Samuel Brown Witt III

1935 - 2023

WITT, Samuel Brown III, of Richmond, Virginia, died peacefully on Thursday, July 6, 2023, at the age of 87.

He was born in Richmond in 1935, the son of Judge Samuel Brown Witt Jr. and Mary Dunlap Draper, and later the stepson of Elizabeth McDearmon Witt. He was educated in the city's public schools. He was graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1958 with a B.A. in English. At VMI he distinguished himself as Captain of "D" Company, Co-Editor of the newspaper, and an AFROTC Cadet.

Witt was a Captain in the Air Force at Tyndall A.F.B. in Germany, "keeping missiles on target for the free world." In 1964, he was graduated from the University of Virginia Law School with an L.L.B. While at UVA he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society, the Phi Alpha Delta Law fraternity, and the Order of the Coif; he also won the William Minor Lile Moot Court competition. After graduation he left the United States "to seek my fortune as an international lawyer, whatever that is, in Nassau, Brussels, and London." He continued his education at the Harvard Business School Executive Program in Switzerland.

In 1967, he married Sally Clay Crenshaw and they had two sons, Richard Spottswood Clay Witt and Samuel Brown Witt, born in 1968 and 1970. The family lived in Belgium and England, during which time he worked for the European division of General Mills. In 1977 the family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Witt was named Vice-President, General Counsel, and Secretary of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, a position he held until 1989.

Witt was admitted to the bar in several states, and all appropriate courts, including the United States Supreme Court. He served for eleven years on the VMI Board of Visitors, the last four of them as President, during which he led the school through a time of intense social change. He was also a Trustee of the University of Virginia Law School Foundation for twelve years, and co-founded Stateside Associates in Alexandria, Virginia, a state government relations and issues management firm.

He made the following toast at his son Clay's wedding: "I feel that I've done the world four favors; I have given it an artist, a poet, and two fewer lawyers." He was a member of the Society of Cincinnati, the Sons of the Revolution (serving a term as president of the Virginia chapter), the Raven Society, the Richmond German, the Reform Club of London, the Commonwealth Club, the Harvard Club, the Farmington Country Club, and the Esher Cricket Club. He was a music lover, a member of the Commanders at VMI, for which he played a stand-up bass with three strings; he was a serious reader, a hunter and fisherman, and a loyal friend.

Most importantly, he loved and believed in his family and friends in ways that most people only dream of. He was especially proud of his grandchildren, Henry Clay Howard Witt, Lewis Draper Graves Witt, and a third, expected this year. He is survived by his wife, Sally; his sons, grandchildren; brothers, Richard Tucker Witt and Peter McDearmon Witt; his daughters-in-law, Kelly Marie Howard Witt and Talia Adry Witt; and an extended family of cousins.

There will be a private family burial in Hollywood Cemetery, and a memorial service at Westminster Canterbury at 2 p.m. on Friday, July 21, 1600 Westbrook Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, 23227. All are welcome at the memorial service. Please arrive thirty minutes early for parking. Instead of flowers, please make donations to the charitable organization of your choice.