Alvin Morris Wade

After working several years on the family farm in Greene County, Alvin moved in the mid-1960s with his wife Hazel and four young sons to Cary to work for IBM Corporation in Research Triangle Park, where he eventually was a department technician and manufacturing materials specialist. He was an active member of several churches in Cary, most recently First Cary United Methodist Church, and Cary Masonic Lodge 198, and was involved in United Way and church disaster relief trips.

Alvin was unfailingly open, plain-spoken, and quick to smile. He was a happy spectator and occasional referee in seasonal kids’ sports played nearly non-stop in the late 60s and early 70s in both front- and backyards of the family home, which he enlarged with friends’ help to accommodate nearly constant visitors. It was a home that was rarely quiet, and filled with love and laughter. He loved attending games and sometimes coaching his boys’ sports teams, camping and fishing trips with family and friends, saving money, and tyrannically supervising large family vegetable gardens.

With the help of friends, church members, family, and IBM, Alvin was a devoted caregiver for Hazel after her diagnosis with ALS for 11 years, until her death in 1989.

After his retirement from IBM, he started a third career with Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, where he met his second wife, Janice Poteat Wade. They were married in the backyard of the family home in 1997 in a lovely, lively ceremony that set the tone for many happy years together. Alvin was proud to have helped hundreds of families in times of grief, and that many asked for him to be involved in loved ones’ funerals.

Alvin was preceded in death by first wife Hazel Mae Gardner Wade; five sisters, Florine Wade Hardy, Janet Wade Cunningham, Hilda Grace Wade Stadiem, Maxine Wade Barrow, and Carol Blanche Wade Wainwright; and brother Rand Winston Wade.

His surviving family includes wife Janice Poteat Wade; sons Alvin Michael Wade (Jennifer), David Morris Wade (Ellen), Larry Wilson Wade, and Rex Gardner Wade (Paula); granddaughters Zoe Tabitha Hazel Wade and Rachel Ann Woods (Coley); grandsons Lee Wilson Wade and James Alvin Wade; stepsons Nick Leonard (Dawn and grandchildren Sydney and Drew Willis, and Nicky, Noah, and Landon Leonard); and John David Carriker (Lessie and grandchildren Hayley, Matthew (Faye), Penelope, Felicity, and Memphis); and beloved godchildren Olivia and Owen Pfoutz and Eli Hale.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. at the First Cary United Methodist Church. The family will receive friends immediately following the service in the Church Fellowship Hall.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the First Cary United Methodist Church at 117 S. Academy Street, Cary, NC 27511 or to the South Mountain Baptist Camp at 3558 Baptist Camp Road, Connelly Springs, NC 28612.

If you would like to leave a favorite memory/story of Al or a message of condolence to Janice and Family, you may do so below within "Add a Memory".

Brown-Wynne Funeral Home in Cary is honored to serve the Wade Family; Al and Janice are very dear to the entire staff of Brown-Wynne, Apex and Mitchell Funeral Homes.