Dr. Benjamin Upchurch Kittrell

Dr. Benjamin Upchurch Kittrell, Sr. went to be with his Lord and Savior on July 27, 2020 after a long battle with dementia. He is survived by his loving wife of 62 years, Nancy Louise Lassiter Kittrell, son Benjamin Upchurch Kittrell, Jr. (Millie), daughter Jan Kittrell Howell (Al), and grandchildren Benjamin Upchurch (Trey) Kittrell, III (Mallory), Hannah Elizabeth Howell, and Seth Wayne Howell. He leaves behind a legacy of love – love of Creator, family, and profession. Ben was always able to see the best in people, always able to strike up a conversation, and seeming never to meet a stranger. Beloved by many, he lived his life with optimism always looking positively toward the future. Ben grew from solid but humble beginnings as the fourth son of a proud and independent tobacco farmer in Vance County, NC near the town that bears the family name. As such, he shared farm duties with seven siblings and developed a lifelong love for agriculture. You can’t take the farm out of the farmboy and sometimes even when you take the farmboy off the farm, he never really leaves! Ben was the only child of the late Willie and Ethel Kittrell to carry on the family's legacy in agriculture. For 40+ years he studied, taught, researched, and applied advanced principles in the fields of agronomy and crop science. He earned the first of three degrees in agriculture in 1960 from his beloved North Carolina State University, where he was active in fraternity and school government as an undergraduate. Working full time as a tobacco specialist with the N.C. Agriculture Extension Service while he continued his education, he and Nancy started their family and raised their children. After earning his doctorate in 1975, he served as extension service soybean specialist for the University of Georgia in Athens before reaching his final destination in 1978 as an agronomist for Clemson University in Florence, S.C. He again served as a tobacco specialist, this time for the state of S.C. in the tobacco-producing Pee Dee region. As the Director of the Clemson University Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence, he guided that facility through a time of tremendous change, implementing many improvements to the station before retiring in 2002. A strong Christian man, he served at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Florence S.C. in many leadership capacities including staff-parish and finance committees. As a lifelong professional educator, he utilized those skills to faithfully serve as a Sunday school teacher for many years until mental issues no longer allowed. He also enthusiastically and faithfully supported the music ministry by singing in the chancel choir. After retirement, he briefly served as president of the local Gideon Society chapter. Nancy and Ben enjoyed a love affair that spanned nearly a 70-year period! Although they each grew up on small tobacco farms only 5 miles apart, being in different county school systems meant they might never know each other. But God directs our paths even when we don't know it and they met in eighth grade at a basketball game where they sat next to each other. The following year they attended the same high school in Epsom and the rest is history! Ben is also survived in life by three brothers, Robert Lee (Bobby) Kittrell (Dot), Franklin Delano (Frank) Kittrell, and Jerry Richard Kittrell (Ann) and pre-deceased by one brother and three sisters - Willie Arthur (Billy) Kittrell, Fanny Elizabeth Taylor (Joe), Mary Ann Satterwhite (S. G.), and Nellie Gray Ausborn (Bruce). Visitation for Dr. Kittrell will be at Stoudenmire-Dowling Funeral Home in Florence from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM on Friday, July 31, 2020, with funeral service at 2:00 pm.