Howard "Chub" Lambert

Howard Barrow “Chub” Lambert was born April 9, 1931 in Broken Bow, OK, and passed away September 10, 2022, in Paris, TX. His quiet wisdom, kind spirit, and dry sense of humor will be greatly missed!  Viewing and visitation will take place on Wednesday, September 14, 2022 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Commerce Funeral Home.  A funeral service will follow at the funeral home beginning at 10:00 a.m.  Interment will be at Brigham Cemetery in Campbell.

Chub was one of four children born to Don C. and Vivian Barrow Lambert. Of the four siblings, only Chub and his sister Sue, who was seventeen years his junior, survived into adulthood.

When Chub was young, his family moved from his father’s hometown of Broken Bow to the Texarkana, AR area where he grew up in the Mandeville community close to his maternal grandparents, C. M. and Julia Barrow. After graduating from Texarkana’s North Heights High School in 1949, he briefly considered auto mechanics before pursuing a career as an educator.

Chub received degrees from Southern Arkansas State, Louisiana State, and West Texas State before earning his PhD in mathematics from Texas Tech. Between degrees, he taught at Arkansas High School, Amarillo Air Force Base, and Amarillo Junior College. Upon graduating from Texas Tech in 1968, Chub moved his family to Commerce where he joined the math department at East Texas State University—remaining on that faculty until his retirement in 1995.

In December 1955, in a chance encounter at the Double Dip Drive-In in Amarillo, Chub met Freda Mae Wilson, whom he would come to love even more than soft-serve ice cream.  The couple married the following August and spent the next 62 years together; no pair was ever better matched. They had two children, Kim, born in 1957, and Kirby, in 1959.

Throughout his life, Chub was an avid sports fan—playing baseball, basketball, and football in his earlier years and rooting for the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers as he got older. He was a devoted bass fisherman and quail hunter; expert bridge and card player; and skilled mechanic and master woodworker who could fix or build anything. Most importantly, he was a devout member of the Commerce Church of Christ, where he served as a Sunday school teacher and deacon. He was widely recognized for his perpetual kindness and willingness to help anyone in need. Chub was also an active volunteer at and supporter of the Northeast Texas Children’s Museum in Commerce.

As a young boy, Chub’s grandparents took him camping at Albert Pike in Arkansas’s Ouachita Mountains. These early ventures evolved into a family tradition. Ultimately, summer stays at Albert Pike would be an annual highlight not only for Chub’s children, but for his grandchildren and numerous family friends as well. After Chub retired in 1995, he and Freda expanded their time camping, embracing RV travel and eventually touring all fifty states (leaving the camper at home when they went to Hawaii) and much of Canada.  For more than thirty years their summer trips included a long layover in Montana.

Chub was preceded in death by his parents, Don C. and Vivian Lambert of Texarkana, AR; sister LaDon Lambert and infant brother Kenneth Lambert of Texarkana, AR; wife Freda Wilson Lambert of Commerce, TX; son-in-law Joel Gibson of Sherman, TX; and close friend Shirley Shaw of Commerce, TX, who added meaning to his life after Freda’s passing.  He is survived by daughter Kim Lambert of Sherman, TX; son Kirby Lambert and his wife Becca Kohl of Helena, MT; granddaughter Rachel Stanton and her husband Alistair of Leesburg, VA; granddaughter Ragan Hurt and her husband Myers of Paris, TX; great-grandchildren Daisy Mae Hurt of Paris, TX, and Easton Barrow Stanton and Mae Elizabeth Stanton of Leesburg, VA; sister Sue Lambert of Tyler, TX; niece Julie Wright of Tyler, TX; great-nephew Jack Wright and his wife Alejandra of Tyler, TX; and numerous in-laws.

Serving as Pallbearers are Mike Anderson, Hector Arce, Myers Hurt, Kenny Shaw, Alistair Stanton, Jack Wright, Dane Babitzke and Sandy Babitzke.

The family would like to extend its heartfelt appreciation to the dedicated staff at Country Home Estates in Commerce who took such excellent care of Chub for the past four years.

Services entrusted to Commerce Funeral Home and Cremation Service.