Texas Ranch Round-Up

Bill was born in 1935 to Jack and Mabel Phinizy in Lamesa, Texas. He kept a half Shetland mare named Patsy in the back yard that he would ride bareback to visit friends around town. The summer before his senior year of high school, he worked at the Pitchfork Ranch with the wagon at the Croton Breaks and then at the bunkhouse.

Bill graduated from Texas Tech in 1957, where he was on the rodeo team and studied Animal Husbandry. He was drafted into the Army and served in Germany before coming home to ranch with his father in Gaines and Borden Counties.

In 1964, Bill returned to the Pitchfork to work for Mr. D Burns and then for Jim Humphreys as assistant ranch manager. While there, Bill was introduced to Mary John Espy, a ranch-raised Texas Tech student from Sonora, Texas. They were married in 1968, and Will and Kate were born while living at the Pitchfork.
In 1972, Bill took a job overseeing the Texas ranches of Mr. L.R. French, including the L7 south of Crosbyton.

In 1974, Bill and the family moved home to ranch with Jack, and the ranch south of Gail has been home ever since. While ranching is his primary occupation, Bill has dealt in ranch real estate, been a feed rep, and sold PRF drought insurance – all of which has kept him near the friends and the ranch country that he enjoys so much. Bill is an Honorary Director of the TSCRA, and along with Mary John has been very involved with the Ranching Heritage Center at Lubbock.

He and Mary John were married 50 years before she passed away in 2019. They have five grandkids.

“Ranching is a continuing education. I like seeing the different ways people go about it. This industry has the best people in the world. This award is very humbling.”