Wayne Mitchell Greer was born on Aug. 11, 1938 in Goldsboro, to Ross and Mildred Greer. He graduated from Coleman High School in 1957. He began working in the printing business at age 14 and went on to spend the next 58 years in the newspaper and printing business finally retiring at the age of 72.
Wayne’s first passion away from work was with the volunteer fire service, spending over 40 years donating his time to help and serve others. Wayne was a long time member of the McCamey Volunteer Fire Department. He served various offices in the department including being chief for numerous years. He also served as a guest instructor at the annual Texas A&M Fire School for many years (too many to recall). He taught portable fire extinguishers at both the municipal school in the summer as well as the spring training session.
Wayne taught at several area schools throughout the years which included Andrews, Floyadada, San Angelo and wherever his expertise was called upon. He was a member of the LaPorte VFD in the early seventies. While at LaPorte VFD he was certified as an EMT and served on the ambulance service as well. He became a certified EMT/ECA instructor and trained many EMT’s in LaPorte and west Texas in the 70s and early 80s. He is a past president of the Permian Basin Firefighter’s Association and served on the financial board with the State Fire Marshalls and Firefighters Association during the late 80s and early 90s.
Wayne’s second passion was fixing things. He wasn’t just a mechanic but a genius when it came to troubleshooting and repairing just about anything you put in front of him. If he couldn’t fix it then it probably couldn’t be fixed. And then there was flying and fishing. Wayne was probably his happiest when he was either flying around in his Cherokee or catching (or at least attempting to catch) a fish.
Wayne is survived by his wife Guyla of Possum Kingdom Lake, his sister Margie Candler of Los Alamos, New Mexico, his children Monte and Chrissy Greer of Horseshoe Bay, Alan and Robin Greer of Lipan, Dennis and Mandy Greer of McCamey, Marla and Jerry Don Cook of Brady, Shane and Rhonda Flanagan of Possum Kingdom Lake and Mike Williams of Odessa, 33 grandchildren, 58 great grandchildren, 10 great-great grandchildren, way too many nieces and nephews to count and his faithful companion Cheech.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his two older brothers: Clinton and Guy Greer. Even after death, Wayne insisted on training others by donating his body to science for research and training purposes. Wayne requested that there not be a funeral service. He didn’t want anyone to fuss over him. Wayne did request that if any type of service was held, that it would be a joyous service that allowed people to tell their stories and to laugh with him one last time. The family agreed to honor his wishes and not hold a funeral service but instead hold a celebration of life in his honor. Wayne’s celebration will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20 at Possum Kingdom Community Church.