Alvin Sammons Nuckolls, Jr.

Alvin Sammons Nuckolls, Jr., the only child of Alvin Sammons and Eva Waldrep Nuckolls died Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011, in Oklahoma City. He was born Sept. 5, 1920, in Shawnee, OK. Alvin attended the Shawnee schools until he transferred in high school to Riverside Military Academy in Georgia. The next year he transferred again to the McCallie School in Chattanooga, TN. He graduated from McCallie in 1939, then proceeded to the Rice Institute in Houston, TX. He graduated from Rice with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1943. After college, Alvin worked for the Douglas Aircraft Company, which at that time had a division located at Tinker Field. He joined the navy, received training and a commission, and was assigned to the aircraft maintenance section at Pearl Harbor. After the war, Alvin returned to Oklahoma and worked for Unit Rig in Tulsa for a relatively short time. Then, he, his cousin Bill Nuckolls, and their Shawnee friend Chub Bell, founded the Nuckolls Bell partnership and engaged in drilling oil wells in the central Oklahoma area for the next 20 years. Subsequently, Alvin founded Nuckolls Drilling Company. He later worked for Resource Drilling Company of Houston, TX, and Tri Max Bit Company in Norman, OK. He was a member of the 1st Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City, the American Legion, the NRA, and several oil industry related organizations. Alvin was a very private person, quiet, but not uninterested in others, and many times very prescient about their feelings. He was a perfectionist who wanted everything done just so, and was willing to try new ways of doing things. He was a hard worker to make things come out right. He was very independent, pretty much a male chauvinist - not in a bad way - it was just the way he was raised. His father came from a family of 7 boys and no girls, and so, he had lots of uncles to emulate and mentor him. Alvin was honest and did his best to do the right thing. Along life's way, Alvin made several very good friends whom he retained throughout his and their lives. Out of all these friends, only two survive Alvan (one being his college roommate), so I envision some happy reunions in heaven. He is survived by his wife Carolyn, his Cousin, Dorothy Defenbaugh, late of Shawnee, OK and now living in The Woodlands, TX, and the son of his Cousin Bill, Charles Nuckolls of Provo, Utah.