MIDLAND - Dr. Marlin David Springer, PhD. died in the early morning hours of July 24, 2024. He was born in Lamesa on May 2, 1938, the first born of Grover and Irene Springer. He grew up in Lenorah and graduated
from Stanton High School in 1955. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1958 and enrolled in the Ordinance Guided Missile School at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama and worked with the Hawk Missile System design team. While there he met his "beautiful angel," Sylvia Anne Walker and they married on Aug. 1, 1960, before he was deployed to Korea.
After his tour in Korea, he was assigned to Fort Bliss in El Paso, where he and Sylvia began their family with the birth of Markham Scott on Sept. 5, 1963 and their first daughter, Melanie Lyn on Dec. 22, 1964. After being discharged from the Army, he joined the Civil Service and he and Sylvia were stationed in Grafenwohr, Germany where their family grew by one more with the birth of Nancy Annette on May 29, 1967. Upon leaving the Civil Service they moved to Lenorah and he started his college career at Howard College in Big Spring. A year later they moved to College Station with their three children so he could attend Texas A&M. He completed his Bachelor of Science, Masters, and PhD in Wildlife Biology. Marlin worked as an Ecological Consultant, moving the family to Albuquerque, New Mexico before returning to work with the Hawk Missile System in 1985 with a defense contracting company in Huntsville, Alabama. While at the defense contractor he and his team visualized a plasma energy waste disposal system that he later began his own company to develop and patent.
Marlin and Sylvia retired and moved to Canyon Lake, Texas in 2005. After her death in 2007, he moved to Midland where he met his second wife through the Senior's Lunch group at First United Methodist Church. He married Paula Walker in 2013. He is survived by his second wife Paula; his three children Markham Scott (Trina) Springer, Melanie Lyn (David) Johnson, and Nancy Annette (Jim Chase) Springer; six grandchildren Dustin Chase (Alicia) Johnson, Dwight Joe 'Ike' (Kyrsten) Brunner, Ryan Hunter (Sofie) Johnson, Cody Spencer (Natalie) Johnson, Thomas Scott Springer, and Kathryn Anne Springer; and five great grandchildren: Finley Scott Johnson, Wilder Hayes Johnson, Halie Raelynn Johnson, Emerson Fox Johnson, and Ophelia Michelle Brunner; and his brother Stephen McKay (Barbara) Springer. He is preceded in death by his parents Grover Marlin and Edith Irene (McNerlin) Springer, his brothers Patrick Johnson Springer and Michael Jackson Springer, and his first wife Sylvia Anne (Walker) Springer. A graveside service was at Trinity Memorial Park Chapel, Big Spring, Texas on July 31. In lieu of flowers please consider making a donation to New Mexico Christian Children's Home, 1356 NM 236, Portales, New Mexico 88130 www.nmcch.org Arrangements were under the direction of Nalley-Pickle & Welch Funeral Home & Crematory of Midland. Online condolences may be made at www.npwelch.com.