Sydney Wade Poland

June 18, 1933 - August 28, 2021

Sydney Wade Poland passed away recently at the age of eighty-eight. Born in Heflin, Louisiana in 1933, he was the oldest of three children born to Howard and Helen Poland. Syd and his wife, Evelyn Poland celebrated sixty-four years of marriage. They lived in Arlington, Texas where they raised their two children and were very involved in serving the Lord in the church. Later they moved to Katy, Texas because of a job transfer. Syd had many accomplishments in his career. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics (Louisiana Tech), then worked as a scientific programmer at Tecmo (later known as LTV) on the TT-1 Pinto jet trainer. Syd then began working as a systems programmer at Geophysical Service Incorporated (which later formed Texas Instruments), and eventually worked on calculators. While working, he also earned two Masters of Science degrees – one in Mathematics (Texas Christian University) and the other in Computer Science (Southern Methodist University). Later, he was tapped to work for Standard Oil of Ohio (later known as BP America) in benchmarking supercomputers. After several years, Syd again worked at Texas Instruments on Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology. He then taught DSP programming as a lectern at Rice University for two years. Syd had twenty-eight patents. He was awarded the Albert Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who’s Who. He was also a Certified Professional Engineer in Texas. Syd is survived by his wife, Evelyn; their daughter Susan Finch and husband Reagan, their son Stan Poland and wife Ann, Susan and Reason’s sons Preston and his children Olivia, Aiden, and Ezra; Tyson and wife Bailey, their children Liam and Saunder, his sister Rosie Anglin and husband Kirby, their children Keith and Sherri, niece Rebecca Hensley, nephew Richie Poland, and aunts Martha Gene Ryan and Mattie Ford. He leaves extended family and dear friends who are grateful to have known such a wonderful man. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any charitable donations be made to the Southern Baptist Convention MIssions or American Bonanza Society Air Safety Foundation. International Mission Board www.imb.org North American Mission Board www.namb.net