William Mason Booth, 79, of Hartselle died Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
Mr. Booth was born August 11, 1944, in Hartselle, Alabama to DeWitt Vaughn and Minnie Rea (Thompson) Booth.
He attended Hartselle public schools and graduated from Morgan County High School in 1962. He attended Florence State College and Athens College graduating with a Math Education degree in 1967 and graduate degrees in education from Alabama A&M.
As a product of Hartselle schools in the years after World War II, William experienced first-hand the high expectations of a rigorous public school. He began his career as a classroom math teacher in 1966. It is estimated that he taught over 4,500 students throughout his career – many of those, including three of his four children, were influenced to pursue engineering and STEM careers.
Hartselle City Schools transitioned from Morgan County Schools into a city system in 1975. At the same time, William began to assume various administrative roles in the new district. These included Assistant Principal at Hartselle High School, Chapter I/II Coordinator, Advanced Placement Coordinator, Title I/II Coordinator and Transportation Coordinator. He took on these roles in addition to his math classroom. It was during these years that William led the advancement of the HHS mathematics curriculum to include more robust Calculus instruction, including Advanced Placement courses.
Significantly, William was an example, contributor and leader of an ambitious academic mindset at Hartselle City Schools that has been solidified over the almost two generations that spanned his tenure and continues to this day.
In 1988, at 43 years old, and after over 20 years as a math teacher, he took on the role of head baseball coach at Hartselle High School. His experience and enjoyment from coaching his son’s little league teams influenced his decision to take on this new role to continue his time with Mason and his baseball teammates.
Coach Booth approached his new endeavor with the same enthusiasm, competitiveness and expectations for himself and his student athletes. He viewed his players as students first and made that obvious in many ways. As he did in his classroom, he understood that success was not only defined in terms of a team but also as individual growth and achievement. He energetically made his students and players understand that success is measured by how much you advance from where you start, as a function of individual effort. It was not uncommon for students and players – and in later years his grandchildren – to be found in the evening at his kitchen table where he would assist with math concepts and homework.
The result of that philosophy was spectacular. He led his teams to nine State Championships and four State Championship runner ups, and twenty-one area championships. With his 648th win in 2006, Booth became Alabama’s winningest high school baseball coach and continues to hold the title with 1,217 wins. He has been inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame (ASHOF), the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame, and was named the Decatur Daily’s 5A-7A Coach of the Year seventeen times. The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame awarded Booth the 2023 Frank “Pig” House Award named after the ASHOF founder. In addition, earlier this year, the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association awarded Booth with the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. This award will be named for Coach Booth for future recipients.
Throughout these successes on the baseball field, William continued to teach advanced mathematics. He left the classroom in 2016 and went on to serve as Interim Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, and Director of Operations and Transportation Coordinator. He formally retired from the Hartselle City Schools in 2023 after 58 years of service to the district and continued as head coach for the high school team.
William Booth was preceded in death by his parents, his sister, Pearl McCarley, and son, Bruce Vest.
He is survived by his wife: Peggy Collins Booth; children: William Mason Booth III (Shannon); Andy Vest (Monty); Lori Vest Cline (Todd); grandchildren Mary Elizabeth Booth, William Mason Booth, Olivia Vaughn Booth, Eleanor Vest, Catherine Cline and Drew Cline and sisters Sally Cheatham, Lucy Booth, and Annie Lemmons,
A graveside service will be held on Saturday, May 18 at Hartselle Memory Gardens at 2:00 pm presided by Reverand Milan Dekich and Reverand Charles Orr and directed by Peck Funeral Home.
The family will receive friends at a Celebration of Life Reception from 3:00 – 5:00 pm at Hartselle High School located at 1000 Bethel Road, Hartselle, AL.
Pallbearers will be Jake Miles, John Hall, Keith Wright, Kody Vest, Cody McCormick and Chris Wallace. Honorary pallbearers will be Mickey Hembree, Dr. Mark Hendrix, Kevin Corum, Billy Tillman and Dwight Tankersley and all current and former Hartselle High School baseball team members.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hospice of North Alabama or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Peck Funeral Home
