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Brigadier General Benton Tolley

Brigadier General Benton Tolley obituary, Naples, FL

Brigadier Tolley Obituary

Brigadier General Benton Caruthers ("B.C.") Tolley, Jr. Naples, FL

Brigadier General Benton Caruthers ("B.C.") Tolley, Jr., loving great grandfather, grandfather, father and husband, passed away on September 27, 2012 in his hometown Naples, FL, after a short illness. He was 92 years old.

General Tolley was born on June 14, 1920, in Lexington, VA to Benton Caruthers Tolley and Lilian Pultz Tolley and attended the Rockbridge County public schools through high school, graduating from Lexington High School in 1938, where he was the senior class president. His father owned and operated "Tolleys Toggery" in Lexington, a popular men's clothing store that today exists and is operated as the College Town Shop near the Washington & Lee campus in Lexington.

B.C. attended Washington & Lee University from 1938 to 1941 and was commissioned into the U.S. Army Air Corps as a Second Lieutenant on January 2, 1942. He served as a B29 navigator instructor and as a B-29 navigator in the Pacific theatre from VE Day through the end of World War II. After the end of the war, B.C. returned to Lexington to attend law school where he graduated from Washington & Lee School of Law in 1948.

General Tolley was a trial attorney with the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1948 to 1951, when he was recalled to active duty with the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He retired from active duty service in the U.S. Air Force in 1951 and commenced the private practice of estate and probate law with Larson & Tolley in Washington, D.C., a practice he continued for over 25 years. He moved from Washington, D.C. to Easton, MD in the late 1970s and practiced in Georgetown, DE briefly and for several years thereafter in Easton with the firm Goldsborough and Tolley until his retirement. He remained active in the U.S. Air Force Reserve throughout this time in private practice, retiring as a Brigadier General in 1985.

B.C. married Margaret Reutlinger Tolley, a native of Washington, D.C., in 1942, to whom he was married for over 30 years. They had three children who survive him: Nancy Tolley Gray, married to Dr. Luther W. Gray, Jr., of Washington, D.C., Benton Caruthers Tolley III, married to Reverend Evangeline S. Tolley, of Miami, FL and Deborah Tolley Barry, married to Kevin M. Barry, of Round Hill, VA. B.C. married Joan Dodd ("Bobbie") Tolley in 1978. Bobbie's mother, Catherine Filene Shouse, was the founding benefactor of The Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in Northern Virginia. Bobbie survives B.C. and resides in Naples, FL.

B.C. was an avid golfer and at the time of his death a member of the Burning Tree Club, in Bethesda, Maryland and the Hole in the Wall Golf Club in Naples, FL. He was a past member of Columbia Country Club in Washington, D.C. and Talbot Country Club in Easton, MD.

Most notably, B.C. was devoted to his family. He and Bobbie devoted their lives together to their combined seven children, 19 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren and two great great grandchildren. B.C. and Bobbie were active members of the Naples Community Church in Naples, FL.

Expressions of sympathy may be sent to B.C. and Bobbie's church, the Naples Community Church Building Fund, 849 Seventh Avenue South, #696, Naples, FL 34102.

A memorial service will be held at Bower Chapel, Moorings Park, Naples, FL, on November 17, 2012, at 11:00 a.m.



Published by Naples Daily News on Oct. 7, 2012.
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We offer our sincerest sympathy at the passing of such a noble man. May he rest in peace.
Nikki & Don Dietel

Nikki DIETEL

October 9, 2012

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