Retired U.S. Army LTC William E. Whitworth, of Jefferson City, Tennessee, passed away on September 16, 2022, at age 84. He leaves his wife of 52 years, Sandra Whitworth, and three children: son, Bill (Amie) Whitworth, of Morristown; daughter, Kari (Scott) Whaley, of Knoxville; and daughter, Amy Whitworth, of Murfreesboro. Other family members are in the full obituary here.
Visitation will be from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 24, 2022, at Farrar Funeral Home in Jefferson City. A memorial service, with Masonic and Military Honors, will be held at 2 in the Farrar Funeral Home Chapel. Interment with full Military Honors will be held at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, at an undetermined date.
He studied to be a teacher or school administrator, but enlisted in the Army in 1964. He served until his retirement in 1988.
Colonel Whitworth commanded numerous Army Aviation units both stateside and in Vietnam. He was instrumental in developing the Army baseline for Night nap-of-the-earth attack helicopter flight training and implementing experimentation with the new night navigation and laser target detection devices. The aerial TOW missile team he trained was instrumental in stopping communist tanks as they began the invasion of South Vietnam in April 1972. He held officer assignments and command from basic company level in the field to senior staff positions at the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.
After retiring from active duty, Col. Whitworth renewed his service with the all-volunteer Tennessee State Guard in 1991. He held several posts, culminating with the rank of Major General in command of the entire Tennessee State Guard from May 1999 until July 2003.
After his second retirement, Colonel Whitworth went to work as the assistant director of
the Job Skills Training Center at Walters State Community College and remained in that position for seven years. In March 1996 he began serving as an employment and training consultant and policy technical advisor with the University of Tennessee (Social Work Office of Research and Public Service) on assignment to the Tennessee Department of Human Services. There he helped to implement and support program and fiscal operations of the Families First (welfare reform) program across the state. In 2004, he began conducting contract/program reviews and audits for the TN Department of Human Services, Officer of the Inspector General, until his retirement in June 2014 with 27 years of state service.