Of Interest to many of my Georgia, South Carolina and surname list cousins and connections! OBITUARY FOR PIERCE COLUMBUS TOOLE MEMORIAL SERVICES AT HISTORICAL BETHESDA BAPTIST CHURCH, UNION POINT, Greene County, GEORGIA Sunday afternoon, July 11, 2004 1-3 P.M. Lunch and Visitation in new church fellowship hall 3 P.M. Memorial Service in the fellowship hall and the church yard cemetery Many distant and not so distant cousins and connections in Greene, Oglethorpe, Clarke, Oconee, Wilkes, and Richmond County, Georgia, area. Family names Durham, Toole, Crow, Allen, Green, Edmonds, Pollard, Booles/Bowles,Reynolds, Lindsey Also many family connections in Barnwell, Aiken, and Edgefield Counties, South Carolina. Toole, Green, Carpenter, Whitlock, Randal(?) Hatcher, Swearingen, Booth, Sheffield Pierce Columbus “P.C.” Toole, age 86, of Cocoa, Florida, died December 12, 2003, at the Rockledge Health and Rehabilitation Center after an extended hospital stay. His health had declined steadily since his retirement. Cause of death included pneumonia, chronic pulmonary difficulties, malnutrition, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Survivors include twin daughters, Vera Eileen Toole (Mrs. Bobby L. Damron) of Gainesville, Florida, and Vivian Leigh Toole (Mrs. Dan B. Cates) of Alto, Texas; a son, Kenneth Pierce Toole, of Cocoa, Florida; three grandchildren, Lena Susanne Damron, Daniel Toole Cates, David Bradley Cates; and 3 generations of nieces and nephews. His wife, Lena Mae Durham Toole and the mother of his children, preceded him in death December 20, 1969 as well as his brother and a nephew. Mr. Toole was born and reared in Augusta, Georgia where he repaired radios for Friedman’s Jewelers and was a broadcast engineer for radio station WRDW. Rejected for WWII service, he taught radio to WACs at Warner Robbins. As a radio engineer for WMAZ in Macon, he guarded their radio transmitter. The later part of the war was spent as a radio operator with aircraft communications for the forerunner of Continental Airways near Pasadena, Texas. After the war, Mr. Toole operated a radio repair shop in Union Point, Georgia and worked at radio stations in Covington and Cordele, Georgia. >From 1949-1951, he worked in Augusta teaching radio to recruits at Camp Gordon and transmitter sat for WRDW. He earned his First Class FCC license maintaining it for most of his life. In the early 1950’s he became a registered professional radio and electrical engineer in Georgia based on his years of work experience without the benefit of a high school or college education. From 1951 to 1957 he was a test engineer for Lockheed Aircraft in Marietta, GA. In 1957, he moved to Brevard County, Florida, to work in the Space Program at Cape Canaveral as a flight test engineer for Convair on the Atlas program, then spent four years with the Navy’s Polaris program. He joined NASA’s Launch Vehicle Operations in 1964 as an instrumentation engineer and moved to the Design Engineering Communications Branch audio section in June 1973 as a design engineer for communication systems. At his retirement in May 1994, he was a telecommunications engineer in the electronic systems division of NASA. At NASA, he was issued six U.S. Government Patents. His first invention was conceived in 1969 and patented in January, 1972 as a high-speed direct binary-to-binary coded decimal converter. His second patent was for a solid-state circuit for high-speed scaling of the binary numbers used in telemetry digital systems. He had additional patents in 1976, 79, 83, and 89. The patents were assigned to NASA for government use without royalty payment, with him receiving a nominal cash award and the publication of a NASA Technical Bulletin and Brief with the details of each invention. In July 1974, NASA recognized him with a Certificate of Recognition. The Spaceport News of December 12, 1974, carried a feature article on “P.C.” when he was working on his 4th patent, mentioning his encouraging others to bring their ideas to the attention of the patent counsel. A granite ledger monument for the deceased has been placed next to the grave and ledger monument of his wife, Lena Mae Durham Toole, in the Bethesda Baptist Church Cemetery, off Hwy 44, northeast of Union Point, Georgia. Memorial Services and Monument Dedication will be held at the historic Bethesda Baptist Church and Cemetery, Sunday afternoon July 11, at 3 PM. Lunch and Visitation in the new fellowship hall from 1-3 PM will precede the services. The daughters are placing a floral tribute in memory of their parents in the church sanctuary for the July 11 church services. In lieu of flowers, tax-deductible donations in any amount may be made to Santa Fe Community College/Adult Education, 3000 NW 83rd Street, Building G, Room 32, Gainesville, Florida 32606. Dr. and Mrs. Bobby L. Damron have initiated a fund in memory of her parents to supplement the Adult Education /Adults with Disabilities Program in which their daughter participates. Autism Spectrum Disorders/Asperger’s Syndrome is genetically inherited in this branch of the Toole family. To send a written memory or tribute to be shared at the Service or at a later date or to send personal condolences to the family contact: Jim Olds, Pastor, Bethesda Baptist Church, 1560 Bethesda Church Road, Union Point, Georgia 30669. All donations to Santa Fe Community College, written memories or tributes, and condolences will be acknowledged by the family. Family Contacts: Vera Eileen Toole Damron Phone: 352-332-6529 [email protected] Vivian Leigh Toole Cates 1-936-858-3801 [email protected] The grandsons live in the Houston, Texas, area where one is continuing in his grandfather's footsteps as a computer hardwear engineer for USA at Johnson Space Center in Houston.