Jimmy Gary Melton passed away on April 30, 2026. Jimmy was born on November 28, 1939, in Corpus Christi, Texas, to Thurman and Henrietta Melton, and was the first of their three children. He graduated from Roy Miller High School in Corpus Christi in 1958 and then attended Rice University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1962 and a Bachelor of Science in 1963. In 1966, he received a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in the same subject in 1972. 

Jimmy worked as a nuclear engineer at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico for the entirety of his career and lived in the nearby town of White Rock. After retiring, he moved to Fredericksburg, Texas, in 2001.

Jimmy enjoyed cooking and astronomy, and was a HAM radio enthusiast. When he was in high school, the local paper once ran a story about a radio tower he had built out of old beer cans. He appreciated the beauty of the high desert of New Mexico and the quiet acres of his home in the Texas hill country. 

Jimmy’s sister Bebe Hicklin, who also lived in Fredericksburg, passed away in 2023. He is survived by his sister Barbara Peebles and her husband Gene, his nephew John Hicklin and John’s son Dylan, his nieces Tracy Hicklin and Stacey Peebles, and Stacey’s husband Willie and daughter Calliope.

Expressions of sympathy may be sent at http://www.schaetter.com

Funeral arrangements under the direction of the Schaetter Funeral Home .