Eagle Scout: 1937
Birth: June 18, 1923
Death: April 15, 2018
Find A Grave | https://www.jmdunbar.com/obituaries/john-wardlaw
John Thompson Wardlaw was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 18, 1923, and grew up in Spartanburg, attending Pine Street School and Spartanburg High School before continuing his education at Darlington School, Davidson College, and Georgia Tech. He earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1937, at the age of fourteen — an achievement noted in the Spartanburg Herald that September.
During World War II he served in the United States Navy as a communications officer aboard a destroyer escort. He returned to build a career in textiles, working with Milliken & Co., Kentucky Woven Label Co., and Bo-Buck Mills before founding Wardlaw Sales in Spartanburg, from which he retired in 1995.
What followed his Eagle Court of Honor by eight decades was a life that read like an extended interpretation of the Scout Oath’s promise to help other people at all times. He served as President of the Spartanburg Rotary Club and on the Spartanburg County Foundation’s Board of Trustees and Investment Advisory Committee. He chaired the Total Ministries Board, served as a Commissioner on the Spartanburg Housing Authority, and sat on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, the Spartanburg Music Foundation, and the Friends of the Spartanburg County Library. He was President of the Narrow Fabrics Institute, and — perhaps his most enduring civic legacy — the founder, chairman, director, and board chair emeritus of The Adult Learning Center.
At The Episcopal Church of the Advent, Troop 1’s chartered organization since 1914, he was a devoted member who served on the Vestry as both junior and senior warden. The church that chartered his troop remained his church home for life.
His service was widely recognized: the Order of the Palmetto from Governor Mark Sanford; the Neville Holcombe Distinguished Citizen Award from the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce; Wofford College’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award; the Mary Black Foundation’s Dr. Sam O. Black, Jr. Health Promotion Award for Leadership; 2014 Kiwanis Club of Spartanburg Citizen of the Year; the Dean Griffin Public Service Award from Georgia Tech; and the National Service to Mankind Award from the Sertoma Club.
John Wardlaw died on April 15, 2018, at the age of 94. He was survived by Mary, his wife of sixty years; his daughter, Saunders McCollum, and her husband, David; and his grandchildren, Ashley and John McCollum.
Sources: Dunbar Funeral Home obituary, April 2018; Spartanburg Herald, September 1, 1937 and June 22, 1937. Earlier versions of this page listed him as “John T. Wardlaw, Jr.”; Georgia vital records confirm his father was James Thompson Wardlaw, and the suffix has been removed.
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