Although Dad never wanted an obituary, below is a biographical tribute I prepared.
Gilbert Wayne Godfrey, 66, a native of Newport News, VA, and resident of 16951 Sandy Point Road, Charles City County, VA since 1993, passed away at his home on Sunday, January 15, 2012, less than 2 1/2 months after being diagnosed with and operated on partially for a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor.
Born October 22, 1945 in Newport News, where his parents resided at 636 Sterling Street after 1947, he was the son of the late Garland Stevens Godfrey (1914-1996), a native of Camden County, NC and 38-year employee of Newport News Shipbuilding, and Katherine Elizabeth Godfrey Godfrey (1920-2010), a native of Pasquotank County, NC. On June 22, 1968 in Newport News, he married his high school sweetheart, Janet Lee Overstreet, by whom he had two sons before their divorce in 1982, and he is survived by his devoted wife of two months (married 8 November 2011 at Hopewell, VA) and best friend and business partner of over 30 years, Jerri Diane Millington (Sundman) Godfrey, a native of Inkster, MI.
Wayne was a 1964 graduate of Warwick High School in Newport News, a 1969 Patternmaker Apprentice graduate of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company Apprentice School, and a 1973 graduate of the University of Alabama, where he received a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering after putting himself through college while working for Central Foundry, having lived for four years in Tuscaloosa, AL (renting the basement of the home of Mrs. Ethelle Bowden Whigham at 5 The Highlands) where his son Bryan was born in 1973. Wayne served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves from 1969 to 1973, assigned as an engineman on patrol boats, and was ranked at the top as the "Honor Man" for his battalion while in U.S. Coast Guard Boot Camp at Cape May, NJ.
Following college, Wayne was employed as a technical manager for Clow Corporation at Coshocton, OH (residing at 1726 Evergreen Park Drive) for 18 months, but being dissatisfied with the corporate world, he returned to Virginia in 1975 to go into business for himself in the Petersburg-Hopewell area. For the first five years after relocating to the Petersburg area, where his son Jason was born in 1978, he alternated between self-employment and working as a plant manager for Titus Machine Works in Petersburg and as a foundry castings salesman for Arenco-Cardwell. Lamenting the decline and outsourcing of the foundry industry in America in the 1970s, Wayne realized early on the necessity of diversifying his manufacturing and repair skills. In 1980, going back into business for himself for good, he founded Diversified Manufacturing, Inc. in Hopewell, which originally specialized in patternmaking and compressor parts and service, but shortly thereafter began to encompass machine shop work, plant maintenance, foundry work, metal fabrication, welding, and in recent years much work for various paper mills. Renting a building on Hercules Road for the first decade, in 1990 Wayne relocated his business to 938 East Randolph Road on the outskirts of Hopewell, having constructed the buildings himself with the help of his employees. He resided in Petersburg (2765 Homestead Drive in the Battlefield Park subdivision) from 1975 to 1984, then Hopewell from 1984 to 1988, and then Prince George County from 1988 until 1992, moving to his last residence in Charles City County in 1993.
Having come from working-class parents and from grandparents who were farmers, Wayne was working various jobs from age 12 onwards, and he was highly regarded for his hard work ethic, his determination to do for others with unfailing integrity, his self-sufficiency, his thrift, and for his can-do attitude as a do-it-yourselfer who was talented at building and fixing many things. He emphasized the value of a well-rounded education and was unusual in his credentials as both a trained craftsman and engineer. He served on the Hopewell Vocational Education Advisory Board. Known for his nonconformist tendencies such as wearing a cowboy hat, he had a reputation in local companies, especially DuPont and Anheuser-Busch, as "the man with the cowboy hat who can solve many different types of problems." An avid reader, he believed in the importance of being well-informed, having subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and local newspapers from early adulthood, and in recent years had expressed a desire for more political activism. With 7/8 of his ancestry rooted in the Albemarle region of Northeastern North Carolina and 1/8 rooted on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and having grown up within one mile of the James River with a father who was a burner in the Newport News Shipbuilding, Wayne exemplified a lifelong fondness for nautical or maritime pursuits. His lifelong love of the James River and boating in general resulted in him and Jerri purchasing a home on the river at Sandy Point in 1993, where, assisted by his sons, he had constructed a magnificent garage in recent years. He also enjoyed travel, never having travelled abroad but having been throughout the United States, including a trip to visit his inlaws in Alaska in 1988, three trips to Hawaii between 2000 and 2005, and a three-week RV trip to the Northwest in 2008. Having a sense of humor, Wayne was also known for his practical jokes, even played against his employees, in spite of how seriously he took his work and business.
