'A great loss for the community': Former Nueces County, Corpus Christi leader Loyd Neal dies

Former Nueces County Judge and Corpus Christi Mayor Samuel “Loyd” Neal Jr. died Saturday. He was 85.

He was first elected mayor in 1997 and went on to serve four terms. He was elected to the top county position in 2006 and served until the end of 2018.

Neal was credited as the driving force for multiple major projects in South Texas over the course of decades, including the nearly $1 billion Harbor Bridge currently under construction, a naval base, and Whataburger Field.

Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales, who succeeded Neal as the county's top leader, said in a Facebook post Saturday that he’d made many contributions to the community and his impact was “felt in any room.”

She wrote that she would forever remember him swearing her in as a Port of Corpus Christi Authority commissioner and, later, handing her the keys to the office as Nueces County judge. As a gift, she said, he painted the office for her. It had been maroon, reflecting his devotion to Texas A&M University, while she was a “devoted Longhorn.”

“We were affiliated with different parties, styles and philosophies, but we shared a love for a great county and the passion for advocating for our military and veterans,” Canales wrote. “He will be missed by his Nueces County family.”

Neal was hospitalized with pneumonia in 2018. At the time he said it nearly cost him his life, according to a Caller-Times article published that year. Several years prior, he was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, which causes weakness and rapid muscle fatigue. As he struggled to recover from his pneumonia, he retired as county judge at the end of 2018.

Neal volunteered for a number of community organizations — such as Driscoll Children's Hospital and Boy Scouts of America — and was active in promoting new business and economic development and supporting military installations in the area.

He was the first chairman of the board for the Corpus Christi Area Economic Development Corp. in 1986 and chaired the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce from 1990 to early 1992. In 1984 and 1985 he was also chair of the South Texas Homeport Committee, which successfully lobbied to have a naval warship and the U.S.S. Lexington housed at what would later become Naval Station Ingleside.

Joe McComb, a former Corpus Christi mayor who served as a county commissioner while Neal was the county judge — and who defeated Neal in the Republican primary for county judge in 2002 before losing the race to Democrat Terry Shamsie — said Neal was a good man whose death represented “a great loss for the community.”

McComb, who was also Neal’s neighbor, described the former county judge as a “fun-loving guy.” Because of Neal’s military background, McComb said, “when he was in his official capacities as mayor and county judge, he didn't put up with a lot of foolishness.

“If you took the amount of time you saw him doing public stuff and you doubled that, it probably wouldn't equal the amount of time that he really spent doing stuff for Corpus Christi,” McComb said. “He was an incessant worker on behalf of the city of Corpus Christi and Nueces County as county judge. … He loved the community.”

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Former Nueces County, Corpus Christi leader Loyd Neal dies