Giles Crowder Upshur

Giles Crowder Upshur, Jr. passed away at the Hermitage on the Eastern Shore in Onancock, Va. on July 26, 2016, aged 92.  He was born in 1924 to Giles Crowder Upshur and Jewel Mears Upshur of Eastville, Va.  He is survived by his five children, Cary Upshur Kast from Charlottesville, Va., Susan Upshur Brown from Greenbush, Va., Giles Crowder Upshur III from Richmond, Va., Arthur Littleton Upshur from Machipongo, Va., and Mary Margaret Upshur Johnson from Richmond, Va.  He also is survived by 13 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.  He is predeceased by his brother, Otho Mears Upshur, his two sisters, Florence Upshur Mears and Jewel Upshur Beach, his first wife and mother of his children, Jane Copland Upshur, and his last wife Claudia Johnson.

Giles Upshur lived all his early life in Eastville, and graduated from Eastville High School (which was later re-named Northampton High-School).  After graduating from high school, Giles enrolled at VMI (Virginia Military Institute) in the midst of World War II, choosing the Navy as his branch of service.  In August of 1943, the entire VMI class was drafted.  He began as a naval aviator but changed careers after a tragic mid-air collision during night flying training.  He served on the USS Wyoming and then served three years on the battleship USS Missouri, the site of the signing of the peace treaty with Japan.  His naval career spanned all the major conflicts of his era – serving in Japan after WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Mid-East and London during the Cold War.  He specialized in Naval Intelligence and was the first Intelligence Officer to attend the National War College.  He served in Vietnam as Chief of Naval Intelligence during the Tet Offensive.  He was fully fluent in Russian, a particular asset in the Cold War era in counter-intelligence.  He also was fluent in Arabic, a skill particularly helpful in his extensive travels and work in every country of the Middle East.  He served in London as Naval Attaché, meeting the Queen and working with the British Secret Service.

Despite all his travels, Giles loved the Eastern Shore, and for years planned his move back home.  He retired as a Captain in the Navy in 1971.  In 1973, after serving as President of a consultancy firm based in Washington, DC, Giles chose to return to the Shore to serve our community, accepting the newly created job as Executive Director of the Eastern Shore Community Services Board.  He served on the Community Services Board for 13 years.  During that period, with Dr. Belle Fears, he helped found both Eastern Shore Rural Health and the Association for Retarded Citizens.  One of his passions was enabling Eastern Shore mentally disabled citizens to move back home with their families instead of being shipped off the Shore to mental institutions across the bay.  Giles was actively involved in many of our institutions on the Shore.  He was a long serving vestry member at Christ Church in Eastville, and served on the boards of the Historical Society and Hospice.  He served on the Northampton County Planning Commission during some of its first tumultuous times of the early real estate booms in the County, and was an early supporter of Citizens for a Better Eastern Shore.  Even with his advancing age he stayed active, volunteering extensively at the Eastern Shore Memorial Hospital.

Services for Giles will be held at Christ Church in Eastville at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 30, 2016. 

Contributions in Giles' memory may be made to Citizens for a Better Eastern Shore (CBES), P.O. Box 882, Eastville, Va.  23347, or to Christ Church, P.O. Box 367, Eastville, Va.  23347.

Memory tributes may be shared with the family at www.williamsfuneralhomes.com.

Arrangements by the Williams-Onancock Funeral Home.