Tarbox, Elmer Lois, 1916-1987.

Texas legislator, World War II veteran, businessman, inventor, philanthropist. Born in 1916 in Bishop, Oklahoma. While attending Texas Technological College (B.B.A., 1939), Tarbox was active in football, basketball, and track programs and set three NCAA records. Participated in the 1939 Cotton Bowl game. Served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II in the China-Burma-India theater with the famed "Flying Tiger" Squadron. Awarded the Air Medal, Silver Star, Purple Heart, and Golden Eagle of China.

After military service, Tarbox developed, patented, and marketed "Elmer's Weights," which were used in athletic conditioning and physical rehabilitation. Served as State Representative of West Texas' Seventy-Sixth District, Place Two, from 1966-1976; and helped establish Schools of Law and Medicine at Texas Tech University. Diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, he founded the Tarbox Parkinson's Disease Institute in 1972, at the Texas Tech Medical School. Tarbox and his wife, Maxine Barnett, reared four children prior to her death in 1978. Tarbox died in 1987 in Lubbock, Texas.

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