Individual Details

Posted: Friday, May 19, 2000
Don Munsch, Globe-News Staff Writer
John S. Stiff spent 20 years as city manager and played a major role in bringing Bell Helicopter to Amarillo after the Amarillo Air Base closed.
John S. Stiff Memorial Park was named in his honor shortly after he died in 1996.
Stiff was the 1983 Amarillo Globe-News Man of the Year. He was city manager in Garland when he accepted the Amarillo city manager job in 1963. He retired from the city to become president and chief executive of Quail Creek Development Co., where he worked for 10 years.
In a 1983 Globe-News interview, he said he wanted to be remembered as a builder and financier. Facilities built during his tenure include City Hall, Amarillo Civic Center, the central library and library branches, the central services building and the Osage water treatment plant. He played a key role in helping Amarillo recover from the closing of Amarillo Air Force Base in 1964.
"John could open doors that no else could open," said Jerry Hodge, former Amarillo mayor, in a 1996 Globe-News editorial.
"John didn't play favorites," said Wales Madden Jr. in the same editorial, explaining Stiff's influence. "He played honest. He was unafraid to make the tough calls."
Stiff, born in 1921 in McKinney and raised in Big Spring, enlisted in the Navy during World War II. He was an officer and served in the Pacific Theater. He graduated from Texas A&M University and Yale University. He also served in the Korean War.
He was a president and board manager of the International City Managers Association, president of the Texas City Managers Association, a Rotarian and a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Range Riders. He was president of the Amarillo Executive Club and the Amarillo Area Foundation. He volunteered for the United Fund and the Boy Scouts. He was an associate member of St. Paul United Methodist Church and of Lake Tanglewood Community Church.
He served on several committees for the Texas Municipal League and was appointed to the Governor's Texas Urban Development Committee. In 1972, he was appointed by then-Gov. Preston Smith to serve on the Texas Advisory Commission for Intergovernmental Relations. He was appointed to the board of trustees for the state's Municipal Retirement System in 1983.
After his retirement, the John S. Stiff Governmental Services Scholarship - through the Amarillo Area Foundation - was established from funds contributed by friends and supporters.
Stiff's widow, Harriet, lives in Amarillo, and his two sons, Justin and Mark, live in Lubbock and Dallas, respectively.

(I bet the Park is named after him. I would like to find that out myself. I will be in touch.) Thanks again. I apologize if this is a bother.

Birth	14 Feb 1921	Collin County, Texas
Census (family)-shared	17 Apr 1930	(James Harrison Stiff Sr. and Elva Maggie Boone) Big Spring, Howard County, Texas
Census (family)-shared	12 Apr 1940	(James Harrison Stiff Sr. and Elva Maggie Boone) Big Spring, Howard County, Texas
Draft registration	14 Feb 1942	Big Spring, Howard County, Texas
Residence	1 Jun 1996	Amarillo, Randall County, Texas
Death	10 Jun 1996	Amarillo, Potter County, Texas
Burial		Llano Cemetery, Amarillo, Randall County, Texas

Spouse	Harriet Alene Raschig (1925 - 2016)
Child	John Sterling Stiff Jr. (1949 - 1949)
Child	Susan Alene Stiff (1950 - 1951)
Child	Living
Child	Living

Father	James Harrison Stiff Sr. (1892 - 1969)
Mother	Elva Maggie Boone (1892 - 1962)
Sibling	James Harrison Stiff Jr. (1917 - 1954)
Sibling	Jack Ray Stiff (1923 - 1974)

Notes