John Allen Wells

Written by his wife, Alice Chappell Wells. I never expected to be writing this so soon. John Allen Wells, my beloved husband, died on Tuesday, January 24th, 2023 at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital from complications with sepsis. John was 75 years old and at the age of 19 married Alice Chappell Holmes who was born 3 days before him in the same hospital in Greenwood, Mississippi. They were married for 55 years before God called him home. John and Chappell shared a wonderful life together raising a loving daughter, Chappell Alan, named after their middle names. Chappell Alan Wells married Paul Douglas Block and together they gave John and Chappell three beautiful grandchildren: Jonathan Douglas Block, Morgan Chappell Block Bomer, and Anderson Paul Block. Jonathan and Anderson live in Sugar Land, Texas and so do Paul and Chappell Block. John and Chappell built their home in the same neighborhood and have lived there together for 30 years. Morgan and her husband, Daniel Wright Bomer, live in San Diego, California.

John's mother, Gladys Irene Williamson Wells, passed away on May 2nd, 1971. John's 3 brothers are no longer with us. Phillip Whitman Wells died on July 25th, 1989, Paul Alexander Wells Ⅲ on March 4th, 1997 and Michael Oliver Wells in 2006. John and Chappell graduated from Greenwood High School in May of 1965 and married in 1966. Shortly after becoming married, he joined the United States Army Reserve. He was honorably discharged, specialist Four, USAR on August 28th, 1972. John earned his M.S. in physics with a math minor in December 1973 from Mississippi State University. He earned his B.S. in mathematics and chemistry with a minor in physics in August 1971 from Delta State University. While attending graduate school, he was awarded a teaching assistantship in the physics department. Because of his academic record, he was on the Dean's List, The President's List and was elected a Faculty Scholar. In the Spring of 1973, he was honored by being invited to present a paper at the meeting of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences in Biloxi, the only undergraduate on the program. His research area was in microwave molecular spectroscopy.

John encouraged his family to attend Sunday school and church activities at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Meyerland. John served on the Vestry, was a church usher, and very active in Sunday School. His wife and daughter taught Sunday School for many years.

In 1974, upon graduation, he began working for Texaco, Inc. at the Bellaire Research Laboratory in Houston, Texas. He worked there from 1974-1979 in the area of enhanced oil recovery processes and was awarded two United States patents with which were assigned to Texaco, Inc. In 1976, he began working with Texaco's Houston Division Log Analysis Section in developing a computerized log analysis system, "TEXLAS." This program was designed to perform shaley sand and carbonate analysis with the added feature of a color coded, interpreted, foot by foot print out. Contributed subroutines in the areas of permeability and porosity determinations and plot formatting. He became the technical coordinator for the CO2 - Thermal Field Implementation Group, which included: describing the reservoir geology through Log interpretation and development of contours on structures, porosity, and sand thickness; and performing calculations to determine optimal pilot pattern parameters, such as pattern geometry, injection rate and quality, duration of pilot, and predictions of incremental recovery efficiency. In 1979, he became employed by Intercomp Resource Development and Engineering, Inc. He was the manager of Reservoir Engineering. In 1983, Intercomp merged with Scientific Software Corp. to form the Scientific Software-Intercomp (SSI). John was Manager of the Houston Reservoir Engineering Department of the Exploration and Production Consulting Services Division. After leaving Scientific Software-Intercomp (SSI), John worked independently for a while before joining Dowdle, Fairchild and Ancell. He later became a partner in Fairchild and Wells, Inc. In 2002, John formed Wells Chappell and Company, Inc., a successful petroleum engineering company in Sugar Land, Texas. Wells Chappell offers consulting services in problem solving and decision making in oil, gas, and field operations. He led the company with the help of his son-in-law, Paul Douglas Block, for 20 years and continued to enjoy his work up until his passing. John was very personable with all his clients. Sharing many current events in his family life and enjoying hearing about theirs.

Some of John's professional memberships include: the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME and the American Gas Association. John was a member of two country clubs: BraeBurn Country Club, where he earned the 1994 Golf Runner-up Club Championship with a 77 and 86, and Sweetwater Country Club. John enjoyed every activity that his daughter, Chappell Alan, participated in and especially enjoyed teaching her how to water ski, snow ski, pitch a tent, etc. After Chappell Alan graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with her B.S. in nursing, John was incredibly proud of her accomplishment. But what he really got excited about is when we found out Paul Douglas Block, who also graduated from UT asked her to marry him. John said, "this is going to be good! A blessing! I am going to have a son-in-law with sense and then grandchildren someday to enjoy all kinds of fun and to love." John certainly loved his grandchildren. He had child sized golf clubs in Jonathan's hands when he was 9 months old. As Jonathan grew older, John took him to soccer, baseball, basketball, etc. practices and games - sometimes changing him into different uniforms 3 times in one day. Cub Scouts and church activities were fun times. Morgan was in dance, girl scouts (brownies), and gymnastics, and John especially loved seeing Morgan doing so well in all her activities. Helping his grandchildren with school science projects was one of his favorite things to do with them. When Anderson was born, John couldn't believe he now had 3 grandchildren to take snow skiing and go on cruises, and more baseball games, soccer games, and now tennis matches. John encouraged his grandchildren to do well in school because he knows this would be an excellent foundation for the future. He was incredibly proud of Jonathan when he graduated from Texas Tech in Lubbock with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems in December 2017. Morgan, his only granddaughter, gave him great pleasure and pride seeing her achieve academic success at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas with a BA in Geosciences and English. He was thrilled when Morgan decided to continue her education by earning her Master's degree in Climate Science and Policy from the renowned Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. John loved having another grandchild to watch and help take on the world. John said, "Anderson is very smart and is going to do whatever it takes to reach his goals. After watching Jonathan and Morgan become successful in their fields of study, John said, "I'm not worried about Anderson, he will be happy and able to take on all his visions for the future." After a year of attending the University of Houston, Anderson decided that he would attend Texas State Technical College to pursue his associate degree in electrical power and controls. His grandchildren made him so happy and proud to be their grandfather. He loved every minute he spent with his family and he gave all of us many, many minutes - all his time in the world. His family meant everything to him and we all feel the same way about him. He was so thoughtful, kind, caring, and very smart in giving us advice. He was the head of our family, gave the blessing and believed that Jesus Christ is our savior. Rest in Peace, John.

The service and viewing for John Wells will be held from 9 – 11 a.m. Monday, January 30, 2023 at Leal Funeral Home (11123 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX 77079) with the service beginning at 9:30 a.m. His burial and graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at Glenwood Cemetery in Yazoo City, Mississippi.

Wilson & Knight Funeral Home is in charge of local arrangements.