Joseph Wiley Williard
2/24/1927 – 9/22/2021
Joseph Wiley Williard, a sixty-year resident of Kernersville, passed away September 22, 2021, at Novant Health Kernersville Medical Center. He was born February 24, 1927, in Kernersville, North Carolina to Daniel Ernest and Minnie Smith Williard. Mr. Williard was a graduate of Kernersville High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Class of 1951). After college, he moved to Bartow, Florida and worked as a chemist. He married Sara Young Newsom on May 25, 1951, and after several years there, moved to Florence, Alabama. He worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority as a research chemist for forty years. His work on fertilizer development was published in over fifteen papers and technical reports. While in Florence, he was also a home builder and contractor.
Upon retirement, Mr. Williard returned to Kernersville where he was a lifetime member of the Kernersville Moravian Church. He loved to travel and had been to many places domestically and worldwide. He enjoyed working with his hands and was an avid woodworker, building many pieces of furniture and other items. He had an optimistic outlook and had many close friends and could be found most days with Richard Hedgcock and Corby Eisbacher at the framing studio in downtown Kernersville.
Mr. Williard was preceded in death by his wife Sara Young Williard, son Thomas Ellyson Williard, his grandsons Timothy Williard and Troy Williard, his parents, and his brother George Donald Williard and wife Mary Lillian, brother Daniel Smith Williard and wife Evelyn Hewitt Williard, and sister Evelyn Williard Stafford and husband Harold Wade Stafford.
He is survived by his son John Newsom Williard and wife Carla, grandchildren Tiffany Rose Ibarra, Joseph Hunter Williard and wife Alyssa Joy Williard, and Daniel Brooks Williard, all of The Woodlands, Texas, and Thomas Wiley Williard of Sparks, Nevada. There are also three great-grandchildren, Sebastian, Charlotte, and Ella Rose. He is also survived by nieces and nephews and their families.
Mr. Williard was a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather. He will be missed and remembered by family and friends as well as his church family.
A graveside service will be held at 11:00 am on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, at the Kernersville Moravian Church.
In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Joseph Wiley Williard Memorial Fund at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Link for donation: https://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/GiftFunds/GiftFunds?px=7222991&pg=personal&fr_id=39300