Coming from a long-living family overall, it is likely that Wayne's terminal brain tumor and two other milder cancers for which he had been operated on in the past seventeen years were caused by the many industrial hazards he was exposed to over the years. In 1995, he underwent a partial lung removal for a carcinoid tumor, caught as a result of xrays for broken ribs sustained in a fall while working at du Pont. In 2007, a mild malignant tumor on the outside of a kidney, discovered as a result of a fall while working on his garage, was removed. He often remarked that "you can't live life in a bubble" and that "not everyone can sit in a comfortable office all day; someone has to do the dirty, dangerous work." He was a firm believer in taking risks and initiative.
At his request, his remains will be cremated and scattered at a later date, with no memorial service or obituary planned.
In addition to his widow Jerri, Wayne is survived by his two sons, Bryan Scott Godfrey of Henrico, VA and friend Meredith, and Jason Paul Godfrey and wife Jessica Abbitt Godfrey of Newport News; Jason and Jessica's toddler daughter Ella Finley Godfrey [their second daughter, Grayson Lyn Godfrey, was born two years after his death, and their son Cole Abbitt Godfrey was born over 7 1/2 years later]; his sisters and their husbands, Barbara Jean ("Bobbie") Godfrey Newton and Clarence Preston ("Buddy") Newton, Jr. of Tyro, Nelson County, VA, and Luanne Godfrey White and husband Charles French ("Charlie") White of Hampton, VA; his nephew, David Glenn Newton of Newport News; his niece, Kimberly Nicole White of Hampton; two maternal uncles, Marvin Ralph Godfrey of Fuquay-Varina, NC and Roy Fearing Godfrey of California; 13 maternal first cousins (one more having preceded him in death); and his former wife and mother of his two sons, Janet Overstreet Watkins and her husband, Nelson Cornell Watkins, Jr. of Newport News; by Jerri's family including her daughter Erika Rae Sundman Byers Echols of Culpeper, VA, Erika's children Sara Rae Byers and Alexander Patrick Echols, and Jerri's sisters Sandra Herrera/Barlow Lauchlan of Berkeley, MI and Judith Herrera/Barlow Strong of Michigan.
In addition to his parents, Wayne was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, Charlie Forbes Godfrey (1886-1962) and Rebecca Irene Stevens Godfrey (1888-1963) of Shiloh and Elizabeth City, NC; his maternal grandparents with whom he was very close and devoted, Gilbert Godfrey (1889-1965) and Mattie Elizabeth White Godfrey (1891-1993) of near Elizabeth City, NC; maternal aunt Ruth "Hazel" Godfrey Procopio (1925-1983) of Warren, RI; maternal uncles Carlton Gilbert Godfrey (1917-1998) and Raymond Myers Godfrey (1921-2006) of Elizabeth City, NC; and most recently, his maternal aunt Alma Marie Godfrey Rosso (1914-2011) of Norfolk, VA, for whom he shared a special affection and only outlived by 47 days...
The family wishes to express their appreciation to the personnel of Horizons Hospice, Richmond, Va., for their exceptional care during Wayne's last days.
Memorial donations may be sent to Wayne's favorite children's charities; St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, P.O. Box 50, Memphis, TN 38101-9929 or Operation Smile, 6435 Tidewater Drive, Norfolk, VA 23509.
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Comment regarding his final residence from 1993-2012, where he died: The house was demolished by the new owners about a year after Wayne's death, and a larger house was constructed on the site.
