JOHN MAX MINOR, COL. USAF (RET.) died peacefully on Saturday morning, the 23rd of June 2007, in Houston. He was 84 years old. Born in Haskell, Texas on the 27th of November 1922, Max Minor was raised in Tahoka, Texas. He was dubbed the "Terror of Tahoka" when recruited for the University of Texas football and track team in 1940. He played for the Longhorns from 1940-43, making the first touchdown in the 1943 Cotton Bowl to win 14-7 against Georgia Tech. Max was also a SWC sprint champion. Transferring from UT to West Point during WWII, Minor earned Grantland-Rice All-American honors when the 1944 Army team won a national title, trouncing Notre Dame 59-0 along the way. Max claimed an individual track national championship in the 60-yard low hurdles in the Spring of 1946. At his 1946 graduation from West Point, Minor received the Academy's Best Athlete award. As a 29-year career military officer, Col. Minor served the country in multiple ways. He was a Strategic Air Command (SAC) squadron commander from 1947 until 1957, flying B-36s, B-47s and serving as a high altitude test pilot in the RB-57. He flew missions in the Korean conflict while in SAC. In 1957 he returned to West Point as the Air Force Liaison officer until 1963 when he joined the Air Attaché group, serving in the American Embassy in Paris until 1966. He returned to war in 1968 shortly before the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and commanded a reconnaissance squadron where he flew 475 missions as an RB-57 pilot. He ended his career in the Department of Defense (DOD) at the Pentagon, retiring in December of 1975. Col. Minor is survived by his wife, Jean Ferguson Edens Minor; his three children, Gerald Counts Minor and wife Beth, Margaret Anne Minor, James William Minor and wife Pamela; two step-children, Robert Edens and Elizabeth Edens Procter and husband Tommy; five grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; five step-great-grand children; and his former wife, Anne Counts Minor. Published in the Houston Chronicle from 6/25/2007 - 6/26/2007.