Bruce Head Cantrell, 93, died Sunday, December 2, 2018. He was born February 17, 1925 in the Green Creek Community of Polk County, North Carolina to Noah Webster Cantrell and Ethel Mignon Ezell Cantrell. Bruce was a member of North Riverside Baptist Church and active at the Chesapeake Retirement Community where he resided for 15 years.
Bruce served in the US Navy aboard the USS Columbia in the Pacific during World War II. After earning his B.S. degree in civil engineering from North Carolina State College in 1951, he went to work for Newport News Shipbuilding and retired thirty-eight years later. During the years with Newport News Shipbuilding he spent twenty-two months in Idaho Falls, Idaho as facility and structural engineer for the A1W Nuclear Facility built to test the propulsion plant for the aircraft carrier Enterprise. Later he help design, build and manage a heavy weight shock test facility for testing naval equipment at Arvonia, Virginia. Bruce was an avid deer hunter and a longtime member of the James River Rod and Gun Club. After retirement, Bruce collected data and authored two separate volumes tracing the genealogy of James Talton Cantrell and Virgil Dean Ezell.
Survivors include his wife, Jeannette Cantrell; his children, Keith W. Cantrell (Debra), Betsy Gerstenschlager, Clifford B. Cantrell (Jan), and John T. Cantrell; a sister, Mildred Fridy; six grandchildren, Rachel, Thomas, Meredith, Jean, Julianna and Sarah; and seven great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Elizabeth Colvard Cantrell, and his oldest son, James C. Cantrell.
Visitation will be from 6 to 7 PM, Friday, December 7, 2018 at W. J. Smith & Son Funeral Home. Burial will be private. There will be a Memorial Service held at North Riverside Baptist Church, 311 Selden Road, Newport News, on Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 9:30 AM.
In lieu of Flowers, donations can be made to the Virginia Baptist Homes Foundation, Chesapeake Benevolent Fund, 955 Harpersville Road, Newport News, VA 23601.
Arrangements by W. J. Smith & Son Funeral Home.