William Donald Chitwood

William Donald

Chitwood

Moulton

Funeral for William Donald Chitwood, 76, of Moulton will be Monday, October 18, 2010, at 2 p.m. at Moulton Baptist Church with Dr. Jesse Reeder and the Rev. Bob Sims officiating. Burial will be in Moulton Memory Gardens. Visitation will be tonight from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Elliot Funeral Home.

Mr. Chitwood was born October 30, 1933, to Mack Chitwood and Grace Erwin Chitwood in Moulton. He graduated from Lawrence County High School in 1952 and enrolled in Florence State College. He joined the army in 1953 and served eighteen months at Fort Richardson, Alaska where he served as a warehouse foreman. He later returned to UNA where he received both MA and ED.S. Degrees in science and education. He worked seven years as a technical service representative at Monsanto. He returned to teaching science at LCHS and retired in 1995 as Supervisor of Support Personnel, Maintenance and Transportation. During his 29 1/2 year teaching career, he encouraged many students to enter North Alabama Regional Science Fairs, where a good number were winners in Chemistry, Physics, General Science and Space related projects. Many of his students were local winners, state winners, and even national winners. In 1980, he received the National Institute of Science award for an invention to be used in classroom teaching. For this, he received an all-expense paid week long trip to San Francisco. He developed a program with his students called "Teaching with Junk". He used "homemade" materials instead of expensive purchased materials and carried his demonstration to many North Alabama high schools, Alabama Public Television and several state science teachers meetings. Don was an inactive deacon at Moulton Baptist Church and enjoyed going on out-of-state mission tours and a member of the Alabama State Baptist Disaster Relief team. He was proud of his membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans and was a son of a real son of a Confederate Veteran. After his retirement, he enjoyed teaching art and woodwork, making bowls, ink pens and walking sticks, and giving his creations to friends.

Survivors include his wife, Dorris Shelton Chitwood; three children, Bill, Lori Bailey (Jerald) and Bobby; brother James Chitwood; and two grandchildren, JayJay and Caleb Bailey.

Pallbearers will be James Chitwood, Eddie McAbee, Bud Masterson, Michael Terry, Jerry Ellis, Jim Osborn and James Lewis.

Honorary Pallbearers will be members of Grace Sunday School Class of Moulton Baptist Church.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering at Moulton Baptist Church.

This obituary was originally published in the Decatur Daily.