Comment regarding his business locations in Hopewell, VA: The building he rented from 1980-1990 at 1005 Hercules Road still stands, but the buildings he constructed on land he purchased from Norwood and Jane Wilson circa 1988, where he relocated his business in 1990, at 938 East Randolph Road, adjacent to Bailey's Creek, were demolished in 2014.
His second wife Jerri was born February 15, 1947 at Detroit, Wayne Co., MI and died September 4, 2023 at Williamsburg, James City Co., VA, where she moved a year after his death, cremated also with no obituary or service. She married her first husband, Austin Raymond ("Ray") Sundman, on July 21, 1967, divorced 1983 in Colonial Heights, VA; he now resides with his second wife in Woodbridge, VA. Jerri had a boyfriend in her last years, Brian Freeman. She was the oldest of the three biological daughters of William S. Herrera (born July 17, 1901 Chihuaha, Mexico; died February 16, 1982 Chula Vista, CA; cremated) and Katherine "Jean" Moore/Millington Herrera Barlow Lamoreaux (born March 7, 1927 Rivesville, WV; died November 15, 1995 Anchorage, AK, cremated, having moved from Michigan to Moose Pass, AK with her third husband Donald R. Lamoreaux around 1970), married September 15, 1945 Detroit, MI. At the age of nine, Jerri, whose name at birth was Marie Elena Herrera, was adopted and her name changed by her maternal grandmother and step-grandfather who raised her, Katherine Lagustine ("Kitty") Hissem Moore Millington (born July 27, 1904 Petroleum, Ritchie Co., WV; died January 3, 1995 Berkley, Oakland Co., MI) and second husband Raymond Lester Millington (born March 23, 1907 Chicago, IL; died October 30, 1985 Westland or Inkster, Wayne Co., MI), married December 24, 1936 Detroit, MI. Jerri's biological maternal grandfather was Eugene Warren Moore (born April 29, 1903 Morgantown, Monongalia Co., WV; died December 27, 1961 Muncie, Delaware Co., IN; cremated), married April 25, 1925 Wheeling, Ohio Co., WV; divorced 1935 Wayne Co., MI (he remarried and had 3 more children).
Although Dad never wanted an obituary, below is a biographical tribute I prepared.
Gilbert Wayne Godfrey, 66, a native of Newport News, VA, and resident of 16951 Sandy Point Road, Charles City County, VA since 1993, passed away at his home on Sunday, January 15, 2012, less than 2 1/2 months after being diagnosed with and operated on partially for a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor.
Born October 22, 1945 in Newport News, where his parents resided at 636 Sterling Street after 1947, he was the son of the late Garland Stevens Godfrey (1914-1996), a native of Camden County, NC and 38-year employee of Newport News Shipbuilding, and Katherine Elizabeth Godfrey Godfrey (1920-2010), a native of Pasquotank County, NC. On June 22, 1968 in Newport News, he married his high school sweetheart, Janet Lee Overstreet, by whom he had two sons before their divorce in 1982, and he is survived by his devoted wife of two months (married 8 November 2011 at Hopewell, VA) and best friend and business partner of over 30 years, Jerri Diane Millington (Sundman) Godfrey, a native of Inkster, MI.
Wayne was a 1964 graduate of Warwick High School in Newport News, a 1969 Patternmaker Apprentice graduate of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company Apprentice School, and a 1973 graduate of the University of Alabama, where he received a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering after putting himself through college while working for Central Foundry, having lived for four years in Tuscaloosa, AL (renting the basement of the home of Mrs. Ethelle Bowden Whigham at 5 The Highlands) where his son Bryan was born in 1973. Wayne served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserves from 1969 to 1973, assigned as an engineman on patrol boats, and was ranked at the top as the "Honor Man" for his battalion while in U.S. Coast Guard Boot Camp at Cape May, NJ.
