Woodson Daspit

A funeral Mass for Woodson B. 'Woody' Daspit will be celebrated by Rev. James LeBlanc on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008, at 11 a.m. at St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church.
Interment will follow at Calvary Cemetery. Visitation will be on Monday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at George Funeral Home - Cremation Center, 211 Park Ave. S.W., Aiken. The Holy Rosary will be recited at 6:30 p.m. The family will also be receiving friends at the home of his daughter, Mary Dufour. Memorial contributions may be directed to the American Cancer Society, 115 Greenville St., Aiken, SC 29801 or St.

Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church, P.O. Box 439, Aiken, SC 29802. Mr. Daspit, 82, of Aiken, died Friday, Nov. 14, 2008, at Aiken Regional Medical Centers.

A son of the late Robert Valentine Daspit and Margaret Butler Daspit, he was born in Houma, La., on March 11, 1926, and began his first job in 1942 as a chemical analyst for South Coast Sugar Company. He briefly attended LSU but joined the U.S. Marine Corps in June 1944, serving in the Pacific Theatre on Saipan and Okinawa during the war and for eight months after in China. He was honorably discharged in July 1946. He then re-entered LSU and graduated with a degree in physics in 1949. He was a varsity letterman on the track team and was also commissioned as a second lieutenant. He then worked as a civilian scientist at the Naval Ordinance Station at China Lake, Calif. He once again returned to LSU to earn a master's degree in physics and was elected to membership in Sigma Pi Sigma and Sigma Xi honor societies.
He was also a member of the American Nuclear Society. He began his career with DuPont in 1952 and arrived at the SRP in 1953, working with the experimental physics group before retiring in 1986. After that, he worked in various consulting capacities for Westinghouse and Bechtel. A communicant of St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church, he was a past president of St. Mary's School PTO, past chairman of the parish council, served on the Diocesan School Board for six years, five as chairman. He was also a facilitator of the parish parochial council and was an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist for more than 20 years and brought Communion to many of the sick and pearl rosary bracelet shut in of the parish.

He was a charter member of Msgr. George Lewis Smith, Council 3684 of the Knights of Columbus and served as a past chairman of the Calvary Cemetery Committee. He was also a member and past president of the Aiken-Augusta Orchid Society. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his first wife, Ray Mary (Decandt) Daspit, who died in 1995; a granddaughter, Jessica L. Moler; and murano glass rosary several brothers and sisters. He is survived by his wife, Erninia U. Daspit of Aiken; two sons, John W. (Leslie) Daspit of Columbia and Thomas G. (Patty) Daspit of Morgan Hill, Calif.; two daughters, Mary D.
(Raymond) Dufour of Aiken and Jennifer G. Daspit of Charleston; three sisters, Agnes Kennedy of Houma, La., Katharine Daspit of Houma, La., and rosary for children Louise Geary of New Orleans, La.; five grandchildren, Amanda L. Daspit, Allison L. Dufour, Jonathon W. Daspit, James W. Daspit and Max R.
Dufour. He is also survived by his wife's son, Brian J. Kauer and his wife, Kim, and their two children, Hayley A.Brandon J. Kauer. Visit georgefuneralhomes.com to leave a note for the Daspit family..