Here is Joe Reneau’s obituary. Please accept Echovita’s sincere condolences.
It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Joe Reneau (Austin, Texas), who passed away on August 23, 2020, at the age of 88, leaving to mourn family and friends. You can send your sympathy in the guestbook provided and share it with the family. You may also light a candle in honor of Joe Reneau or send a beautiful flower arrangement to the funeral service.
Visitation will be held on Thursday, August 27th 2020 at 5:00 PM at the Cook-Walden Funeral Home (6100 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78752). A memorial service will be held on Friday, August 28th 2020 at 12:00 PM at the Hyde Park Baptist Church (3901 Speedway, Austin, TX 78751).
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/austin-tx/joe-reneau-9322477
8/25/2020
Billy, thanks for the pictures and coverage of Joe Reneau. We were both members of Great Hills Golf Club and played many enjoyable rounds together. Jim Achilles, another member, often joined us. In one particular round, Joe reminded Jim that during the Notre Dame game at the Cotton Bowl Jim had to block all-American big Mike McCoy. When the offense came off the field, Joe asked Jim how he was doing against McCoy. Jim’s reply was “ I am just diving at his ankles and annoying the hell out of him”. Classic. Jim Deitrick
8/24/2020
“What a special man”! Mike Genung
Thank you Billy and so sad to read that Dr. Reneau has passed away. He is in a better place now and his compassion for his patients and athletes set a standard for all health care providers. He truly was loved and admired by everyone who was touched by him. So many lives are saddened by his passing. Prayers and compassion to the Reneau family.
Spanky Stephens
Thank you Billy. I spent many years working with Dr. Reneau and Dr. Tickett at the UT Health Center. He was a great doctor and person. He always came by to visit with us in the pharmacy and helped out students whenever he could. I was in my early to mid-20s so everything was new to me. He was always very helpful to us young pharmacists. When we became sick he wrote prescriptions for us so we wouldn’t have to go see private doctors.
He will be missed.
Bennett
Thanks for this posting. I wonder how many surgeries Dr. Reneau performed while at UT? We had a few guys in my class that kept him busy.
Larry Smith
6/24/2020
Billy Dale says “Doctor Joe Reneau and I shared several office visits together during my years as a Longhorn football player.” All were better then any visit I ever had with “Show me what you got” Frank Medina. As DKR said with a grin "Frank treated all the boys the same.” "He treated 'em all bad.'"
Of course Frank and Joe performed different roles in the healing process so my comment about Frank is made with fond memories of his role in making the Longhorn brand great. Frank was the training, conditioning, and rehab Guru. He was the first step in healing for athletes.
Doctor Reneau , the Longhorn team physician, was the last resort to make a Longhorn athlete whole again. His smile, compassion. and overall demeanor assured the players he could heal us.
Joe Reneau Obituary
Joe R. Reneau, MD (aka Dad, Dr. Joe, Dr. Granddad and Doc)
This remarkable life story is being shared by daughter, Kathy Lorenzi.
“Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief, basketball coach…” was the lead-in to a wonderful article about Dr. Joe by George Breazeale in the Austin American Statesman March 1969. No description could be more accurately applied to a man who lived through some very important years in the history of Austin, Texas. From a personal standpoint, his family and friends can easily suggest adding to the list of Doctor, mentor, leader, confidant and friend to countless numbers of people in Austin and the surrounding areas. Truthfully, lawyer is not one of Dr Joe’s many accomplishments.
Dr. Joe Reneau was born on a farm in Chilton, TX in Falls County north of Austin on January 31, 1932. He was called by God to join His team of Angels on Sunday, August 23, 2020.
At my request, his only daughter, Dad loved to tell stories of his early life at bedtime. For the first 12 years of his life I was told that he lived a Huck Finn type of life in the hills of Westlake (long before any development) hunting, fishing and doing other shenanigans young boys might get into roaming the wood. Many of these days were spent with his cousins and friends such as Floyd and Melvin Clearman and Coleman Baily.
When he was 12, his parents separated resulting in the need for his mother to move the family to town for employment and to join her extended family. As the move was quite sudden, the much-told, and somewhat infamous, story by Dr. Joe is that he returned home one day to find a note on the front door from his mother saying, “we have moved son, come and bring the cow.” The rest of that story will be left to your imagination as Dr. Joe was far from pleased with this turn of events and supposedly, the cow was cranky.
