March 28, 1936 – December 7, 2024
CYPRESS, TX – Temple Lafayette Tucker was called home to be with the Lord Dec. 7, 2024.
Temple was born March 28, 1936 in Haskell, TX to Reverend Charles Andrew Tucker and Annie Adele Fincher Tucker.
His father was a Presbyterian minister who planted churches throughout Texas and who, along with his mother, planted the seeds of faith into their children. Temple grew up in South Texas (Mercedes and Corpus Christi) and moved back to North Texas, where he attended Bowie High School. There he led his basketball team to four state championships. He then attended Rice University and graduated with a bachelor of arts in economics. At Rice he had a very successful basketball career and was selected as a preseason All American. Temple was inducted into the Rice Athletics Hall of Fame in 1999. He was a fourth round pick (29th overall) by Philadelphia but opted to work for Northwestern National Life Insurance as a financial advisor where he had a successful career and was honored as a life member of the Million Dollar Round Table.
While attending Rice he was invited to attend the First Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp in Estes Park, CO where he was inspired to serve with the FCA for many years and became president of the FCA Greater Houston chapter. FCA inspired Temple and his wife Anita to set up an FCA scholarship fund for Rice athletic students, which continues to bear fruit. Temple invested his faith in Jesus Christ into the lives of students as a youth leader, teacher and elder at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church. He and his wife Anita taught young married couples at Metropolitan Baptist Church for many years.
His biggest legacy is the sharing of his faith in Jesus Christ with his immediate and extended family, as well as his friends and neighbors. His favorite place to invest his time and faith into the lives of family and friends was his small Deer Haven ranch in Fayette County. He instilled a strong work ethic and love of land and nature into his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren through land management, construction, fencing, forestry projects and many Rube Goldberg engineering creations. There were plenty of fishing, hunting, nature watching, astronomy lessons and star gazing events at his beloved Deer Haven. Many have enjoyed his compilation of nature stories, most of which were at the ranch.
Temple was preceded in death by parents, Charles and Adele Tucker; brother, Chuck Tucker and sister, Dorothy Winfield.
He is survived by his wife, Anita Tucker; first wife, Doris Neville; children, Kevin (daughter-in-law Lauren), Brian (daughter-in-law Cheryl) and Carol Kutzer (son-in-law Jack), and Rick Barnett (daughter-in-law Charlotte) and Marva Barnett Shelton (husband Rick Shelton); grandchildren, Matthew, Christine, Rachel, Kole, Andrew, Sarah, Carolyn, Benjamin, Abigail, Tucker, Wyatt, Ollie Mae, Lori, Melinda and Leslie; great grandchildren, Grace, Faith, Lily, William, Caroline, James, Skylar, Miles and Porter; brother-in-law, Charles Winfield; many cousins, nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made in care of the Rice University chapter (ricefca.org) and/or the Houston Christian University chapter (houstonfca.org) of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
One of his many life verses: 1 Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

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