Following college, Wayne was employed as a technical manager for Clow Corporation at Coshocton, OH (residing at 1726 Evergreen Park Drive) for 18 months, but being dissatisfied with the corporate world, he returned to Virginia in 1975 to go into business for himself in the Petersburg-Hopewell area. For the first five years after relocating to the Petersburg area, where his son Jason was born in 1978, he alternated between self-employment and working as a plant manager for Titus Machine Works in Petersburg and as a foundry castings salesman for Arenco-Cardwell. Lamenting the decline and outsourcing of the foundry industry in America in the 1970s, Wayne realized early on the necessity of diversifying his manufacturing and repair skills. In 1980, going back into business for himself for good, he founded Diversified Manufacturing, Inc. in Hopewell, which originally specialized in patternmaking and compressor parts and service, but shortly thereafter began to encompass machine shop work, plant maintenance, foundry work, metal fabrication, welding, and in recent years much work for various paper mills. Renting a building on Hercules Road for the first decade, in 1990 Wayne relocated his business to 938 East Randolph Road on the outskirts of Hopewell, having constructed the buildings himself with the help of his employees. He resided in Petersburg (2765 Homestead Drive in the Battlefield Park subdivision) from 1975 to 1984, then Hopewell from 1984 to 1988, and then Prince George County from 1988 until 1992, moving to his last residence in Charles City County in 1993.
Having come from working-class parents and from grandparents who were farmers, Wayne was working various jobs from age 12 onwards, and he was highly regarded for his hard work ethic, his determination to do for others with unfailing integrity, his self-sufficiency, his thrift, and for his can-do attitude as a do-it-yourselfer who was talented at building and fixing many things. He emphasized the value of a well-rounded education and was unusual in his credentials as both a trained craftsman and engineer. He served on the Hopewell Vocational Education Advisory Board. Known for his nonconformist tendencies such as wearing a cowboy hat, he had a reputation in local companies, especially DuPont and Anheuser-Busch, as "the man with the cowboy hat who can solve many different types of problems." An avid reader, he believed in the importance of being well-informed, having subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and local newspapers from early adulthood, and in recent years had expressed a desire for more political activism. With 7/8 of his ancestry rooted in the Albemarle region of Northeastern North Carolina and 1/8 rooted on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and having grown up within one mile of the James River with a father who was a burner in the Newport News Shipbuilding, Wayne exemplified a lifelong fondness for nautical or maritime pursuits. His lifelong love of the James River and boating in general resulted in him and Jerri purchasing a home on the river at Sandy Point in 1993, where, assisted by his sons, he had constructed a magnificent garage in recent years. He also enjoyed travel, never having travelled abroad but having been throughout the United States, including a trip to visit his inlaws in Alaska in 1988, three trips to Hawaii between 2000 and 2005, and a three-week RV trip to the Northwest in 2008. Having a sense of humor, Wayne was also known for his practical jokes, even played against his employees, in spite of how seriously he took his work and business.
Coming from a long-living family overall, it is likely that Wayne's terminal brain tumor and two other milder cancers for which he had been operated on in the past seventeen years were caused by the many industrial hazards he was exposed to over the years. In 1995, he underwent a partial lung removal for a carcinoid tumor, caught as a result of xrays for broken ribs sustained in a fall while working at du Pont. In 2007, a mild malignant tumor on the outside of a kidney, discovered as a result of a fall while working on his garage, was removed. He often remarked that "you can't live life in a bubble" and that "not everyone can sit in a comfortable office all day; someone has to do the dirty, dangerous work." He was a firm believer in taking risks and initiative.
At his request, his remains will be cremated and scattered at a later date, with no memorial service or obituary planned.
In addition to his widow Jerri, Wayne is survived by his two sons, Bryan Scott Godfrey of Henrico, VA and friend Meredith, and Jason Paul Godfrey and wife Jessica Abbitt Godfrey of Newport News; Jason and Jessica's toddler daughter Ella Finley Godfrey [their second daughter, Grayson Lyn Godfrey, was born two years after his death, and their son Cole Abbitt Godfrey was born over 7 1/2 years later]; his sisters and their husbands, Barbara Jean ("Bobbie") Godfrey Newton and Clarence Preston ("Buddy") Newton, Jr. of Tyro, Nelson County, VA, and Luanne Godfrey White and husband Charles French ("Charlie") White of Hampton, VA; his nephew, David Glenn Newton of Newport News; his niece, Kimberly Nicole White of Hampton; two maternal uncles, Marvin Ralph Godfrey of Fuquay-Varina, NC and Roy Fearing Godfrey of California; 13 maternal first cousins (one more having preceded him in death); and his former wife and mother of his two sons, Janet Overstreet Watkins and her husband, Nelson Cornell Watkins, Jr. of Newport News; by Jerri's family including her daughter Erika Rae Sundman Byers Echols of Culpeper, VA, Erika's children Sara Rae Byers and Alexander Patrick Echols, and Jerri's sisters Sandra Herrera/Barlow Lauchlan of Berkeley, MI and Judith Herrera/Barlow Strong of Michigan.
