| Overall UK Wins: 3 | Overall UK Losses: 0 | Win % 100 |
Date of Birth: January 13, 1911
Date of Death: March 24, 1993
Alma Mater: Davis & Elkins [1936]

For a generalized listing of officials, please consult this page.

Obituary - Greenville (SC) News (March 26, 1993)

Former Parker Coach Kendall Dies at 82

Forrest Harrison "Whitey" Kendall, a prominent South Carolina sports figure for more than four decades and the member of five athletic halls of fame, died Wednesday night. He was 82 and a resident of Rolling Green Village.

Kendall's athletic career included 50 years of coaching and touched virtually every aspect of the amateur athletic spectrum: In addition to prominent roles as a player and coach, Kendall spent 18 years as a college basketball official, then filled his later years with volunteer work as director of recreational leagues.

Away from the athletic fields, he was a volunteer for such groups as the Lions Club Eye Foundation and Meals on Wheels.

He was best known as coach for 30 years at Parker High, where he had success coaching football, basketball and baseball and won 11 state championships.

At 76, as he began his 50th season of coaching football - a milestone that was observed by a special "diamond 50" insignia on the Furman football uniforms in 1987 - Kendall said he was doing what he "always wanted to do - stay busy, mainly, and help out wherever I can."

That was the pattern of life for he lanky New England native, who spent 40 years as a full-time high school teacher and coach before he "retired" in 1977 - then worked at Furman for another 10 years. Furman's annual football award for a special teams player is called the Whitey Kendall Specialist Award.

Off the field, Kendall filled his time with more volunteer work, much of it a by-product of his involvement in athletics.

Kendall worked extensively with the local Meals on Wheels program while his health allowed, personally delivering hot meals to 25 homes each week. He was involved in Lions Club work for 34 years, at times as president. A former high school and college basketball official, Kendall also served as director of a church basketball program at Westminster Presbyterian Church and one of the supervisors of a YMCA league.

He also served on the board of directors for the Boys Home of the South.

Even with the hectic schedule, Kendall was successful as a volunteer as he was as an athlete and coach.

"I've always enjoyed helping people," he said in the summer of 1986. "When I was teaching, I knew that when I had time, I wanted to do exactly what I'm doing now."

Kendall was born Jan. 13, 1911 in East Lebanon, N.H., where his father, Calvin, coached the football team in 1912 and 1913. He was a three-sport star a nearby Windsor (VT) High and played basketball and football at both Tennessee Wesleyan Junior College and Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va.

He graduated from Davis & Elkins in 1936, and began coaching a nearby Petersburg (W.Va.) High School that fall.

His coaching career was interrupted by World War II, when he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. Following the war, Kendall took a coaching job at Canton (Ga.) High. After two successful seasons there, he went to Parker High in 1947. He was an assistant for one season, and took over as head coach in 1948.

While at Parker, his teams won more than 250 games in football - 144 on the varsity level - and more than 300 in both basketball and baseball. Three of his football teams won state championships, as did five basketball teams and three baseball teams.

His seven decades of activity led to his induction into five hall of fames, including the Davis & Elkins Athletic and Southern Textile Athletic Association halls of fame.

Mike Fair is convinced Kendall had a special talent for seeing the potential in people.

Fair now serves in the State House of Representatives from Greenville County. But, he first reached the public eye as a standout quarterback for Kendall at Parker High School in the 1960s.

"He saw things about me as an athlete I had no comprehension of," Fair said. "I played B team football as an eighth grader. I played five plays offensively and fumbled three out of the five.

"I reported to practice the following year, and from the very first day, Coach Kendall said 'You're on the varsity.' That flabbergasted me," Fair said. "How in the world do I go from a 60-percent fumble percentage the prior year to being elevated to the varsity? I wasn't an offensive starter, but placing that kind of confidence in me and getting behind me and making me work hard certainly played a major role in my development as a young athlete."

Kendall was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church, where he was a deacon and member of the Men's Bible Class.

Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Mary Lingamfelter Kendall; two daughters, Mrs. James (Priscilla) Tillotson of Greenville and Mrs. Clement (DeDe) Goldson of Columbia; a son, John calvin Kendall of Greenville; three sisters, Mrs. Chester (Elizabeth) Hall of Chio, Calif.; Mrs. Larry (Muriel) Walker of Riverside, Calif., and Mrs. George (Priscilla) Pellitier of Springfield, Mass.; seven grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Funeral services will be conducted at 1 p.m. Saturday at Westminster Presbyterian Church with burial in Greenville Memorial Gardens.

The body is at the Thomas McAfee Funeral Home, Downtown, where the family will receive friends from 7-8:30 p.m. Friday.

The family is at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Priscilla Tillotson, 302 E. Marion Road, Greenville.

Memorials may be made to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

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