Samuel Leonidas Powell

Samuel Leonidas Powell was born on April 1, 1932 to Samuel and Maebelle Powell in Walhalla, SC. He had six older siblings (Maca, Tine, Roy, Gennie, James, and Christy) and one younger brother (Robbie). The family weathered the Great Depression and moved several times in and around Walhalla during that time. His childhood was the typical rural southern existence during the 30s and 40s – dirt poor in money but rich in family. He went to work as a paperboy at 11 to help support the family and that job, and others that he picked up here and there, helped shape his strong work ethic. As a child he was in his dad’s Boy Scout troop and won MVP as a guard on the high school football team.
His father died in 1944 when he was not yet 13, and since his older brother Roy in the military (WW II), Sam became the one who had to take care of all the house maintenance. He learned to do just about anything needed to keep a house functioning on a low budget. This started his love for all things related to working with his hands - woodworking, electricity, metalwork, welding, and cars.
After graduation in 1950 he worked at a local weaving mill prior to joining the Air Force in 1951. As an airman he advanced to the rank of Staff Sergeant and was assigned to the 1095th Special Reporting Squadron as part of the Air Force Special Weapons Project. He was one of the Air Police who guarded the United States atomic weapon storage depot at Bossier Base, Louisiana. Bossier was an isolated and secret part of the larger Barksdale Strategic Air Command AFB in Louisiana (Google “Bossier Base Louisiana”). As of 2018, Barksdale is still one of two strategic nuclear bases that the Air Force maintains. His experiences during that time were to play a big role in his post-retirement years. What became his second favorite hobby, the history of the 1095th SRS, took off when his 50 year no-talk orders expired in the early 2000s and the internet made it possible to reconnect to all his Air Force buddies. His favorite hobby was, of course, his ten grandchildren.
In 1955 he left the Air Force and enrolled at Georgia Teacher’s College in Statesboro (now Georgia Southern University) where he met his future wife, Carmen Roach, of Statesboro. Like many of his brothers and sisters he graduated with an education degree specializing in vocational education and industrial arts. He and Carmen were married in December of 1956 and moved to Atlanta to start their teaching careers in 1958. He was the first industrial arts teacher for Cross Keys High School in DeKalb County when it opened in 1958.
In 1960 he and Carmen had the first of four children they were to have in five years; Sammy (1960) Angela (1962) Alan (1963) and Mike (1965), and in 1962 they bought a three-bedroom brick ranch house in a new subdivision off a dirt road named Dresden Dr. There they raised the family and became involved in their community and church. That same house was always the center of Powell family life and remains such to this day.
In 1966, he took a job with the Georgia State Department of Education as the statewide coordinator for industrial arts and vocational education. His office was located across from the state capitol where he had a close-up view of the turbulent 60s and 70s, Jimmy Carter’s run for the presidency and other events of the times. The part of his job he loved most was visiting with the industrial arts teachers around the state and making sure their programs were top-notch, properly funded, and effective. He retired from the state in 1988.
As a father he was always heavily involved in his children’s lives. He was once elected Committee Chairman of Boy Scout Troop 554 during a meeting which he did not attend. He delighted in telling that story and reminding his sons to always attend important Scout meetings lest something like that happen to them. Since all four kids were involved in sports that included baseball, football, softball, and wrestling, he spent many long hours working with the youth sports programs at North DeKalb Little League and Sequoyah High School. He and two friends built the football field house at Honeysuckle Park in Doraville, much of it in the early morning hours before heading to work.
Sam and Carmen’s four children went different paths after high school graduation. The three boys all attended Georgia Tech and received engineering degrees (Sammy-civil, Alan-mechanical, Mike-industrial) and Angela went to the University of Georgia where she earned an accounting degree. To this day, none of them are exactly sure which team he pulled for when the two schools played each other. That was his own secret in his “house divided.” What is not a secret though, was his love of Georgia Southern Eagles football. He and Carmen had season tickets for many years and took football road trips with Carmen’s sister Loretta and her husband Jimmy, both of whom graduated from Georgia Southern as well. He and Jimmy were best friends and would often meet for breakfast at Sam’s favorite haunt, the Old Hickory House near Northlake Mall. He knew all the waitresses and would always take his grandkids there whenever they came for a visit. They all love the Old Hickory House and the great memories that come with it.
After Carmen retired from teaching at Dresden Elementary School, the pair travelled all over the world. Trips included Australia, Mexico, Midway Island, and a Mississippi riverboat cruise. When their grandchildren turned 10, they would take them for a week at the Methodist Elderhostel on St. Simon’s Island. The two also took many exciting trips in conjunction with reunions of the 1095th Special Reporting Squadron. The final reunion of the group was held in 2016 when the group met at Barksdale AFB and placed an informational road marker at the former location of Bossier Base. Sam was involved in founding the group, organizing reunions, planning trips and raising funds for the historical marker.
So much more could be said about a man who led a charmed life and touched so many lives in the process - much more than can be written in an obituary posted on a funeral home website. In short, he was a wonderful man, husband and father who led a wonderful life.
Sam is survived by Carmen Roach Powell, his wife of 61 years; four children and their spouses, Sammy and Alyson Powell, Angela and Ray Vina, Alan and Tina Powell, and Mike and Cynthia Powell; ten grandchildren in order of birth; Vanessa Vina, Laura Powell, Rebecca Vina Brown and grandson-in-law Matthew Brown, Olivia Powell, Savanna Vina, Ryan Vina, Michael Powell, Ethan Powell, Matthew Powell, and Mitchell Powell; one great-grandchild Liliana Brown; younger brother Robbie Powell; sister-in-law Meredith Rogers; brother-in-law and sister-in-law Jimmy and Loretta Roach Johnson; and brother-in-law and sister-in-law Hal and Susan Roach. In addition, there are several dozen nieces, nephews and grand nieces and nephews who loved him as well. He will be missed tremendously.
Flowers are optional and donations can be made to:
Murphy-Harpst Children’s Centers
Attn: Susan Stroup
740 Fletcher St.
Cedartown, GA 30125
http://murphyharpst.org/