Samuel Alvis Jr.

Samuel Macon Alvis Jr., of Greenville, died Feb. 27, 2004, aged 95.

Born in Goshen, Va., son of Samuel Macon Alvis Sr. and Florence Bell Surber Alvis, he enjoyed a productive engineering career spanning five decades. He was a long-time resident of Ilion, N.Y., before moving to Greenville in 1983.

A graduate of Fishburne Military School and the University of Virginia, he was employed by the E.I. Dupont Company beginning in 1928. During World War II he joined DuPont's then subsidiary, Remington Arms Co., working first at the Utah Ordnance Plant in Salt Lake City, then at Remington's headquarters in Bridgeport, Conn. He became the Small Arms Division's chief works engineer for military production. After the war he was transferred to Ilion, N.Y., eventually becoming head of the Remington Arms' research division until his retirement in 1973. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Remington Arms Museum in Ilion.

In addition to numerous professional honors and distinctions, he was a founding director of the Presbyterian Home for Central New York, was a director of the Herkimer County (N.Y.) Historical Society, and was a member of Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church in Greenville.

Survivors include his wife, Douglas Hubbard Norris Alvis; daughters, Ann A. Shibut and Elizabeth A. Girardeau; a stepson, David L. Norris; seven grandchildren and stepgrandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his first wife, Margaret Norris Alvis, of Greenville.

Memorial service arrangements are incomplete at this time.

Courtesy of Cremation Society of South Carolina.