In addition to his parents, Wayne was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, Charlie Forbes Godfrey (1886-1962) and Rebecca Irene Stevens Godfrey (1888-1963) of Shiloh and Elizabeth City, NC; his maternal grandparents with whom he was very close and devoted, Gilbert Godfrey (1889-1965) and Mattie Elizabeth White Godfrey (1891-1993) of near Elizabeth City, NC; maternal aunt Ruth "Hazel" Godfrey Procopio (1925-1983) of Warren, RI; maternal uncles Carlton Gilbert Godfrey (1917-1998) and Raymond Myers Godfrey (1921-2006) of Elizabeth City, NC; and most recently, his maternal aunt Alma Marie Godfrey Rosso (1914-2011) of Norfolk, VA, for whom he shared a special affection and only outlived by 47 days...
The family wishes to express their appreciation to the personnel of Horizons Hospice, Richmond, Va., for their exceptional care during Wayne's last days.
Memorial donations may be sent to Wayne's favorite children's charities; St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, P.O. Box 50, Memphis, TN 38101-9929 or Operation Smile, 6435 Tidewater Drive, Norfolk, VA 23509.
*************************************
Comment regarding his final residence from 1993-2012, where he died: The house was demolished by the new owners about a year after Wayne's death, and a larger house was constructed on the site.
Comment regarding his business locations in Hopewell, VA: The building he rented from 1980-1990 at 1005 Hercules Road still stands, but the buildings he constructed on land he purchased from Norwood and Jane Wilson circa 1988, where he relocated his business in 1990, at 938 East Randolph Road, adjacent to Bailey's Creek, were demolished in 2014.
His second wife Jerri was born February 15, 1947 at Detroit, Wayne Co., MI and died September 4, 2023 at Williamsburg, James City Co., VA, where she moved a year after his death, cremated also with no obituary or service. She married her first husband, Austin Raymond ("Ray") Sundman, on July 21, 1967, divorced 1983 in Colonial Heights, VA; he now resides with his second wife in Woodbridge, VA. Jerri had a boyfriend in her last years, Brian Freeman. She was the oldest of the three biological daughters of William S. Herrera (born July 17, 1901 Chihuaha, Mexico; died February 16, 1982 Chula Vista, CA; cremated) and Katherine "Jean" Moore/Millington Herrera Barlow Lamoreaux (born March 7, 1927 Rivesville, WV; died November 15, 1995 Anchorage, AK, cremated, having moved from Michigan to Moose Pass, AK with her third husband Donald R. Lamoreaux around 1970), married September 15, 1945 Detroit, MI. At the age of nine, Jerri, whose name at birth was Marie Elena Herrera, was adopted and her name changed by her maternal grandmother and step-grandfather who raised her, Katherine Lagustine ("Kitty") Hissem Moore Millington (born July 27, 1904 Petroleum, Ritchie Co., WV; died January 3, 1995 Berkley, Oakland Co., MI) and second husband Raymond Lester Millington (born March 23, 1907 Chicago, IL; died October 30, 1985 Westland or Inkster, Wayne Co., MI), married December 24, 1936 Detroit, MI. Jerri's biological maternal grandfather was Eugene Warren Moore (born April 29, 1903 Morgantown, Monongalia Co., WV; died December 27, 1961 Muncie, Delaware Co., IN; cremated), married April 25, 1925 Wheeling, Ohio Co., WV; divorced 1935 Wayne Co., MI (he remarried and had 3 more children).
