Mr. Hugh Alfred (Hal) Latimer passed away on Wednesday evening, June 14, 2017, at Community Hospice & Palliative Care’s Warner Center for Caring in Fernandina Beach, Fla. He was 91 and a resident of Amelia Island since 1981.
Hal was born to Claude Alfred and Ethel Schwetje Latimer on April 11, 1926, in Holyoke, Mass. He grew up in Mamaroneck, N.Y. and attended college at what is now Virginia Tech. He put college on hold between 1944-45 to join the Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he returned to Virginia Tech and completed his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering. He later completed a master of business administration degree in 1992.
Hal joined the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia in Richmond, Va. in 1948. There, he met and married his wife of 51 years, Alice Marye Finke, who predeceased him. They lived in Richmond, Va.; Arlington, Va.; Charleston, W.V.; Chatham, N.J.; Barrington, Ill.; and Buckhannon, W.V. before settling on Amelia Island.
He served “Bell System” companies for 33 years, retiring in 1981 from Illinois Bell Telephone Company as its chief financial officer. He then served from 1981 to 1986 as president of West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. In 1987, he founded Island Aviation Services, which provided fixed base operation services for the Fernandina Municipal Airport for ten years. In 2001, he founded HAL, Inc. to provide tax and accounting services for clients in the Amelia Island Area.
His lifelong passions were aviation, golf, classical music and his beloved Virginia Tech Hokies.
Hal and Alice were active in the churches they attended, and he was involved in the building of the Amelia Plantation Chapel. He was also active in the organization of the Amelia Island Club and served as its first president between 1995‐97. He also served on the board of directors of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s and again in the 2000s.
Predeceased by his sister, Viola, he is survived by his sons, Hugh Scot Latimer (Nancy) of Evergreen, Colo., and Paul Louis Latimer; and four granddaughters, Stephanie Latimer of Albuquerque, N.M., Anne Latimer of Denver, Colo., Carrie Latimer of Denver, Colo., and Amanda Latimer of Kenosha, Wis.
A memorial service will be held at the Amelia Plantation Chapel on July 15.
The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, gifts be made to the Amelia Plantation Chapel or the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.
Oxley-Heard Funeral Directors