Being adaptable, he managed to make the best of life in East Austin, living with his mother and 4 sisters, working and attending school. He graduated from Austin High School in 1949.
In his early years, Dr. Joe worked at the Salvation Army (SA) doing various chores and coaching the SA’s sport teams. It should be noted that he was a remarkable athlete with a passion for basketball. His boss at the SA saw something in this young man and took him by the hand to enroll at The University of Texas at Austin. From there, Dr. Joe became fascinated about the world around him and what one could accomplished if one worked hard enough. He graduated with a BS in Physical Education in 1956.
During the University days, while coaching a softball team for the SA, he noticed a cute young redhead who was playing on the opposing team. As he was coaching first base and she was playing first base, he took the opportunity of get to know her and found out her name to be Anna Lee Carlson. Even though they were on competing teams, he somehow convinced her to go out with him; the two were soon married in 1953. Dr. Joe always liked to say that he and Anna Lee met on First Base.
After University the happy couple with their young daughter, Kathy moved to a small west Texas town of Seminole where he was hired to teach health, counsel students and coach various sports. He soon became head basketball coach and lead his team to a great deal of success in District, Bi-District and State tournaments.
After 4 years in Seminole, Mom and Dad decided to start the journey on his dream of being a doctor. The family moved to Denton to attend North Texas State for a summer and then moved to Austin and The University of Texas in Austin to finish his pre-med studies. Dad attended class full time, worked a part time job, and, became the graduate assistant who coached the University’s freshman basketball team. With all his responsibilities, there was little time to study. As such, Dr. Joe’s grades were good but not considered anywhere close to the grades needed to get him admitted to medical school. When he approached one of his professors for a reference, Dr. Joe said the Professor thought he was nuts for even attempting to apply to medical school but, after hearing his story, the Professor offered him a chance to prove himself in order to obtain the Professor’s letter of reference. The task was to take an intelligence type test that the Professor liked to use. He told Dad that he had 30 minutes to complete the test and his score would determine whether or not he won his reference letter. He also added that to date, no one had completed the test much less answered the questions 100% correctly. Well, Dad always liked a challenge and was determined to go to medical school so agreed to the conditions. Much to the Professor’s amazement, he not only finished the test but also answered all the questions correctly! Dad received a glowing reference from this Professor.
In 1960, the family moved to Galveston on faith hoping that he would be accepted to the University of Texas Medical School. God must have known my Dad's potential as he was, miraculously, one of the last students accepted that year. Our family faced many trials and tribulations during the 4 years of medical school such as Anna being diagnosed with TB the first month after starting medical school. He was faced with the decision to quit school however, with the support of family, friends and a Professor who believed in him, he found the faith and resources to stay and graduated in 1965 in the top 1/3 of his class. Our family returned to Austin so that Dr. Joe could do a rotating internship at Brackenridge Hospital. He completed his internship July 30, 1966 and took a job with the Brackenridge emergency room while he started to build his practice. First day on the job was August 1, 1966. On this infamous day, Charles Whitman shot 44 people from the Tower at the University. Whitman killed 14 people with 31 being sent to the Brackenridge ER that day. Dr. Joe was in charge of the triage for these victims and later said “I thought I was in a war zone. We had 5 operating rooms on call, and as I examined the patients, I would send them to surgery as needed.”
In 1966, dad was approached by Stan Burnham of the University to be the team physician for the University’s athletic department. Dr. Burnham felt my dad was a natural for the job as he personally went from student athlete to coach to medical doctor. After meeting with Coach Royal and other members of the staff, he agreed to take the part time (?) job. The first year on the job saw the Longhorn football team experience a lot of injuries to the players. He worked closely with the Athletic department and the athletic trainers to find ways to reduce injuries, whether it was better made and fitted pads, to elbow and knee protection from the Astroturf, to better ways to beat the summer Texas heat, to head injury protocols. A lot of these improvements paid off as the next 3 years were considered the glory years of UT/Daryl Royal football including the 1969 national championship!
