech residents hid away foods fearful the Russians might take them away.

The Tyler man lived on tea and pears for two days, slipped to him by friends who wanted to share but must save enough for their families.

"Throughout the city were signs painted by Czech people which showed a Swastika inside a red star," he said. "Persons who remembered said the 1939 invasion by the Nazis were more calm than this one."

He noted that on Wednesday, which citizens termed "funeral day," the women wore black only and the men placed a strip of black cloth over their hearts. "You are here on our funeral day," they would tell the American with tears in their eyes.

Pounds said he never actually saw a Russian soldier touched, or attacked in any manner, though they were apparently heckled as groups of people would surround the soldier asking "Why?"

He said most of the questioning resistance and heckling was done by students and hippies - of which he thought were plentiful. At least two Russian tanks were set afire as students would grab blazing flags, speed to the tank, rupture their auxiliary gasoline tanks and set ablaze.

Meanwhile, though most taxicabs and private autos were used as ambulances, a few would speed through a section of the city, drop newspapers and speed away. Pounds saw a group of students in a convertible throwing out papers and leaflets so the public could read.

"Then the Russians got busy and started their own propaganda newspapers," he related.

The Prague press, however, was able to publish the full story of Stalinism to the Czechs, many too young to have known about the atrocities of Stalin days and who had never read it before.

With Russian solders in the city and its perimeter surrounded, outbound transportation closed down. There were no airlines or trains of which a person could leave at will, Pounds said.

He summed up the whole of the trouble in the two Communist countries as that Russia was troubled about the Czechs new freedoms. Because Czechoslovakia borders territories of West Germany and Prague is less than 50 miles away, the Tyler traveler is convinced the Russian rulers were afraid of western influence.

This was particularly true during the past seven months and Russia became convinced this buffer city and its liberalization simply must return to what they term "normalcy."

So they sent in the troops and tanks and virtually paralyzed Prague's entire concept of freedom.

Pounds doesn't know what led to the riddling of the city's great museum by Soviet tanks. They simply blasted away for no apparent reason. The Czechs didn't know, either.

After being informed on Thursday that refugee trains would be available, Pounds said the very act of getting out of the city became a monumental task.

First, he walked two or three miles to what he had been told was the proper railroad station. Finding only confusion and the American Embassy still more confused, Pounds said, with the help of Prague citizens he finally made the train to Munich, Germany. The train carried 345 Americans.

In Munich, he was able to contact his parents in Tyler. The Embassy there, he noted, was well organized, very helpful and thorough.

From there, W. Abe Pounds had no trouble in getting on to Texas.

EDITORIAL

Abe's 54 Years

Most of the features of Tyler which are pointed out with pride have been achieved in the past 54 years, and directly or indirectly the business and civic career of W. A. "Abe" Pounds has contributed to most of them.

Today marks his retirement from most of the active duties as chief executive officer and Board Chairman of Tyler Bank & Trust Company, which he served as president for 20 years starting in 1941.

In a life that began on FRiday the 13th (of March) in 1894, the half century of it spent in Tyler has been about as varied as the way the beginning compares to the present. Abe Pounds started banking as secretary to Tom Butler, banker and founder of this publishing company, and the first office equipment included a typewriter and a broom. The young man from center was familiar with the operation of both, he recalls.

There have been remarkable changes and experiences unlimited between that beginning and, for example, Mr. POunds' participation in the past year as one of the organizers of Fleetway Airlines, Tyler-based and Texas' newest regular carrier.

In general, the "partial-retirement" announcement of Mr. Pounds' reduced banking activity provided a good chance for summary of his total activity record under such descriptions as banking and finance; civic leadership and organizational work and affairs of the Methodist Church.

On the occasion of his being honored a few years ago by church members from over Texas, he was perhaps best described by one speaker as "the best friend a Methodist preacher in Texas ever has had". To most who heard it, this sentence spoke volumes. Rev. William Archer Pounds was pastor in 1912 at church now known as St. Paul's Methodist Church in Tyler, and his son Abe became treasurer of the Texas Methodist Conference in 1923.

In the field of community and civic affairs, Abe Pounds has been a tireless worker in nearly every worthwhile group from the local to the state-wide level, and has been elected president of most of them. He was recognized as Tyler's Outstanding citizen in 1940. To his wife, Isabelle, however, goes credit for the creation of they family flower garden, one of Tyler's most beautify and a "must" to be seen each year during the Azalea Trail.

