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'He stood for truth, for honor ...'
Longtime resident Walter Meeks Jr. passes away at 82
obit-Meeks
Walter Meeks Jr. - photo by Provided
Crissie Elric
Bryan County News
Updated: Apr 6, 2013, 9:00 AM
Published: Apr 5, 2013, 8:32 PM

Longtime Richmond Hill and Bryan County resident Walter W. Meeks Jr., 82, passed away Wednesday at his home after an extended illness, but his memory is not soon to be forgotten by those who knew him well.

"He was my type of fellow and he was a little like I am, if you don’t want his opinion don’t ask him," said Richard Davis, friend and former Richmond Hill mayor. "He was always straight forward and would tell you what he thought, and I like that in people. He was just a great guy."

Davis said Meeks could be remembered for standing his ground for what he thought was right and he "never differed from that."

"With any issue, he stood by it — and he wasn’t always right, but he was right more than he was wrong," Davis said with a laugh. "He was just a great guy, and it was a pleasure in my life to have known him for so many years."

Sam Davis, a family friend and county probate judge, also considered Meeks a great man. He described Meeks as a "people person."

"He was type guy that material things didn’t matter, the thing that mattered more to him than anything else was that he loved everybody," he said.

Davis recalled Meeks’ sense of humor.

"He was really a funny, funny fellow, he was the kind of guy that if you wanted to know something, his mind was filled with (what) some people may call trivia," he said. "Even in his latter days, his mind was sharp. He was very knowledgeable, about our area, state and the country.

"Sometimes we’d sit up at Hardees, a bunch of us would, including his son, John, and someone would raise a question about a historical fact … None of us would know the answer and (John) would say ‘just a minute,’ and he’d call his dad."

Davis said his life was impacted by both Meeks and his wife, Mary Frances Lane Meeks, and that he would be missed.

"The community will miss him because of his involvement and years gone by," Davis said. "We’ll miss him because of his wealth of knowledge historically on Richmond Hill and Bryan County and we’ll miss him because he was a good friend. My life is made better because I knew Walter and Frances Meeks — they touched a lot of people."

Meeks, who was a graduate of Long County High School and the University of Georgia, spent nearly 30 years representing Bryan County on the Coastal Electric Membership Board of Directors.

Mark Bolton, vice president of communications, marketing and economic development for Coastal Electric Cooperative, said Meeks was one of the finest people he’d ever known.

"He was a rock-solid citizen of unwavering faith, deeply committed to his family," Bolton said. "He stood for truth, honor and unquestionable integrity."

He called Meeks a "marvelous storyteller" who spoke with authority on just about anything.

"Whenever Walter joined a group of people, he was probably the smartest guy in the room," Bolton said. "He knew a little something about everything. It was enlightening just being in his presence.

He recalled how Meeks, an Eagle Scout, always wore his original pin anytime he attended a Scouting event and was generous with his time and talent for causes he believed in.

"Walter Meeks was just a real prince of a fellow. I‘m a better man for having known him," Bolton said.

Meeks is survived by his wife of 58 years, Mary Frances Lane Meeks; two sons, Walter Watson Meeks III and John Harold Meeks; four grandchildren, Mary Elizabeth Meeks, John Harold "Beau" Meeks Jr., Evan Lane Meeks and Lewis Williams Meeks.

The funeral is at 11 a.m. today at Carter Funeral Home Bryan Chapel in Richmond Hill. Internment will follow at Burnt Church Presbyterian Cemetery on Highway 144.

See the full obituary on page 3.

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Later yall, its been fun
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Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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