With regret, dad resigned as Team Doctor in 1972 to give full time to his own, very full private practice. However, he continued to support area high schools as team physician for several more years. As teaching was also a calling for Dr. Joe, he took on the role as adjunct professor at the University teaching courses in Athletic Injuries and Communicable/Non-communicable Diseases. He considered the proudest moment of his teaching career as follows: “While teaching the UT Health class, I helped save an athlete's life. He was the leading shot putter in the nation at that time. He had gone to the UT Student Health Center the previous week, and they sent him to his dorm saying he had a virus. [At the time] In my class I was covering the acute abdomen and his roommate was in my class. The roommate called me on Monday night saying the shot putter wasn't well and wondered if he might have the acute abdomen we discussed in class? I met him at the Health Center and called Dr. Robert Askew Sr. to examine him, we gave him 3 units of blood that night and operated on him at 7am the next morning. He had torn the splenic artery from the spleen and was bleeding internally. He recovered and thanked us for saving his life. He didn't just have a virus. I'm thankful his roommate listened so carefully to my lecture, for he did save his friend's life." Dad was known throughout his career as a brilliant diagnostician. Dr. Joe would write this..."I may be the only doctor in Texas to have graduated from UT as an under graduate, played basketball at UT, graduated with a Doctor's Degree from UT Medical School in Galveston, taught a course in Health at UT and was Team Physician for UT during "The Glory Years' from 1967-1972 with Darrell Royal."
One evening in 1969, a good friend, Harold Riley, called Dr. Joe. Mr. Riley was creating a new insurance company after much success leading another company. Mr. Riley asked Dr. Joe to be on the board of Directors and to be their Medical Director. Mr. Riley told dad that his picture was in every UT program and he was the most famous doctor in Texas so needed him in his company. Dad accepted and served as Medical Director for Citizens Insurance Company of America for 46 years until his retirement in 2015 He had a full and very busy medical practice in Northwest Austin. In addition, he built 2 new medical clinics, first on Shoal creek and then on Thunder Creek, and recruited a number of outstanding doctors to fill these clinics. From his start of practice in 1967, Dr. Joe had the vision of how northwest Austin would develop and he wanted quality medical care in the area for the growing numbers of people. He also established the first minor emergency center in Northwest Austin to treat patients at nights and on weekends.
Quality medical care was a passion for him and he spent many hours working with the American Medical Association, the American Occupational Medical Association, the Texas Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Practice and the Texas Academy of Family Practice including service on the Board of Directors, President of the Travis County Chapter both locally and nationally, to improve the medical care in the lives of people. Mom and I seldom saw dad with his dedication. In 1972 Dr. Joe was approached by Dr. Bob Anderson at Brackenridge hospital to help him start Austin’s first family practice residency program. Dr. Joe chaired the organization committee for the first year and continued to support the program for many years thereafter.
Mom and Dad somehow made time for us to have a church based, faith filled life. When Dr. Joe married Anna Lee Carlson, he joined a family that were 3rd generation members of Hyde Park Baptist Church. He was honored to become a Deacon of the church in 1976. The family were regular participants in the church and its activities and Dr. Joe even held an impromptu clinic on many Sunday mornings after the service and Sunday school as many of the members of the church were his patients. Doctor Joe was a very competitive athlete who participated in various Hyde Park supported sports through his 50’s. Basketball, fast-pitch softball, tennis and golf. He won many team awards as his teams would compete in local and national tournaments. He went to the state fast-pitch softball tournament sponsored by churches across Texas on numerous occasions, both with his Hyde Park Baptist Church team and as an addition to other church teams.
To the disappointment of many patients Dr. Joe decided to leave practice in 1987 calling it “the hardest decision he ever made.” After many years of 16-hour days, he wanted to slow down a bit so that he could enjoy the company and activities of his 2 beloved young granddaughters, Amber and Heather, and travel and play golf with Anna Lee. They had a great time being with their family and traveling the country playing as many of the major golf courses they could. Dad loved it when Amber and Heather referred to him as Dr. Granddad. Dr. Joe and Anna Lee were each very successful during this period winning numerous golf tournaments. Dr. Joe’s favorite trophies were related to winning local, state and national championships with the Oldsmobile Scramble and Fellowship of Christian Athletes golf tournaments. In 1987 Dr. Joe joined Abbott Laboratories (now called Hospira) and IBM as their company physician. He loved these jobs as he got to practice medicine, apply his knowledge of occupational and sports medicine and be around good people. He constantly bragged about the great nurses that kept him in line during his office hours. Dr. Joe and the nurses stayed in touch after his retirement and until his death. They were as devoted to him as he was to them even writing testimonials about his influence in their lives and families after he became ill.
