Ernesto Salinas Villarreal
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Neto”
11 March 1947 — 12 August 2022 · aged 75
Vietnam veteran, refinery pipefitter and the boxing coach who taught kids to lose well
Houston, United States Born in Magnolia Park, Houston, Texas Resting at Houston National Cemetery, Houston, TexasAbout Ernesto
Everything that mattered in Neto Villarreal's life happened within sight of a porch in Houston's Magnolia Park: the first dances, the first fights, the first Sunday barbacoa and, in 1967, the long goodbye on the morning he left for the Army.
The son of a ship-channel longshoreman from Matamoros and a seamstress from Brownsville, Ernesto graduated from Austin High School in 1966 and was drafted at twenty. He served with the US Army in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969 as a combat engineer, earned the Army Commendation Medal, and almost never spoke of it. When pressed he would say only that he came home with all ten fingers and a lifelong dislike of fireworks.
Back in Houston he married Gloria Reyes in 1972 and joined the pipefitters at the Shell refinery in Deer Park, where he worked for thirty-eight years. He was the man who could hear a leak before the gauge showed it, and he stayed after shift to teach younger fitters, many of them boys who, like him, had not known a trade was waiting for them. Evenings he volunteered at the Hidalgo Park community center, teaching neighborhood kids to box and, more importantly, to lose with grace.
Neto loved Tejano accordions, Astros games on the radio in the good years and the many bad ones, and Gloria's Christmas tamales, which he insisted he had “helped” with. He went to Mass every Sunday at Santa Rosa de Lima in a pressed work shirt, in the same pew, and he marched in the Veterans Day parade until his knees refused.
Neto died on 12 August 2022, aged seventy-five, at home in Houston after a long illness. He is survived by Gloria, his wife of fifty years; his children Linda, Ernesto Jr. and Marcos; eight grandchildren; and his sister Rosa. He will be laid to rest at Houston National Cemetery with military honors.
“You're going to get knocked down. What matters is how you get up, and who you help up next.”
- Faith
- Catholic
- Place of birth
- Magnolia Park, Houston, Texas
- Resting place
- Houston National Cemetery, Houston, Texas
- Passed away
- 12 August 2022, Houston
Funeral Mass with military honors
Friday, 19 August 2022 at 12:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
High School Diploma
Stephen F. Austin High School1962 – 1966 · Houston
Boxed Golden Gloves at 147 pounds and lost only once, which he said taught him more than the wins.
Married Gloria Reyes
1972 · Houston
Fifty years together, the last of them still arguing over whose tamale recipe it was.
Pipefitter
Shell Deer Park Refinery1971 – 2009 · Deer Park, Texas
Thirty-eight years keeping the lines tight and training the next crew.
Volunteer Boxing Coach
Hidalgo Park Community Center1976 – 2016 · Houston
Taught more than six hundred kids to box and to lose with grace.
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Family & connections
Ernesto is survived by
- Gloria Villarreal· Spouse
- Linda Villarreal Ortiz· Daughter
- Ernesto Villarreal Jr.· Son
- Marcos Villarreal· Son
- Rosa Villarreal Garza· Sister
- 8 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Ernesto.
Knew Ernesto? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- GR
Astros season-ticket neighbor
Neto kept the 1986 playoff ticket stub from the Astros-Mets series taped inside his toolbox. Every time somebody complained about a bad season he'd say, “We've seen worse. We've also seen better. We'll see better again.” I hope the Astros win one for him.
- AC
Boxed for him at Hidalgo Park
I was a skinny, angry fourteen-year-old when Coach Neto put gloves on me. He never let me throw a punch outside the ring and never let me quit inside it. I became a middle-school principal. I teach my kids the same thing he taught me: stand up, and help the next one up.
- MO
Granddaughter
Abuelo Neto taught me three things: how to make a fist the right way, how to say sorry first, and how to dance a polka without stepping on anyone's feet. I'm still working on the third. I love you, Abuelo.
- S(
Army buddy, fellow combat engineer
We swapped letters from our mothers in 1968 and never swapped stories after. We didn't need to. For fifty years we met every August at the same table at a barbecue joint on Telephone Road, and Neto always paid. He called it rank.
- HD
Fellow pipefitter at the Deer Park refinery
Neto trained me my first year in 1984. He made me redo one weld four times without saying a word, then clapped me on the shoulder and said, “Now you're a fitter.” I've trained fifteen apprentices since, and every one of them has heard that story.
- RG
Sister
Neto walked me to school every day of first grade, held my hand across Navigation Boulevard, and told every boy in the neighborhood that I was off limits. At seventy-three I still feel him holding that hand. Rest, hermano. I'll look after Gloria.