John Wilkinson

Colonel John Spencer Wilkinson, USAF Ret., 83, of Bainbridge, GA, passed away Wednesday, January 4,2017.The graveside memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 14, 2017 at Baltimore Cemetery in Baltimore, MD. Online visitors may sign the guest register at www.iveyfuneral.com . In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Bainbridge Decatur County Humane Society, 1250 Cox Ave., Bainbridge, GA 39819. Spencer was born February 18, 1933 in Baltimore, MD, the son of Lawrence Melville Wilkinson and Vera Ida Armiger Wilkinson. He received his BS in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University in 1955. He served in the United States Air Force in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. He was a Colonel in the Maryland Air National Guard with 37 years of service, and retired as the Director of Operations of the 135th Airlift Group. After retirement he moved to Bainbridge, GA in 1994, where he became active in the Bainbridge Decatur County Humane Society, Bainbridge Decatur County Chamber of Commerce, and the Bainbridge Air Base and Southern Airways Reunion. He was a member of St. John's Episcopal Church.Spencer is survived by his wife of 61 years, Phyllis Jane Hatton Wilkinson, whom he met and married, while at Lehigh, in Bethlehem, PA. "The Colonel" is also survived by his sons, John Spencer Wilkinson, Jr. and his wife, Caitlin, and Todd Edgar Wilkinson and his wife, Amy; and his grandchildren, Amanda Catherine Wilkinson Tewey, Ethan Todd Wilkinson, Chase Conrad Wilkinson, and Atley Nash Wilkinson. He was preceded in death by his son, Blane Conrad Wilkinson.