George Herbert "Chick" Kratzer

George Herbert “Chick” Kratzer came into this world on August 14, 1939 in Roanoke, Louisiana as the first child of his mother Johnnie Mae Bergeron Kratzer and father George Kratzer. After 83 years and three months, he went home to be with the Lord on November 13, 2022. His retirement years were spent living in the relaxed setting on Lake Livingston in Coldspring, Texas with his loving wife Dolores “Dolly” Salsky, where he was a long-time member of St. Stephen Catholic Church.

Chick Kratzer spent his childhood and adolescent years in Roanoke, Louisiana, a small rural community in southwest Louisiana. He was active in high school sports, most notably advancing to state finals in track (880 relay, broad jump, and hurdle events) his junior and senior years as well as the state basketball playoffs those years.

After graduation from Roanoke High School in 1957, he pursued and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1961 and then a master’s degree in chemical engineering in 1963, both from Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, currently known as Louisiana Tech. He began his professional career working for DuPont in Orange, Texas with his wife Rita Mae Courville Kratzer. Chick and Rita had three sons – Mark, Randy, and Eric.

Chick spent his professional career in the petrochemical industry doing a variety of assignments for DuPont for approximately 20 years (living in Orange, Texas, Wilmington, Delaware, and then back to Orange), then later for Soltex Polymer (moving to the Kingwood area northeast of Houston) and Fluor Daniel (living in the greater Houston area), and finally consulted for Petro Technics before settling into the retirement lifestyle on Lake Livingston fulltime in 2011.

Chick loved the outdoors and loved to hunt. He spent countless hours in duck blinds and deer blinds. Some of his favorite memories involved hunting or being on the lake with his kids and grandkids. He enjoyed history, especially events related to World War II. He always loved helping others – whether it was a mundane task such as painting a room or a full-scale project such as building a fence or remodeling a home for Habitat for Humanity. A couple of his favorite projects were preparing the log centerpieces for his granddaughter’s wedding and engineering a spiral staircase for his lake neighbors.

Chick is survived by his wife Dolly, his son Mark Kratzer and family (wife Brenna; son Scott and his wife Cara, their sons Braxton and Brooks; daughter Morgan and her husband Tyler), Chick’s second son Randy and his youngest son Eric. Chick was the oldest of five children: he is also survived by his brothers Kenneth, Paul (and Paul’s son Michael and Michael’s family – wife Lindsay and daughters Lucy and Ellie), and Doug, along with his sister Dianne and her husband Olan. Additionally, Chick leaves behind a multitude of beloved Salsky and Courville family members along with numerous Kratzer and Bergeron relatives.

The family will receive friends on Sunday, November 20, 2022 from 4pm-7pm at Pace-Stancil Funeral Home in Coldspring where a rosary will be said at 6pm. A memorial service celebrating his life is scheduled for 11:00am, Monday, November 21, 2022 at St. Stephens Catholic Mission Church in Point Blank, Texas. Interment will follow at 2pm at Elmina Cemetery in New Waverly, Texas.

The family cannot express enough love and gratitude for Ms. Essie McKinney, a Certified Nurses Assistant, who devoted countless hours caring for Chick. Her insights and loving personality made a difficult situation bearable.

The family welcomes donations to Care/Share Mission - Coldspring and St. Jude Children's hospital as an expression of sympathy in lieu of flowers. 

https://www.caresharefoodpantry.org/

www.stjude.org