Richard William Booth

Richard William Booth, Jr, 95, passed away October 13, 2019 at Greenville Memorial Hospital. His memorial service will be held this Thursday at Taylors First Baptist Church, 200 West Main Street, Taylors, SC. Friends and family will be received starting at 2:00pm, with a memorial service conducted by Dr. Jimmie Harley at 3:00pm.

Richard was born on August 12, 1924 in Nutley, NJ to Richard and Theresa Booth. He grew up in Nutley NJ, where he played end and tackle on the High School football teams, and graduated in 1942.

Shortly after graduating high school, and after a short stint working at an Army Depot with his father, a Captain in the Army, he enlisted in the Army on Dec. 12, 1942 at 18 years old and was sent for training in the Signal Company. He knew Morse code from the Boy Scouts, so he was selected to go for special training as radio operator. Richard became very good at sending messages by high speed, so he was specially selected to be the radio operator on a Coast Guard cutter, assigned to the Navy’s 7th Fleet. So yes, he was an Army guy, on a Coast Guard cutter, doing Navy amphibious invasion operations and anti-submarine duty in the South Pacific!

His ship, the Ingham, was the floating headquarters for Navy Admirals and Army Generals who were directing amphibious invasions of island held by the Japanese. (By the way his ship, the Ingham, is now a floating museum in Key West).

He returned home from the War in 1945, attend Seton Hall, majored in Journalism, and then transferred to Rutgers where he majored in English. While going to school he worked heavy road construction, driving a concrete mixer truck.

In 1957 he joined Bell Telephone Laboratories as a technical writer, working on Space Vehicle projects and Nike interceptor missile design and testing, under secret military clearance. After the military contracts ended, he managed the corporate TV studio and news for Bell Telephone Labs that was broadcast by satellite throughout the U.S.

He retired from AT&T in 1984, and moved to Taylors in 1986, where he found a succession of technical writing jobs for diverse industries in the area, including Flour Daniels, GE – where he wrote Engineer’s manuals for locomotives, as well as Energy Conservation reports for the State of South Carolina.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Carol, of Brookdale Greenville; son Richard “Rick” of Smithtown, NY; son Harry of Taylors, SC; and daughter Barbara of Greenville, SC; as well as six grandchildren.

Memorial Service will be held at 3:00 PM on Thursday, October 17, 2019 at Taylors First Baptist.

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