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Generally clear. Low 71F. Winds light and variable.

The crew of the Jerry “Deacon” Davis B-17 crew. Leo J. Welder is standing in the back row first from left, with his hand in his jacket pocket.

From left, Roger Welder Jr., his uncle, Smithy Welder, and his son, Roger Welder III, stand on Wednesday afternoon in front of the Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Victoria.

From right, Leo Welder’s grandson, Roger Welder Jr.;  Roger Welder III, Welder's great-grandson; and Smithy Welder, his son, stand Wednesday afternoon in front of the Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Victoria.

The crew of the Jerry “Deacon” Davis B-17 crew. Leo J. Welder is standing in the back row first from left, with his hand in his jacket pocket.

Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series about the people behind the names of Crossroads streets, buildings and communities. If you have suggestions, please email reporter Tamara Diaz.

He had about a one in five chance of never returning to Victoria alive.

During World War II, Leo J. Welder was the bombardier on Jerry “Deacon” Davis’ B-17 bomber crew, flying missions over France and Germany in 1944, as part of the 398th Bombing Group, 601st Bomb Squadron.

A photo of Welder, later a prominent Victoria rancher, businessman and philanthropist, and the crew is on file with the American Air Museum in Britain.

Welder is standing next to the navigator. He stares at the camera — right hand tucked in the pocket of his bomber jacket.

He dropped out of Texas A&M University after two years, in 1943, to enlist at Foster Air Field in Victoria. He went to bombardier school in Roswell, New Mexico.

Welder sat in the nose of the four-engine “Flying Fortress” bomber aircraft, surrounded by heavy laminate glass, about 25,000 feet up, sighting targets and releasing bombs. Actor Billy Zane portrayed a bombardier in the 1990 film “Memphis Belle.”

It was dangerous work. About 19% of B-17 crews were killed on bombing runs.

Welder’s crew made it back to the states alive after flying 31 missions. Only the navigator, who sat close to Welder during bombing runs, was wounded.

Welder’s son, Smithy Welder, 71, of Port Aransas, said Wednesday his dad saved the navigator, who was hit in his arm by shrapnel from a flak explosion. He applied a tourniquet and stopped the bleeding.

The crew received “air medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross,” Welder said in a chapter he wrote about himself for the book “‘As I recall’...Oral Histories of Victoria” on hand at the Victoria Regional History Center.

Born in 1923, scion of a well-known South Texas ranching family, Welder survived WWII to live a full life, participating in several civic organizations in Victoria. Importantly, he was a member of the Victoria Performing Arts Center Board of Directors.

The Center for the Performing Arts, dedicated in 2004, was named in his memory — The Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts, 214 N. Main St.

Ownership of the center transferred to Victoria College in 2012. Welder also served on the college’s board for over over 30 years.

Welder served Victoria in many capacities.

He was president of the United Way during its first year in Victoria.

He was a member of the Downtown Rotary Club, a community service organization, for 25 years, as well as being active in politics with Zac Lentz and Lloyd Bentsen.

(Lloyd Bentsen famously said to future Vice President Dan Quayle in a 1988 vice-presidential debate, “I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Sir, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”)

He also served on the Victoria Child Welfare Board and helped the local YMCA with projects, including a drive for the zoo, he wrote in “‘As I Recall...’”

His son, Roger Welder, 61, said Tuesday that one of his dad’s favorite places to help out was his alma mater, St. Joseph School.

Welder was on the board of the school for “10 or 15 years,” he wrote in “‘As I Recall ...’” He served as president of the board during the 1950s.

Welder’s four sons attended the school, which was a boy’s school at the time. His two daughters went to Nazareth Academy and St. Stephen’s in Austin, Smithy Welder, the second oldest son, said.

“We had generations of family members who have helped St. Joseph,” Roger Welder said. “Whatever the school needed, he was going to help.”

From left, Roger Welder Jr., his uncle, Smithy Welder, and his son, Roger Welder III, stand on Wednesday afternoon in front of the Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Victoria.

Welder’s record of service to Victoria covered many organizations and projects.

His grandfather, James F. Welder Sr., was one of the founders of the First Victoria National Bank, and Welder served on the board for 30 years, from 1952 until 1982. Smithy Welder remembers helping out in the bank office.

Ranching was the main family business, though. When Welder’s brother and ranching partner, W.D. Welder, suddenly died at age 47 in 1972, Smithy Welder said he went to the ranch, so that his father would not be short handed.

He spent seven years running the ranch in Refugio County with his dad. He said they grew close during that time.

Welder loved Victoria, his hometown, he wrote in “‘As I Recall...’”

“I will always love Victoria, so to me, anything we can do to make it a better place, well, I’m all for that!” Leo J. Welder wrote. “I haven’t had any ambition to live anywhere else.”

Welder died in 1996. Virginia Callan Welder, his wife of 49 years, died in April.

From right, Leo Welder’s grandson, Roger Welder Jr.;  Roger Welder III, Welder's great-grandson; and Smithy Welder, his son, stand Wednesday afternoon in front of the Leo J. Welder Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Victoria.

Roger Welder said he and his siblings came across their dad’s medals from WWII after their mom died. They were glad to have them, he said, and to be reminded of their dad’s service. He never talked much about it, he said.

Smithy Welder said he learned that his dad’s nickname on the B-17 crew was “Shack” because “his accuracy in hitting practice targets, which were shacks, was pretty high.”

“That generation of Americans were incredible — what they accomplished. After what they survived, they knew what was important. And yet, my dad was very humble. He viewed everyone equally. He cared about everyone,” Roger Welder said.

Tamara covers the public safety beat for the Advocate. She can be reached at 361-580-6597 or tdiaz@vicad.com.

Hewitt died Aug. 20 at the age of 93. He was a prominent businessman and philanthropist in Victoria — an adopted member of the O'Connor family and the founder of the Dorothy O'Connor Pet Adoption Center.

Tamara covers crime and courts as the public safety reporter for the Victoria Advocate. She is a graduate of the University of Washington and a native of Minnesota.

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