William Lamar Nail Jr was born on May 3, 1935, and had just celebrated his 88th birthday with friends and family in Clinton before a peaceful passing to be with friends and family who preceded him to heaven on May 19, 2023.
He was born in the midst of the Great Depression, the second of five children of a sharecropper family in Carroll County MS near Grenada. Named after his father (Sr), he was also called Buddy by family and family friends to avoid confusion.
As America entered World War II and non-farm jobs became available, the family moved closer to Grenada and settled in the community of Futheyville. He began working various jobs at an early age including selling papers, picking cotton, servicing a bread truck route, and driving a public school bus while still in high school himself.
After he graduated from John Rundle High School in Grenada, his parents scraped up enough money in cash and loans to pay for his first semester at Mississippi State University. By working in the cafeteria he was able to eat, and by joining ROTC he received a small income to pay for books and supplies.
Two years later he married his sweetheart Barbara Lee Windham. She interrupted her college career to work full time so he could concentrate on his studies.
In 1958, he became the first person in his family to graduate from college with a BS in electrical engineering. He also had a new baby WLN III and an active duty assignment in the Army near Washington DC. After six months he returned to the Mississippi Delta to work at the Mississippi Power and Light (MP&L) power plant in Cleveland and to serve part-time as an officer in the Army Reserves. Eight years later he received an honorable discharge as a Captain having fulfilled his commitment for the funds he received from the ROTC in college.
He subsequently obtained his professional engineering license and formed a company with his brother Jack (also an engineer) so that engineers and other technical professionals could provide services beyond their normal full-time employment. He became the company’s part-time President and CEO.
MP&L moved him from power plant to plant over the next 20 years where he solved problems as both an engineer and manager. Eventually, he was promoted to Head of Production Engineering at MP&L headquarters in Jackson. He left that position for two years to oversee the design, construction, and operation of the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Plant near Port Gibson. After ensuring he had a well-trained team in place, he was recalled to Jackson to oversee the Fossil Fuel Plant Engineering Group and assist in reorganizing the company as it grew and morphed into the energy behemoth now known as Entergy. He then took early retirement and went full-time as the President and CEO of Technological Services Company, the company he and Jack had formed on the side years earlier.
His professional career was not limited to producing electricity. While he continued to provide services and personnel to electrical utilities such as Entergy, he was also a consultant to a number of important corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions.
He used biblical and Christian-based principles to help them organize, capture and capitalize on their in-house knowledge. He felt strongly that organizations needed to move beyond information technology and apply knowledge and wisdom to their operations.
Under his leadership, TSC developed many innovative products, helped start and grow a number of successful companies, and trained, and mentored several generations of technical personnel. It was competitively awarded a number of government Research and Development contracts and presented with a subcontractor of the year award by NASA.
He was asked several times when he planned to retire and he always replied “Never”. He remained President and CEO of TSC until his death.
He also served professionally on various public boards, including appointments by several Mississippi Governors.
More important to him than his professional career, Lamar was a husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and born-again believer in Jesus the Son of the God of Abraham. He prayed for the salvation of his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and their spouses. He looked for opportunities to share his faith with his loved ones, prospective family members (girl or boyfriends), and any hitchhikers he might corral.
Although he did not have the advantage of a seminary education he enjoyed debating theology with his two brothers Charles and Marvin who were called, ordained, and educated for full-time ministry.
He was baptized as a young man, and called into service as a lay leader, studying and teaching the Bible, and using his administrative gifts when called on in the local church. Ordained as a Baptist Deacon he served in a number of churches, often as the deacon body’s chairman, Sunday School Director, Training Union Director, and many other positions not requiring some aptitude in music. His inability to appreciate music, probably stemming from hearing loss, was a constant source of irritation and amusement to his friends and family.
God placed him in his final church, Morrison Heights Baptist Church in 1969 when it only had a few hundred members and two full-time ministers on staff. God used him to help grow it to what it is today as it helped grow him and his family spiritually.
He is probably best remembered as the no-nonsense sixth-grade Sunday School teacher to the hundreds of boys who passed through his class and to thousands as the familiar face who greeted and ushered them into the worship center each week for over 50 years. He was one of the last members of the oldest men’s Sunday School class to be promoted out of that class into glory.
He also served the community wherever he lived. In Natchez, he served as the President of the Parent Teacher Organization. In Clinton, he served as a faithful member and often President of the Civitan Club and volunteered on work days with other organizations such as the 4Cs and Habitat for Humanity. He was a generous financial supporter of the Gideons, Wycliff Bible Society, Samaritan's Purse, and other faith-based organizations.
He served as a Mentor to the Piney Woods Country Life School’s Robotics Team for many years. There he was tasked with encouraging students from the impoverished parts of the inner cities to seek a future in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). He served as a Christian male role model, as well as teaching them design and fabrication techniques and how to work as a team.
For hobbies and recreation, when he was younger he enjoyed sailing. He designed and built his own boat which he sailed on Grenada Lake while still in high school. Later he enjoyed taking friends and family sailing on a larger boat on Lake Lorman and the Ross Barnett Reservoir. As he grew older he was a big fan of grandchildren’s sports and would travel hundreds of miles to attend an event. Well into his eighties, he continued in a sport of sorts collecting limbs and leaves on a brush pile affectionately known as Mount Sini and periodically creating a huge bonfire.
He was preceded in death by his parents William Lamar Nail, Sr, and Nannie B. Lott Nail, and his wife of 63 years Barbara Lee Windham Nail, his brothers, Charles and Marvin Nail.
He is survived by his second wife Laverne Hood Nail, his sister Nancy Burch, brother Jasper “Jack” Nail (Shirley), brother-in-laws Jim and Dudley Windham (Bertha), his children, William Lamar “Bud” Nail, III (Mary), Antoinette Nail Franklin (Dennis), and Teresa Young (Duane), and Grandchildren: Christy Bowen (Justin), Philip Crittenden, William “Will” Lamar Nail, IV (Jordan), Lyndsay Franklin, Thomas Franklin (Staci), Great grandchildren: Grant Bowen, Griffin Bowen, Blair Bowen, Albert Crittenden, Beau Franklin, Camille Franklin, Amos Franklin, William “Buck” Lamar Nail, V, Woodsley Nail and numerous nieces and nephews.
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