Earl West

Earl West, 85, of 851 Sand Hill Road, Asheville, died Friday, April 21, 2006, at Memorial Mission Hospital. Mr. West was born in Andrews to the late George C. and Fannie Rickett West. He attended Asheville City Schools and graduated from the University of North Carolina. He served in the Pacific Theater with the US Marine Corps during WW II. He retired in 1983 from American Enka Corporation after 38 years of service in various technical and managerial capacities, including the position of Plant Manager of the Enka Rayon Plant. Mr. West was a member of the American Chemical Society and the Southern Appalachian Mineral Society. He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Pack Memorial Library and the Irene Wortham Center. He was a charter member of the Buncombe County Hazardous Materials Response Team and chairman of the Buncombe County Hazardous Waste Advisory Board which developed the first Buncombe County Hazardous Waste Ordinance, one of the first such local ordinances in North Carolina. He was a member of the Western North Carolina Regional Air Pollution Control Advisory Council and the Buncombe County Local Emergency Planning Committee. Mr. West was an active member of Calvary Baptist Church, teacher of an adult Sunday school class for 40 years, member of various church committees, and member, past chairman, and Deacon Emeritus of the Deacon Board. Surviving are his wife of 63 years, Mary Katherine Worley West; a son, David E. West and his wife, Melanie, and their son Kiffin T. West, all of Asheville; a daughter, Sandra West Bovender and her husband, Carl, of Winston-Salem, and their son Scott W. Bovender and his friend, Mary Jo Bauer, of Virginia Beach, VA; a brother Max C. West and his wife, Peggy; a niece Carolyn Jones and her husband, Jeff; a nephew, Mark West and his wife, Cathy and his current caregivers, Diane Sitton, Tammy Luther, Tina Montiel, Kim Mashburn, Ginny Bingaman, Kelly Calloway and Angela Rice. Funeral services will be at 2:00 p.m. Monday in the Patton Avenue chapel of Groce Funeral Home with the Rev. Dr. Buddy Corbin officiating. Interment will follow at Green Hills Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Scott Bovender, Kiffin West, Mark West, Jeff Jones, Bobby Moffitt, and Bruce Farlow. Honorary pallbearers will be Howard Candler, Harry McCoy, Jim Truett, Horace Robison, Tom McCurry, Bill Bell, the Board of Deacons and his Sunday School Class. His family will receive friends at the funeral home one hour prior to the service and suggest that memorials be made to Calvary Baptist Church Building Fund, 531 Haywood Road, Asheville, NC 28806.