Mr. Wilbert (Will) E. Rutland Sr., age 84, formerly of Cherokee, Alabama, departed this life on Feb. 16, 2018. Will was born on Dec. 10, 1933, to Mr. Ermine Rutland Sr. and Mrs. Rebecca Rutland.
Will proudly served in the United States Navy for eight years and was a Korean War veteran. He worked at Union Carbide in Sheffield, Alabama as well as other jobs in production. In 1971, he began a supervisor training program and earned a degree in instrumentation technology from Muscle Shoals Technical Institute in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. In 1972, he attended a management development program at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. After Union Carbide closed in 1980, Will accepted a position as a mill shift supervisor in a tungsten mill in Bishop, California.
Will was preceded in death by his loving wife of 43 years, Lillie Mae Rutland; son, Thaddeus Rutland; parents, Ermine Rutland Sr. and Rebecca Rutland; and three brothers, Ermine Jr. (E.J.), Robert Louis, and Raymond.
Survivors include son, Wilbert E. Rutland Jr., Huntsville, Alabama; three daughters, Darnetta E. Saunders, Norfolk, Virgninia, Rebecca M. Gaines, Hazel Green, Alabama, and Crystal A. Oates, New Market, Alabama; nine grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and a host of family and friends.
Funeral service will be 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, at the Royal Chapel of Memories in Huntsville, Alabama. Interment will follow in Cherokee C.M.E. Cemetery, Cherokee, Alabama
