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Floyd D. Whitehead  1960

Cullum No. 23198-1960 | August 10, 1999 | Died in Fayetteville, NC
Cremated. Ashes placed in the garden at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, NC


Floyd Donald ‘Don’ Whitehead was born in Baton Rouge, LA on April 11, 1936. His parents were Floyd Eugene Whitehead and Georgie Neomie (Hunt) Whitehead. He graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1954 and spent the next two years at Southeastern Louisiana State College as a pre-med major. He was appointed to West Point by Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana.

As a cadet, Don often “marched to a different drummer.” He actually played The Official West Point March before the evening meal formation, and he was known to while away a rainy afternoon polishing his shoes! Nonetheless, he was a strong soccer player for H-2’s intramural team and made the gymnastics team during plebe year. He won all his battles with the dean, but ‘Fluids’ gave him quite a scare. He was an introverted personality quietly pursuing his own goals, but if he was your friend, you had a friend for life.

After the usual schools in his branch choice of Artillery, he went to Vietnam in 1966 with the 173rd Airborne Brigade and was awarded a Bronze Star, two Air Medals and a Commendation Medal.

Don came back to a three-year ROTC assignment at Harvard. He must have had some stories from that tour at that particular time. Short of Berkeley, Harvard was probably the most anti-military of all campuses in that era. It later abandoned its ROTC program altogether. As happens on occasion, his boss’s wife thought it was her duty to “fix up” the handsome young officer with a date. It certainly worked, as Don and Lyn were married in 1969. Before long their daughter Elizabeth was born, and she subsequently presented them with two grandchildren: Lillian and Winston.

Don went back to Vietnam in HQ MACV from 1969 to 1970. He then returned to the 82nd Airborne Division Artillery at Fort Bragg, NC and became the executive officer for the 2/7 Special Forces Group in 1972 and made major in 1974. He was Ranger and Special Forces qualified.

Don left the Army in 1974. He got an M.Ed. from Tufts and a Ph.D. in education from Duke University. That doctorate was no small feat. For four years he would teach all day and then commute 60 miles to Duke for evening classes. To quote Lyn, “He really could do anything he set his mind to; he was very determined.” For the next quarter century until he died he was a psychology instructor at the Fayetteville Technical Community College, NC. He took his commitment to his teaching very seriously, and the results proved it. After his death, Lyn received many letters from former students extoling how much Don’s teaching had meant to them. He also had a private psychology practice for much of that time.

Don was an avid gardener. One year Don planted hundreds of tulip bulbs, and a year later folks from around the area would drive by the Whitehead home just to appreciate his handiwork. He was really an artist at heart. He loved classical music and dance. Lyn actually felt obliged to take some dancing lessons in order to keep up with him. They travelled as frequently as they could, often to take in concerts of classical music.

At times it seemed that Don was two different people. He was a decorated combat veteran with a Ranger tab and a qualification as a Special Forces officer. On the other side of his persona was a doctorate in education and an unusual passion for the beauty of the classical arts. His list of achievements is long and significant, and they were accomplished on his own terms. During his life, he was always willing to help someone who needed it. When a problem arose, the old warrior ethos reappeared from deep in his psyche, and he came forward and solved the problem.

In 1964 Don wrote, “West Point will always be my home and it is there, among so many wonderful memories that I desire to rest eternally.” Time and circumstances changed, and he decided to be buried at Holy Trinity Church. There are parishioners there who still remember his “command voice” when he would read a lesson from the pulpit. Don’s love of West Point was clearly a formative force in his life. While he often departed from the caricature of a warrior as he carved out his own niche in life, he was forever true to the great principles embodied in “Duty, Honor, Country.” Well Done, Don; Be Thou at Peace.

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