Carlos Alberto Estrada

Carlos Alberto Estrada
December 21, 1914 March 1, 2011

Carlos Alberto Estrada, 96, of Brownsville, TX, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday, March 1, 2011. He was born in Mexico, D.F, Mexico, the third and youngest child of The Honorable Fidencio and Otilia Estrada, who preceded him in death, as did his two older siblings, Jorge and Margarita. He was also preceded in death by his spouse of 70 years, Virginia G. Estrada, who died on October 16, 2010, a son, Captain Carlos A. Estrada, Jr., a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, who was killed in action in 1970 while serving his country in the Republic of Vietnam, and a daughter, Virginia Estrada, who died in infancy.
As a child, Carlos Estrada and his siblings were taken by their mother to Los Angeles, California, to escape the turmoil of the Mexican revolution, where they were raised by their widowed mother. He attended Los Angeles public schools and community college before transferring to the University of California at Berkeley, where he received a degree in mechanical engineering in 1937. After graduation, he accepted a job in the aviation industry that brought him to South Texas, where he soon met Virginia Garza, the Brownsville native who would marry Carlos in 1940.
After starting a family with Virginia and living in Mexico City during World War II while he attended to air defense duties in the aviation industry, the couple returned to Brownsville in 1947, at which time he became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America. Mr. Estrada left the airline business in 1952 to avoid a transfer out of the state and joined the Aldridge Washmon Company store in Brownsville, where he rose through the ranks to become general manager of the farm implement and electric appliances company until his retirement.
Carlos Estrada was a devout Catholic and devoted member of St. Josephs Catholic Church in Brownsville, TX, who lived an exemplary life that imparted the values of honesty, hard work, and loyalty to his devoted children and grandchildren. He was also active in the USA Council of Serra International, dedicated to fostering vocations to the priesthood.
He is survived by two sons, Robert A. Estrada and his wife, Catherine, of Fort Worth, TX and Jorge L. Estrada of Brownsville, TX and a daughter, Laura V. Estrada, and her husband, Paul Hermann, of Dallas, TX. He is also survived by eight grandchildren, Camela Estrada, Christina Estrada, Monica Estrada Browne, and her husband, Daniel, Lily Estrada, Marissa Estrada Spannaus, and her husband, Matt, Rachel Estrada, Virginia Gina Estrada, and Buck Mosier. He is also survived by two greatgrandchildren, Taylor Grant Patterson.
Visitation for Carlos A. Estrada will be held from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. with a Holy Rosary at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 4, in the West Chapel at DarlingMouser Funeral Home. All services will conclude on Friday evening and in accordance with Mr. Estradas wishes cremation will follow.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Carlos A. Virginia G. Estrada Scholarship Endowment at the University of Texas at Brownsville, 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, Texas 78520, www.utb.edudevelopment.

Visitation

DarlingMouser Funeral Home
945 Palm Blvd.
Brownsville, TX  78520
Friday, March 4, 2011
5 to 9 p.m.

Service

Rosary

DarlingMouser Funeral Home
945 Palm Blvd.
Brownsville, TX  78520
Friday, March 4, 2011
7:00 p.m.

Cemetery

Val Verde Memorial Gardens Crematory
Donna, TX  78537

Memorial Contributions

University of Texas at Brownsville
Brownsville, TX  78520