Joe and Wanda Pitt have been a great asset to the community for years and have worked diligently with the School, City and Historical Society to help Cedar Hill maintain it high quality of life. Cedar Hill is blessed they continue to make Cedar Hill home.


JOE PITT was born in 1942 and has spent his lifetime in Cedar Hill except while obtaining his Architectural Engineering degree at UT Austin shortly after having graduated third in his high school class. He joined the firm of Nagler Engineers in 1967 which later became TMBP Consulting Engineers where he is a partner. Joe specializes in structural and civil engineering and provided structural design for many schools in Cedar Hill, as well as many major structures in Dallas. He also designed the connector bridges at the Reunion parking between the Jefferson St. and Houston St. viaducts.

Joe has been active in civic affairs many years having served on the Cedar Hill School Board 1974 to 1989 and he continues to serve on the Building Code Appeals and Advisory Board since 1989. His evaluation report of the escarpment area of Cedar Hill resulted in escarpment preservation legislated by the Cedar Hill City Council. He is a lifetime member of the Cedar Hill Historical Society and is active in the Rotary Club. His hobbies are antiques, photography and computers.

Joe's stepchildren, Elaine Gage Gatlin, John Gage, Carolyn Gage Chaffin and Linda Gage, all graduated from Cedar Hill High School as did his daughter, Alison Pitt Karnes. Joe married Wanda in 1988 and they reside in the old barn his parents converted to a home in 1945.

WANDA PITT was born in 1943 and raised in Duncanville, Texas, the daughter of Jack Stanton and Carol Phillips. She first met Joe Pitt at church in 1954. At the age of 14 her family moved to San Jose, California. Wanda attended colleges in San Jose, Pensacola, FL, Meridian, MS, Sandiego, CA and Seattle, WA. She raised her children, Roger, Leigh and Elaine Harrison, in Seattle, WA where she was a teacher at Highline Community College. Upon returning to Texas in 1984, Wanda obtained a degree in Psychology at UT-Dallas and was employed by the Texas Rehabilitation Commission.

Wanda has been active in civic work throughout her life in California,Colorado,Washington and Texas, and was one of the first volunteers to Sesame Street in San Francisco in the 1960's. She served as President of the Des Moines, Washington Chamber of Commerce in 1982. Wanda, a lifetime member of the Cedar Hill Historical Society, held active board positions from 1986 through 1996. She served on the Cedar Hill Comprehensive Planning Committee and helped write the History of Cedar Hill Book, published in 2002. She researched and documented the history of the First Methodist Church of Cedar Hill and obtained Texas Historical Certification of its first cemetery now named Crawford's Tornado (1856) Graveyard.

In addition to gardening, cooking and restoring antiques, Wanda is an avid genealogist and traced her Phillips/Stallings family to th Revoluntionary War in North Carolina, descendants of Nicholas Stallings of Jamestown, Virginia 1635. She is also a 6th great grand niece of President Zachary Taylor and a cousin to President James Madison.