Cawley "Dick" Richard Stine

Dr. Cawley Richard (Dick) Stine of Martinsville, Virginia passed away on May 27, 2024. He was 100 years old. Dick was born December 12, 1923, in the parsonage of the Old Otterbein United Brethren Church in Baltimore, Maryland to the late Reverend Cawley Hoover Stine and Emma Witmeyer Stine, the second of five children. When Dick was 6, the young family moved to pastor a new church in Philadelphia. When he was 9 years old, his mother died suddenly, and his father eventually remarried to Ruth Sellers Stine whom all five children considered to be their “mom”. Dick attended high school in Philadelphia. While in high school, he played the trombone in the band and violin in the orchestra. This is also where he first found his passion for chemistry. He was a member of the church orchestra where he played the violin and he even played in a harmonica quartet at church. After graduating from high school, he began his college life at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA. In his second year of college, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and he joined the Army Air Corp Meteorology Program, where he was trained to track the weather to aid in combat battles during WWII. He was very proud of his service to the country. After the war, he returned to Lebanon Valley to complete his studies in Chemistry. That is where he met a young music major playing the piano in the cafeteria, Nancy Souder, who became his wife in 1947. They were married for 70 years.

After graduation, this young married couple moved to Syracuse, NY so Dick could continue his post graduate studies at Syracuse University, where he received a PhD in Analytical Chemistry. During this time, the couple had their first daughter, Wendy. While he was finishing his PhD, he was recruited by DuPont and after graduation, they moved to Wilmington, Delaware where Dick began working as a research chemist at the Dupont Experimental Station. In Delaware their second daughter, Donna, was born.

In 1963, Dick was transferred to the DuPont plant in Martinsville to be in charge of the Chem lab. All of his life he lived in big cities and after visiting Martinsville, he fell in love with its small-town charm. In 1987, he retired from Dupont and several months later began working at Martin Processing (now Eastman Chemical), as their senior research chemist, eventually retiring in 2007 at the age of 85. He was affectionately called ”Doc”. He was the first person at Martin Processing to bring a personal computer to work. It was a Macintosh SE with a 9” screen. In the early days of Excel, he was extremely proficient and used it in his research work and taught Excel classes to the employees. The words he lived by were “Real success is finding your lifework in the work you love”.

Church was always very important to him. In 1963 Dick and family became members of Forest Hills Presbyterian Church where he served as Deacon, Elder, Sunday School Teacher and he was Church Treasurer for 20 years. He was actively singing in the choir for many years and played in the handbell choir. Over the 61 years he was a member he contributed in so many ways including helping with the maintenance of the organ and piano, heating and air conditioning and general maintenance.

He enjoyed being part of the community as well. He continued his music by playing the trombone in the Community Band and tutored many high schoolers in Chemistry throughout the years. He enjoyed listening to Big Band Jazz and loved dancing the jitterbug. In later years, he would tap his foot to the music. He loved walking. For years, every morning he would rise at 5:00 AM and walk all around Druid Hills area. Even in his 90’s he walked on his street, waving to all of his neighbors as he walked by.

He was a kind and considerate man. He loved life and enjoyed living every moment. Anyone who met him fell in love with him. He taught everyone he met by example and never missed an opportunity to say, “Thank you”. While he always enjoyed his work, his real devotion was to his family. He had a wonderfully dry sense of humor and good nature that followed him throughout his life.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his wife, Nancy, sister, Evelyn Ziegler, and brothers, John and Bob.

He is survived by his daughters, Wendy Embree (Larry) of Hillsborough, NC and Donna Young (Claude) of Martinsville, grandchildren, Stephen Embree (Genevieve) of Chapel Hill, NC, Mark Embree (Kennedy) of Durham, NC, Alyson Young (Nika) of Richmond, VA and Nicholas Young of Martinsville, VA; his great-grandchildren are Guenther, Russell, Juniper Embree and Marlowe, Alden and Salem Embree. He is also survived by his sister, Jeanne DeLong of Lancaster, PA, many nieces and nephews and his cat Lucy.

The visitation will be held at 11:00 a.m. at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church on June 22, 2024, with the celebration of life service following at 11:30 a.m. in the common ground chapel. Burial will follow the service at Roselawn Burial Park.

Donations may be made to Forest Hills Presbyterian Church, Martinsville Henry County SPCA or Tunnel to Towers Foundation

Norris Funeral Services, Inc. and Crematory, Martinsville, VA is serving the Stine family.