Sept. 1, 1929 –

Dec. 8, 2011

The Sage of Seminole, Jack Wingate, 82, of the Recovery community near Bainbridge, passed away Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011, at his residence.

The funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 12, 2011, at Calvary Baptist Church, with the Rev. Robert Johns officiating. Interment will follow at Cool Springs Cemetery. Masonic graveside rites will be provided by the Faceville Masonic Lodge #487 and military honors will be provided by the U.S. Navy. Active pallbearers will be Gregg Jeter, Jeff Jeter, Norman Johnson, Tuffy Nussbaum, Steve Henry, Allen Carter, Frank Green and General James Yarborough.  Members of Faceville Masonic Lodge #487, F&AM will serve as honorary pallbearers.

The family will receive friends immediately following the service.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Friends of Jack Wingate, c/o Regions Bank, P.O. Box 757, Bainbridge, GA 39818.

Mr. Wingate was born Sept. 1, 1929, in Faceville, the son of William Paul Wingate and Myrtle Bates Wingate. He was a graduate of Faceville High School, Class of 1947, and was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, serving in the Korean War. He was a member of the Faceville Baptist Church and the retired owner and operator of Wingate’s Lunker Lodge, which he developed. Through the years the lodge and camp hosted governors, senators and other celebrities, including basketball coach Bob Knight, who came there to fish.

Jack wrote a column in The Post-Searchlight beginning in 1966, with the last one published Oct. 9 of this year. He also did commentary for radio and television for a number of years, broadcasting each morning on radio stations in Bainbridge, Donalsonville and Thomasville, as well as a broadcast on Dothan’s Channel 18 TV.

The accomplishment of which he claimed to be the most proud was running Wingate’s Fishing Camp for Boys, which, for 33 years introduced many young boys ages 8-14 to the outdoors. Many local young men, as well as those from as far away as Washington state, New York and throughout the Southeast are “graduates” of the 10-week sessions.

Jack was involved in the community and will have a lasting impact on those around him. He was a member of Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of the Confederacy, Faceville Lodge #487, F&AM, Hasan Shrine Temple, and was a founding member of B.A.S.S. He served on the mural committees for Dothan and Colquitt and was a member of the Apalachicola Band of the Lower Creek Indians. He was an avid historian, especially of the native Americans, studying how they lived and worked. He shared that knowledge by making classroom presentations in the local schools.

Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Joyce E. Wingate of Recovery; his daughters, Katherine W. Kent and her husband, Lamar, of Chattahoochee, Fla., Peggy W. MacDonald and her husband, Wayne, of Macon, Ga., and Jacquie Wingate of Recovery; and his two grandchildren, Lamar Wingate Kent and Jackson Forrest Wingate-Ruff.

Ivey Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.