Major Bessie “Bess” Hubbard Tyner, 51, passed away September 13, 2013, at McLeod Regional Hospital in Florence, SC.
The funeral will be on Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at 2 p.m. at St. Pauls Presbyterian Church in St. Pauls, NC with Dr. John Owen Bumgardner, Jr. and Rev. Crystal Champion officiating. Burial will follow in the St. Andrews United Methodist Church Cemetery in Fayetteville, NC.
She was born in Fayetteville, NC on September 23, 1961 to the late Kenneth Brigman Hubbard and Ellen Merle Hubbard. She graduated from Douglas Byrd High.
“Get out of here; this is no place for a girl,” was what she heard every time she tried to sneak into her grandfather’s machine shop. But the scolding did not dampen her desire to be around the machines as they molded and twisted the metal. Instead, the desire grew into a love of creating. This love paired with mathematic ability led her to the Mechanical Engineering program at NC State University, where she became one of only five women graduates in a class of 225. She held BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics as well as Masters Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Public Administration from NCSU; she was working to complete her PhD in Public Administration.
She began her Engineering career at her Alma Mater where she was Director of Planning and Construction. She next spent twelve years as the Director of Facilities Planning and Construction at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. She was the first female university engineer in the UNC system.
She finished her career as Chief Engineer at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Fayetteville, NC. She was a certified member of the Veteran’s Administration Deployable Emergency Medical Personnel Corps and the VA Decon Team.
She was often asked where she found the determination to overcome what some saw as the burden of being a woman in a man’s world. “I looked to my mother and the strong women that make up my family tree,” she said. “I knew that I had to do it not just for me but also for them. She often counseled young women to think for themselves, get the best education possible and never depend on someone to take care of you. She traced her ancestry back to North Carolina’s first female attorney, Ann Morwood Durant, who tried her first case in 1673.
Tyner had a distinguished record of national and state defense-force service. She was a member of the Society of American Military Engineers and was awarded their Intern medal for Engineering Excellence.
She held a field-grade officer’s position in the S.C. State Guard, the state defense-force arm of the S.C. Military Department. She was a Senior Officer School Graduate and has been awarded the Master Military Emergency Management Specialist Badge and Army Commendation Certificate for a National Disaster Medical System Exercise.
She served as Director of a Personnel Department Division on Recruitment for the U.S. Coast Guard. She was awarded the US Coast Guard Commandant’s Letter of Commendation Ribbon and US Coast Guard Auxiliary Commandant’s National Staff Badge for her outstanding service.
Tyner was fully trained and qualified Master Military Emergency Management Specialist (MEMS), a joint program of the State Guard Association of the United States (SGAUS) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She was a Military Emergency Management Academy instructor and furthered the objectives of MEMS, SGAUS and the Palmetto Chapter of SGAUS.
Major Tyner was awarded the Palmetto Patriot’s Award, the highest award bestowed by the Lt. Governor of SC, for her years of multi-state service to America’s veterans, as well as her leadership in the fields of engineering, homeland defense and history.
She was a bagpiper with the US Coast Guard Pipes and Drums playing at military events and ceremonies. She also served as a piper with the Marine Corps League – Julian Dusenbury Detachment of the Marine Corps League’s Military Funeral Detail. She was a former member of the NC State University Pipes and Drums.
She was a dedicated Christian and was a member of First Presbyterian Church, Dillon, SC. where she served on the Building and Grounds Committee. She loved military weapons and competed in military matches. She was avid historian and genealogist having researched her family’s history extensively. She was Governor Emerita of First North Carolina Company Jamestowne Society, Founding President of the North Carolina Chapter of the National Society Women Descendants Ancient & Honorable Artillery Co. and Charter member of Descendants of First Colonists of Virginia 1607-1610. She held membership in the National Society Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, National Society of the Dames of the Court of Honor, National Society Magna Charta Dames, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, National Society Daughters of the American Colonists, National Society Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America, National Society Daughters of Colonial Wars, National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century, Order of the Crown of Charlemagne in the United States of America, Plantagenet Society, Society of Descendants of Knights of the Garter, Society of Descendants of Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Society of the Descendants of the Colonial Clergy, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Colonial Dames of America, Colonial Order of the Crown and the Descendants of the Knights of the Bath.
Her love of Cumberland County and its history lead to the publication of Marriage & Death Notices 1816 – 1840 Abstracted from the Fayetteville Observer and Predecessor Papers and Marriage & Death Notices 1841 – 1850 Abstracted from the Fayetteville Observer.
Major Tyner is survived by her husband of seventeen years, Kenneth Blake Tyner, and son, Blake McKay Hubbard Tyner, both of the home. She is also survived by a number of very special cousins.
In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Tyner Scholarship Fund, NCSECU, 921 W. Third Street, Pembroke, NC 28372 or Robeson County History Museum, 101 S. Elm Street, Lumberton, NC 28358.
The visitation will be from 7:00 to 9:00PM on Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at Floyd Mortuary & Crematory Inc., 809 East 5th Street, Lumberton.
On-line condolences may be made by visiting: www.floydmortuary.net .
