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Clifford B.
Sykes The bulk of church history shown on these pages was done a quarter century ago by Clifford Burton Sykes. Sykes was born at Murdock, Kansas, on September 24, 1893. He graduated from Kingman High School in 1911 and graduated from engineering school at the University of Kansas in 1916 with a degree of B.S. in Electrical Engineering. Cliff was a member of Delta Tau Delta Social Fraternity and Sigma Tau Engineering Fraternity while at the University. Sykes was employed by General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York, upon graduation. He came to Bluefield as a representative of General Electric on October 1, 1919 and remained with G.E. until his retirement in October, 1958. He held memberships in Bluefield Country Club, the University Club, Kiwanis Club (President in 1931), Pocahontas Electrical & Mechanical Institute, Professional Engineer in West Virginia, and Masonic Kedem Temple Nobles of Mystic Shrine. Sykes became a communicant in Christ Episcopal Church in 1927. He served many years as a vestryman, junior and senior warden, trustee, Sunday school teacher, secretary and treasurer of Sunday school, assistant librarian, historian of the church, and was in charge of the historical room, which is now the youth Sunday school classroom. Sykes died at age 83 in March of 1977. Other sources of historical documents here were gleaned from various records of the church, including vestry minutes, annual reports, service leaflets, and other sources within the church archives. Valuable information was taken also from Records of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Western Virginia and in West Virginia, by George W. Peterkin, copyright 1901. Our gratitude is extended to the following organizations for permission to use copyrighted seals or logos within this internet document:
The University of the South (Sewanee) Updates of historical documents and the authoring of these web pages are by Donald L. Williams, Jr. Don was born on October 8, 1938, in Richmond, Virginia. He was raised at Klotz, in Giles County, Virginia, where he learned the crushed stone business from his father, Donald L. Williams. His grandfather was Charles Arthur Klotz, who founded the Virginian Limestone Corporation at Klotz in 1916 to supply the Virginian Railway (merged with the N&W - now Norfolk Southern in 1959) with railroad ballast from Deepwater, West Virginia, to Norfolk, Virginia. Williams attended public schools in Giles County, at Pembroke and Pearisburg, and graduated from the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1957. He attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute from 1957 to 1961, educated in Civil Engineering and Business Administration. Don served in the army reserve from 1961-1967 and married Mary Catherine Keffer on June 29, 1963, also a Giles County native, who was named after his mother upon birth at Klotz, where her family lived in the late thirties and early forties. Following time with the family business and as owner of a small ready-mixed concrete company in Pearisburg, Don spent time with Martin Marietta Aggregates in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Riverton Corporation in Front Royal, Virginia, United Transit Mix Concrete Corporation in Bluefield, and Nance Corporation of Richmond, Virginia, before starting his own business representing manufacturers of bulk materials handling and processing machinery to the coal, crushed stone, wood, recycling, and power generation industries. Don moved to Bluefield in July 1976. He was very active in the Jaycees at Pearisburg from 1959 until 1971, serving as president in 1967-1968. He is a Distinguished Service Award winner in the town of Pearisburg. Don was named a life member of the Virginia Jaycees in 1975. He has been active over the years in the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce, as well as the chambers of commerce of Giles County, Buchanan County, and Tazewell County. Williams is an amateur radio operator (ham), callsign W4VT, and has been licensed since February, 1961. His other hobbies include web site authoring (he has done a number of other sites for amateur radio-related activities in the region), golf, railroad history, and model railroading. He is immediate past president of the SouthEastern Repeater Association, an association of amateur radio repeater station operators covering eight states in the southeast with a membership of more than 3,000. He now coordinates selection of repeater frequencies in western Virginia. He has served on the vestry at Christ Episcopal Church for several three-year terms and has been elected junior warden and senior warden. Don last served as senior warden from 1999 through 2000. He has also served as Sunday school teacher and superintendent, and is now chairman of the Layreader corps, scheduling seventeen Layreaders in the church. Don is editor of the church newsletter, The Rainbow, and founded and maintains the church's website, www.christchurchbluefield.org. Don and Mary Catherine are the parents of two children. Mark Lloyd Williams, born on January 15, 1968, is a 1990 graduate of Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Management and works for Pemco Corporation as their Information Systems Specialist. Mark is a past President of the West Virginia Jaycees, served as a vice president of the West Virginia Jaycees in 2002, and was president of the Greater Bluefield Jaycees in 2001. Mark is an active member of the Elks Lodge in Bluefield. Mark lives next door to Don and Mary Catherine. Mary Lynne Williams, born on August 25, 1971, is a 1995 graduate of Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Architecture. She recently moved from Brooklyn, New York, to Seattle, Washington. Mary Lynne is employed by Microsoft's Windows division as a Senior User Experience Lead. |
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