85R10323 JGH-D
By: Neave H.R. No. 434
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, A full and generous life has drawn to a close with
the death of Dr. John Allen Ehrhardt of Dallas on February 1, 2017;
and
WHEREAS, Born in Houston in 1931, Jack Ehrhardt attended
Highland Park High School, where he served as captain of the
football team, and Rice University before earning his medical
degree at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School;
after interning at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, he
joined the U.S. Air Force, rising to the rank of captain; following
his military service, he received further medical training at
Tulane University and Hermann Hospital in Houston; he maintained a
successful private practice in East Dallas for more than 30 years,
and he also taught at UT Southwestern Medical School, which named
him professor emeritus; held in high regard among his peers, he
served as president of the Dallas Academy of Ophthalmology; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Ehrhardt shared 62 years of matrimony with the
Honorable Harryette Bushong Ehrhardt, a former member of the Texas
House of Representatives who survives him; he took great pride in
his five children and his extended family, Ginger Twichell and Sam
Leake, Taffy and Scott Nelson, Lynn and Mike O'Neal, John and
Melissa Ehrhardt, Katy Henderson, and Mike Twichell, and in his
later life, he was further blessed with 13 grandchildren and 4
great-grandchildren; and
WHEREAS, Valuing ideals of diversity and inclusion,
Dr. Ehrhardt and his wife purchased and restored an old "hippie
commune" on Swiss Avenue in Dallas so that their children could
attend what was then the only naturally integrated high school in
the city; he also took special delight in Halloween, when he would
distribute candy to more than 3,000 children and voter registration
cards to their parents; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Ehrhardt was a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan, and
the entire family attended games together; he was also a scuba
diver, an underwater photographer, and an inveterate traveler who
could lay claim to having visited every continent; among his prized
possessions was his collection of 400 owls, which were gifts from
grateful patients; and
WHEREAS, Jack Ehrhardt lived a life that was rich in both
accomplishments and lasting relationships, and his humanity, no
less than his achievements, will continue to inspire all those who
were fortunate enough to know him; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 85th Texas
Legislature hereby pay tribute to the memory of Dr. John Allen
Ehrhardt and extend heartfelt sympathy to his family and many
friends; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
prepared for his family and that when the Texas House of
Representatives adjourns this day, it do so in memory of Dr. John
Allen Ehrhardt.