{"id":10236,"date":"2011-07-05T15:29:04","date_gmt":"2011-07-05T20:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=10236"},"modified":"2011-07-05T15:29:04","modified_gmt":"2011-07-05T20:29:04","slug":"samuel-j-worthington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/07\/05\/samuel-j-worthington\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel J. Worthington"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Samuel J. Worthington, 73, died June 30, 2011, in Fort Wayne, Ind.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10237\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10237\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10237 \" style=\"border: 1px solid black\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Samuel-Worthington-Picture.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"537\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10237\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Samuel J. Worthington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He was born January 28, 1938, in Van Wert, the son of the late Norman Jack and Genevieve \u201cJenny\u201d (Vena) Worthington.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8711\" style=\"border: 1px solid black\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/American-Flag-for-obituaries-6-2011.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"125\" height=\"66\" \/>Mr. Worthington graduated from Van Wert High School in 1956. He attended The Ohio State University from 1964-1967, majoring in research, math, physics and chemistry. He had also attended military and federal schools.<\/p>\n<p>He retired in March 1998 with almost 40 years of military and federal Civil Service experience in the Pentagon. His highest rank was Senior Executive Service Level 4, equal to a three-star general. He was promoted to that position in 1989 by Vice President Dick Cheney when he was Secretary of Defense. In his last position held before retiring, Mr. Worthington served as director of information technology (Pentagon) for all Departments of Defense Weapon Systems.<\/p>\n<p>After retiring, he moved back to Van Wert. In 2002, he was chosen to serve as the grand marshal for the Van Wert Peony Festival. He was a member of American Legion Post 178 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5803, both in Van Wert. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n<p>Survivors include a son, Warren Worthington; two daughters, Paula Worthington and Charleen Fuentes; four grandchildren, Michael Worthington, Kendall Boulton, Allynah Thompson and Angel Fuentes; a sister, Linda (Arthur) Pugh of Lima; one brother, Tim (Faye) Worthington of Atlanta, Ga.; a special brother, James V. Worthington Sr. of Van Wert; nine cousins, James V. Worthington Jr. of Convoy, Jerry S. Worthington, Jeanna L. Worthington, Janet Galloway and Jill Leatherman, all of Van Wert, Betty Thomas, Julia Connor and Margaret Steinbacher, all of Fort Wayne, Ind., and Carolyn (Bunny) Clark of Fremont.<\/p>\n<p>A sister, Norma Jean \u201cSally\u201d Turner, and one brother-in-law, Carlos Turner, also preceded him in death.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A memorial service will be conducted at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at Alspach-Gearhart Funeral Home &amp; Crematory in Van Wert, with family present. Military rites will also be performed at the funeral home by the combined honors units of Legion Post 178 and VFW Post 5803.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Calling hours are from 2-8 p.m. Wednesday, July 6, at the funeral home.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Preferred memorials: Visiting Nurses Association of Ohio, the Wounded Warrior Project, Van Wert County Humane Society or the family.<\/p>\n<p>Messages of condolence may be sent to the family at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alspachgearhart.com\">www.alspachgearhart.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samuel J. Worthington, 73, died June 30, 2011, in Fort Wayne, Ind. He was born January 28, 1938, in Van Wert, the son of the late Norman Jack and Genevieve \u201cJenny\u201d (Vena) Worthington. Mr. Worthington graduated from Van Wert High School in 1956. He attended The Ohio State University from 1964-1967, majoring in research, math, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 06:46:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}