John Dowdle Obituary

DOWDLE, John John W. Dowdle died peacefully in his sleep early Thursday morning at his home on the Isle of Palms, South Carolina, after a long illness. He was 82 years old. John was born in Rome, Georgia in 1926, to John Wesley Senior and Lucille Field Dowdle. With his sisters Frances and Medora he grew up in Rome, Georgia, and Florence and Columbia, South Carolina. He graduated from Columbia High School in 1944. John tried to enlist in both the Navy and the Army Air Corps to fight during World War II but was too tall, so he entered the Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point, New York. He served as a cadet aboard several merchant vessels doing convoy duty in the North Atlantic during the last year of the war, then continued sailing on a variety of merchant vessels and graduated from King's Point in 1946. Having decided to study law, John ended his Merchant Marine service in 1947 and returned to South Carolina, where he enrolled in the University of South Carolina at Columbia. There he received his undergraduate law degree in 1952. It was there also that he met his future wife, Virginia Sandy. They were married in November of 1950. When the Korean War broke out John was a member of the United States Naval Reserve. He was called to active duty as a lieutenant and served aboard several naval escort and supply vessels in the Mediterranean. After his military service John took a position in 1954 with the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C., and continued his education at Georgetown University, where he received an LLM and SJD. John and Virginia's first child, John Wesley Junior, was born in 1954, followed by Jason Earl in 1956 and Merriman Lee in 1958. In 1959 John took a position as a tax lawyer with R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, later to become RJ Reynolds Industries, and moved his family from Alexandria, Virginia to Winston- Salem, North Carolina. He continued with Reynolds all the way to his retirement in 1987, after serving as assistant treasurer, treasurer, and finally senior vice president in charge of financial services. Over the course of his career John chose to offer his time to a number of organizations. He served on the boards of directors of First Union National Bank, Winston-Salem State University, Salem College, Allendale Insurance, J. A. Jones Construction Company and the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce. He also found time to write two novels, The Midas Complex and The Peregrine Memorandum, and was working on a third at the time of his death. John Dowdle is survived by his two sisters, his wife and three children, and two grandchildren, Max Miller Dowdle and his wife Caroline, and Isaac Miller. Friends and family are invited to visit from 3-4 PM followed by the memorial service with military honors beginning at 4PM Saturday, May 24, 2008 in the chapel of MCALISTER-SMITH FUNERAL HOME, 1520 Rifle Range Road, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464; (843) 884-3833. The family requests that no flowers be sent, but asks for donations to be made in John's name to Hospice of Charleston, 3870 Leeds Avenue, Suite 101, North Charleston, SC 29405. Condolences may be sent to the Dowdle Family via www.mcalister-smith.com. Visit our guestbook at www.charleston.net/deaths.