John Wesley Durham, Jr.

John Wesley Durham, Jr., veteran newsman, university communications director, and educator died March 10, 2025, with his family at his bedside after a long and quiet struggle with Alzheimer’s dementia. He was 80 years old.

John’s career in journalism and then public relations and teaching spanned 40 years. He was rarely seen without a reporter’s notebook and pen in his back pocket. John described himself as a reporter, not a writer, but he was both. He worked for newspapers in Texas and California, including the Houston Chronicle, the San Diego Evening Tribune, the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the Austin-American Statesman. His story about Marvin Zindler, legendary Houston broadcast personality, appeared in the first edition of Texas Monthly Magazine. While at the Statesman, he debuted a humor column about his family, which was well-received by the general public but mostly disdained by his teenage daughter who never quite lived down her decision not to accompany her parents to see the Rolling Stones on the Steel Wheels tour.

Upon hearing of John’s death, former newspaper colleagues shared their memories:

“I’ll always be grateful to this kind man who took a chance on me.”

“He was so smart, so kind, so very funny.”

“He was a solid and dependable reporter and helped me navigate the crazy twists and turns of state government. He was also a friend and family man.”

“A kind and funny man, John would regularly lunch on a pint of Blue Bell ice cream from the convenience store. . .”

John was a gentleman’s gentleman, a quick, quiet wit and a snappy dresser. Good man.”

“He had a magician’s touch as an editor. A lovely, sweet, gentle fella.”

“He was the real deal.”

In 1990, John joined the University of Texas at Austin as Director of the University News and Information Service and was charged with internal and external communication. He and his family (with the exception of said teenage daughter, who stayed behind to continue her college studies) left Texas in 1994 for Greenville, NC, where John became Director of Public Affairs and then Executive Director of University Communications at East Carolina University. He also taught undergraduate courses in communications and was Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trustees before retiring from ECU in 2012.

John was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dementia that same year, and he and his wife decided to move back to Texas to be closer to family. A Texan through and through, John delighted in telling those around him about all of the places he’d lived in the state, and how he’d lived in most of them without air conditioning!

John was born in Huntsville, TX, to John W. Durham and Bessie Mable Durham. After John’s father returned from WWII, the family moved to Baytown, where John spent most of his childhood. He was co-captain of the basketball team at Robert E. Lee High School, co-valedictorian, and was a National Merit Scholarship finalist. In 1966, he enrolled in Rice University in Houston, where he was editor of the student newspaper, the Rice Thresher, and graduated with an undergraduate degree in anthropology. John went on to get a master’s degree in communication from Stanford University and later returned to work on his doctorate in that field.

John was a VISTA Volunteer (Volunteers in Service to America) in Tucumcari, NM, involved in community action programs. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969 and served as editor of the base newspaper in Fort McClellan, AL, and as correspondent and assistant bureau chief for Pacific Stars & Stripes, the military newspaper, in Saigon. While in the service, John was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal.

John’s values of equality, fairness and justice permeated everything he said and did. He was a good soldier, facing disappointment with grace, and a good man who would do anything for his family and friends. John loved to cook, read, tell a good joke and play his air guitar to the Stones’ “Satisfaction.” John had a particular fondness for never letting either of his children win at Scrabble. He was often called “jovial John” because his smile was as broad as he was tall. His intellect, humor and integrity reached farther than most and, as his mother had insisted, he left his world, his campsites and those who knew him in a better place.

John met his wife, Connie Lunnen, at the Houston Chronicle, where they were both reporters. They were married 51 years. He was the love of her life, and she was the love of his. John is survived by Connie, his daughter Genevieve Durham, her daughters Sofi and Georgia, her stepson Dylan, and her former partner Patrick DeCesaro, all currently of Lubbock. He is also survived by his son Jeff and his wife Erin and their children Riley, Emma Grace and Mia of Wilmington, NC. John also leaves his brother Tom and his wife Mary Macina Durham and their children Josh and Caitlin Durham of Pflugerville.

The family thanks Hospice of Lubbock for always being present, the residents of Raider Ranch who made John feel so welcomed, and the staff at Wilshire on Fourth for their patience and loving care. The family is grateful to the volunteers at Treasured Times for their spirited embrace of John and Connie. The family will host a celebration of John’s life at a later date. If you are so inclined, in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Alzheimer's Association.

To be sure, John leaves us with a reporter’s notebook and a pen in his back pocket, ready for the next big story.