PATTILLO, Roy Embree

Mohave Daily News, Mohave Valley, AZ - Published in Mohave Daily News Online from May 3 to May 10, 2011 - Roy Embree Pattillo, age 84, a 12-year resident of Bullhead City, Ariz., died Monday, April 25, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nev., due to complications following heart surgery. Roy, who was born on January 15, 1927, in Gastonia, N.C., moved to Atlanta, Ga., at the age of three. He graduated early from Tech High School in order to enlist in the US Navy on his 18th birthday. He served as a radar operator on the destroyer USS Everett F. Larson (DD-830) at the end of World War II, and as part of the occupation forces in Japan. Throughout his career, Roy worked in several industries and at a number of companies, starting as a draftsman and design engineer, and later holding management positions in manufacturing, personnel and quality control. From 1967 until 1999, Roy lived and worked in Durham and Chapel Hill, N.C. He returned to school mid-career, graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976, with a BA in Business Administration. In 1981, he founded Pattillo Industries, a machine parts finishing company. He sold the company in 1986, but continued to manage it until 1991, when he took a position as Instructor in the Industrial Management Technology Program at Durham Technical Community College. While there, he taught courses in small business management, quality control, safety, and principles of manufacturing, until retiring to Bullhead City in 1999. Roy recently authored his autobiography, in which he wrote, "I have had a great life. I am fortunate that so many people helped to make it so. I would not swap my life with anyone I have ever known or heard about." Roy was preceded in death by his grandson, Jason. Roy is survived by his wife of 56 years, Marie (Pat); two brothers, Clifford and David; two sons, Roy James (Jim), and Thomas (Tom); daughter-in-law, Jeannine Jannot; and three grandchildren Ryan, Madison and Katherine. Funeral services will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4, 2011, at AS Turner & Sons Funeral Home in Decatur, Ga. Burial will follow at Resthaven Gardens of Memory in Decatur. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Roy's name, to the Children's TumorFoundation, 95 Pine Street 16th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10005-4002 (www.ctf.org); the National DownSyndrome Society, 666 Broadway 8th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10012 (www.ndss.org); or the Tech High School Alumni Association Scholarship Fund, c/o The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, 50 Hurt Plaza, Suite 449, Atlanta, Ga. 30303.