William Brock Faulkner
July 28, 1981 – February 17, 2016
William Brock Faulkner, 34, of Bryan was released to the presence of Jesus on Wednesday, February 17, 2016, after fighting a two-year battle with leukemia.
Born on July 28, 1981 in Bryan to Bill and Martha Faulkner, Brock married Brittney Schlatre May 22, 2004 in Baton Rouge, LA. He graduated from Bryan High School in 2000, and earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M in Agricultural Engineering. He was a proud member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band (A-Battery), Class of 2004.
Brock learned to ranch from his Granddaddy. From those earliest days driving t-posts to establishing his own beef cattle operation, he was deeply connected to the family land.
His career in teaching culminated in serving as Assistant Professor at A&M; he advised the Secretary of Agriculture on the USDA Agricultural Air Quality Task Force, to which he was just re-appointed; and he consulted for cattle ranchers in Colorado. Among his many awards are the 2012 Texas A&M College of Agriculture Award for Outstanding Achievement in Early Career Research, and the 2014 Gale Holloway ASABE Professional Development Award. His greatest professional joy, though, was working with students. He leaves an uncommon legacy of young men and women who were deeply impacted by his teaching and mentorship.
Brock served as an elder with Community Church of Bryan/College Station. His personal investment in his church community was wholehearted, even in his most difficult seasons. Above all his professional and ranching achievements, Brock’s deepest love was and is for Jesus, his wife, children, family, friends, and the people of Community Church.
Brock is survived by his wife Brittney, son Emery, daughter Lyla Kate, and son Charlie; his mother Martha Faulkner, his brother and sister-in-law C.W. and Emily Faulkner and their children Brenna, Joseph, & Carly; and numerous other devoted family members and friends. He was preceded in death by his father Bill.
Visitation will be Saturday, February 20, 3:30-6:00 p.m. at Memorial Funeral Home in Bryan. A service celebrating Brock’s life will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 21 at Grace Bible Church Anderson Campus in College Station. A graveside service will follow at Reliance Church Cemetery in Reliance, northeast of Bryan.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Faulkner Fund through Community Church would be appreciated. These will be used to support Brock’s children, other families going through cancer treatment, and to plant trees on the family ranch in Brock’s honor. Checks should be marked “Faulkner Fund” and sent to Community Church, PO Box 10977, College Station, Texas, 77842.
The Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department is greatly saddened to report the death of Dr. William Brock Faulkner on February 17, 2016.
A remembrance event for Dr. Faulkner is planned by the BAEN students for Friday, February 19, at 4:00 pm in Scoates Hall 208. All are welcome. We anticipate a high turnout in celebration of Dr. Faulkner. Please RSVP so we can accommodate as many as possible. For details regarding visitor parking on campus please view this parking map.
There will be a visitation from 3:30-6:00 Saturday afternoon at Memorial Funeral Chapel in Bryan, 1515 South College Avenue.
The service will be at 2:30 Sunday afternoon at Grace Bible Church, Anderson Campus, 700 Anderson Drive in College Station. Parking will be a challenge, and we will have some specific parking requests for you before Sunday to enable as many people as possible to park as simply as possible. Please make a point of coming back here before Sunday to find that information.
A graveside service will follow at Reliance Church Cemetery. Here are directions to the cemetery from Bryan: Proceed east on FM 158 (Wm Joel Bryan Parkway, which becomes Boonville Road) for 3.1 miles to FM 1179. Take a left on FM 1179 for 6.7 miles to the cemetery, located on the left near the intersection of FM 1179 and Reliance Church Road. There also is a map on this page: http://www.brazoscountyhistory.org/node/73.
Carpooling/parking for the service: As we have mentioned before, parking is a challenge at the Grace Anderson campus. Carpool with others if you can. There will be limited parking available near the building in Grace’s lots, so we’re asking those for whom a short walk isn’t challenging to please park further up Anderson (toward campus) at A&M Consolidated Middle School or along Anderson itself (check the signs – we believe it’s legal to park along the street at that time). Feel free to circle through and drop folks off at the building, then park elsewhere. In general, the available parking locations include both Grace lots (by the main building and across the street at the college facility), Anderson Park just south of the building, some of the streets around the building, and the Middle School lots.
Carpooling/parking for the graveside: Again, there will be limited parking at Reliance Cemetery, so please carpool to the graveside if you can. It would be best not to leave our cars in the Grace lots when we leave since they have some other evening ministries coming in behind us, so you might meet some others at the Bryan Target parking lot (southeast corner of Hwy 6 and Briarcrest) and carpool from there. It is on the way from the church to the cemetery.
Livestream: For those who cannot make it in from out of town, we will provide a live online stream of the service, thanks to some of our church members and Brock’s close friends who own and operate the website TexAgs. This only will play live; there will be no recording or playback for you to access after the service. You can access the stream at this link around the time of the service: http://texags.com/special/live
Pre-service viewing: Some have asked if there will be a viewing before the service for those who did not make it tonight. The service itself will be closed casket, but the funeral director indicated there would be some possible viewing time between about 1:30 (have grace if doors are not open quite that early) and 2:15 or so.
News Articles:
Texas A&M professor remembered as brilliant, caring at emotional memorial service | The Eagle, February 20, 2016
Aggies Give Back to Beloved Professor | KBTX, March 24, 2014