William R. “Bill” Wells, 83, passed away Monday, April 18, 2016, at his residence. His funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, April 21, 2016, in the Chapel of Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals with the Rev. John Sikes Gibbs, Jr. officiating. Eulogies will be given by friends of Mr. Wells. Mr. Wells will be laid to rest at Douglas City Cemetery. The family will receive friends Wednesday, April 20, 2016, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Chapel of Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals.
Mike Davis, Stacy Aultman, Reggie Chung, Ed Branch, David Hilliard, Tift Myers, Scott Goodman and Steve Woodham will serve as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers will be Richard Hogan, members of the Tifton High School Class of 1949, Joann Simpson Ward, Coy Whittington, class leaders and also Guam, M.I. and U.S. Navy friends, Kenneth Robinson, Jere Vandagriff and Ronald Levitt.
Born August 24, 1932 in Tifton, Mr. Wells was the son of the late Willis Daniel Wells and Mary Frances Sikes Wells. He graduated from Tifton High School in 1949 and attended Abraham Baldwin College, Valdosta State College and graduated from Georgia Teachers College (now Georgia Southern University) in 1958 with a B.S. degree in Education. His major was Industrial Arts with minors in English and Mathematics.
At Bill’s 60th Tifton High School Class Reunion in 2009, he was honored as being selected the Class President. He hosted fourteen of the class reunions or get-togethers. Bill loved his classmates and, in his senior year in high school, he was Editor-in-Chief of the Talisman yearbook and was selected Best Dancer in the Who’s Who. He was a member of numerous school clubs.
He retired from the Georgia Department of Transportation in 1986 after 34 years of service; he also served a total of eight years (1952-1960) in the United States Navy and Naval Reserve. Bill was stationed in Guam and Saipan in the Mariana Islands, a graduate of the Naval Justice School in Newport, Rhode Island, and stationed on the USS Sperry (AS-12) while in the Navy. While in the Navy, he toured Japan, Hawaii and Tinian and many states in the USA.
Being a lover of history, Bill compiled a large collection of old Tifton postcards and pictures and authored the book, “Tifton, Georgia in Vintage Postcards” in 2002. He was also on the staff for “The Heritage of Tift County, Georgia, 1905-2003, Volume 1”. For the 2005 Tift County Centennial, Bill authored “Did You Know” from August 2005 to August 2006. For the dedication of the Ty Ty monument in October 2007, he published the “Ty Ty 1930-1950” booklet. His first cousin, The Rev. John S. Gibbs, Sr., helped Bill identify the buildings. John was born in Ty Ty. Bill also was a Presidential buff and collected campaign items, Presidential Christmas cards and ornaments. He and his wife have visited (or he has seen) most of the Presidential Libraries/Museums in the United States.
A goal was to visit all 50 states; Bill, along with a friend, flew to Portland, Oregon on March 14, 2015, to visit USA #50. He slept in 39 states.
Bill was recently instrumental in getting the name of Tift County changed from Nelson Tift to Tifton’s founder, Captain Henry Harding Tift.
Bill was a member of Tifton’s First Baptist Church, American Political Items Collectors, the Georgia Department of Transportation Engineer’s Association, Tucker Automobile Club, Plymouth Owner’s Club, National Historic Route 66 Federation, Tiftarea Auto Club, Tifton Historic Foundation, the Railway Terminal Museum and founder of the current Tiftarea Coin Club. He was also a member of the “All 50 States Club”.
He enjoyed researching the history of Tifton’s historic homes and buildings. An interested research he was proud of was the POW German Soldiers that were here in Tifton and the area during World War II. He watched them dig the basement for “Tifton Frozen Foods” on the corner of Central Avenue and Second Street as a young boy.
He was a former member of the Tifton Elk’s Lodge, Kiwanis Club, Tifton-Tift County Public Library Board of Trustees and President of the Friends of the Library, Miata Automobile Club, Tifton Historic Preservation Commission and the Board of the Miss Tifton Scholarship Pageant.
He is survived by his wife of 59 years of marriage, Virginia Claire Griffin Wells; one son, Craig Mark Wells of New York City, New York; one daughter and son-in-law, Suzanne and Henderson Wise of Anderson, South Carolina; two grandchildren, Whitner Claire Wise, also of Anderson, South Carolina and Griffin Henderson Wise of Greenville, South Carolina; one sister and brother-in-law, Brenda Wells Summers and husband, Wally of Americus; one niece; two nephews; and an uncle, William Byrd.
Flowers will be accepted or memorial gifts may be made to the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life of Tift County, P. O. Box 7514, Tifton, GA 31793.