In 1998, tragedy struck our family as my mother was stricken with terminal colon cancer. Anna Lee, his precious wife and partner of 47 years, was taken by God to join his team of Angels in August 2000 In the months that followed, Dr. Joe decided to sell his home and move into something smaller. He made contact with a well-known realtor named Dena Askew. She was petite, smart, beautiful and full of life. Dad said he recognized a good thing when he saw it and proceeded to try to win her heart. Dena was a little reluctant at first, but he can be very charming and persistent when he wanted. It was not long before he had Dena on his arm, teaching her to play golf and subjecting her to all the activities and sports of his granddaughters.
They liked to say that God placed them on a path for a life together for Dr. Joe Reneau and Dena were married in May of 2001 by his cousin and close friend, Don Duval. The two of them proceeded to live life to the fullest traveling, playing golf and being with family and friends for the next 19 years. They felt it was a marriage made in heaven until he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2015. Dena was by his side every moment of every day as the two of them fought to counteract the disease with everything in their power. Unfortunately, Alzheimer’s won the battle on Sunday, August 23, 2020. Dena and I were at his side and we felt he knew us and was comforted by our presence.
Dr. Joe Reneau is survived by his devoted wife, Dena Scoggins Askew Reneau, his daughter Kathleen Reneau Lorenzi and her husband John Lorenzi, Jeff Askew and his wife Erin Askew, grandchildren Amber Lorenzi, Heather Lorenzi, Sean Askew, Shelby Askew and Parker Askew and great grandson Tyson Kade Lorenzi. Dr. Joe and Dena’s family recently grew to welcome Erin's sons, Justin and Brendan Kent. Dr. Joe is also survived by his sisters Anna Lee Chandler and husband Toby, Joyce Pugh, Jackie Mann and husband Wayne and many nieces and nephews.
Dr. Joe Reneau was proceeded in death by his wife, Anna Lee Carlson Reneau, his sister Shirley Larson, Brother-in-law Orville Pugh, Father Jack Reneau and Mother Vera F. Schipper.
The family wishes to thank the staff at Arden Court Memory Care and Kindred Hospice for the tender loving care that they provided to Dr. Joe over his last few months. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Salvation Army and the Alzheimer’s Association.
Visitation will be held Thursday 5-7 PM at Cook-Walden Funeral Home on North Lamar. A Memorial Service will be performed at 12 noon on Friday, August 28th at Hyde Park Baptist Church with Dr. Kie Bowman and Reverend Dan Gardner officiating. A private burial will be held Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Cemetery with Reverend Dan Gardner officiating.
Except on one occasion remembered By Spanky Stephens
Spanky says “Truly one of the great team physicians that I had the pleasure to work with.” “I will Never forget the day I took Freddie Steinmark to Doctor Reneau’s office after the 1969 Big Shoot-out Arkansas game. Joe was honest and compassionate in his explanation of what Freddie might have. He set up everything for Freddie at M D Anderson and Freddie and I had a serious conversation about what was next for him on our way to the dorm to get his bag and clothes for his trip to Houston. As I put him on the private plane he told me how much he loved Dr. Reneau and me for our help and honesty.
Doctor Joe Reneau 2/14/2020
2/14/2020
Billy, I so enjoy your articles and share them with Dr. Reneau who's ALZ has progressed quickly this past year. He had surgery in the summer after many falls caused extensive bleeding on his brain, followed by skilled nursing until I had to admit him in the fall into an excellent Memory Care facility close to home for me to be with him daily. He's still is his kind, gentle, and oh so strong-willed self always with a smile that so many remember of him. It's a terrible slowly declining disease as we all know, but he still has his good days of remembering a few things of his time with UT and the players. Still, when we tell him his life stories of all he did in his life, his face lights up, that big smile, his jolly laugh, and he says he can't believe he did all that. I told him yesterday of Coach Weis's passing, and he remembered her fondly. They both were part of the UT system together and friends at our Great Hills Country Club for many years. Pat was special to the whole club, but especially to the golfing women, was our WGA President in 1995, and played with our group for many years until her health declined. Thanks, Dena Reneau
Of course, we would love hearing from anyone with words of encouragement, pictures, stories, etc. Dr. Reneau would enjoy that very much as would I. Thank you again, Billy, for sharing Dr. Reneau’s health situation to those who remember him. And he would love a visit as well. He’s at Arden Courts off 183 and Spicewood Springs Rd located on Four Iron near the Balcones Country Club. Let me know of a visit and I’ll come also.
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