Inside his own banking organization and other businesses where he is influential, Abe Pounds has had one impressive record that doesn't show in the written pages, but is written in the ultimate achievement., The same has been true of his policies towards customers and others he served. It has been the application of the principle of giving support, opportunity and responsibility to young men at the time when they needed it most, and when they probably found the doors closed elsewhere.

The chapter on his fourth career - fishing - hasn't made much progress toward being written, probably because of the difficulty in separating fact from fiction, and we salute the fisherman himself with a sincere editorial wish of much more of everything.

My Father was the Texas Rose Festival President in 1964

FIRST BACHELOR TO HOLD JOB

W. Abe Pounds Jr. Festival President

W. Abe Pounds Jr., personable 36-year-old bachelor, is this year's Texas Rose Festival Association president.

An exceedingly active citizen, he has to his credit a long string of civic services but still finds time to participate in sports, study languages, Enjoy good music and practice being an amateur chef.

He is quite and friendly with a ready smile and highly expressive countenance, stockily built, with black hair, green eyes and olive complexion.

Pounds regards the 1964 Texas Rose Festival as exceptionally good, and says his own job as president has been easy due to the hard work of the Executive Committee. Each committee member diligently nurtured his or her phase of the Festival, he said.

Now in his eight year of work with the Rose Festival, Pounds is the only bachelor ever to be president o the Festival Association or of the Order of the Rose; he has been president of both.

He has worked his way up year after year with the Festival, so that by now the has performed a multitude of jobs for it.

Pounds feels that the people who do the most work for the Rose Festival get the greatest value from the annual event. There are well over 1,000 volunteer workers, and this project gives them the opportunity to get acquainted, thus widening their circles of friendship, he explained. Other values of the FEstival Pounds noted, are the national publicity which it gives Tyler and the genuine civic pride it generates in Tyler people for their town.

In prior years, Pounds has been treasurer, vice president, and president of the Order of the Rose. This in the organization which at each Rose Festival presents the Rose Queen, her Court and visiting representatives at the FRiday night invitational Queen's Ball and sponsors the free Saturday night Fiesta Night program in Rose Stadium and the Queen's Ball open to the public on Saturday night.

Before 1964, Pounds has held the following top offices in the Texas Rose Festival Association: vice president of rose activities, vice president of distinguished guests, vide president of the Coronation, and executive vice president. He is the current president.

Pounds early this year received the W.C. Windsor Award as Tyler's outstanding young civic worker for 1963. Presentation was made at Tyler Chamber of Commerce's annual banquet.

Born and reared in Tyler, Pounds in the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Pounds Sr. His father was president of the Rose Festival Association in 1936. W. Abe Jr. graduated at the University of Texas in 1950 with a bachelor of arts degree in economics. He has attended schools in New York City, Mexico City, and Paris France.

The 1964 Festival Association president has numerous hobbies. Just now he is studying French and German, slowly working toward a degree in languages.

He likes to ski, which he has done at Aspen, Colo., each winter for the last 10 years. He also has skied at Sun VAlley, Squaw Valley, Santa Fe and Bromley (Vermont). He learned skiing little by little over the years, training with instructors.

Snorkel fish-spearing is another of Pounds' avid hobbies. Wearing a mask and a snorkel (a device for breathing) he swims under water to spear the fish. He has enjoyed this pastime in California in the summers. Last summer he did snorkel fishing though the Greek islands and up the Yugoslavian coast.

Pounds keeps himself in shape during the winter by weight lifting.

A love of all music when it is played properly, Pounds enjoys every type from the Beatles though the heaviest operas.

Pounds is a past vice president and director of the East Texas Symphony Association, past director and budget committee member of the United Community Fund, past director of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, past chairman of the Smith County March of Dimes, treasurer and director of the East Texas Hospital Foundation, past treasurer and director of the Tyler Civic Theater.

He is a partner in the Broadway Insurance Agency. Sevre3tary-treasurer and director of the Tyler Civic Theater.

He is a partner in the Broadway Insurance Agency. Secretary-treasurer of the Del-Tex. Oil Company of Tyler, a director of Tyler Bank and Trust company and director in EAst Texas Savings and Loan Association.