John William Atkins

John William Atkins, 72, of Kingsport, TN, was uploaded to the heavenly Cloud on Monday, November 19, 2018. John was born in Los Angeles, CA on Aug 20, 1946 to Floyd William and Viola Irmengarde Smith Atkins. Growing up in southern California, he loved the outdoors, camping and hiking with family and the Boy Scouts. He also began his life-long love of ice hockey, learning to skate and to play the game.After graduating from San Diego State, John worked in retail and as a research diver before becoming a programmer at General Dynamics Corporation. He met his wife Carol Heppert working at GD and they were married in 1990. After a move to FL in 1992, he became a corporate trainer with Mac Academy and later taught project management for private corporations and the United Nations in Vienna, Austria. For fun, he began coaching youth Ice Hockey at the Tampa Bay Skating academy. He continued coaching after moving to Winston Salem in 2003. John loved the game and for 25 years coached ‘his kids’ and helped with the organization. He often told his teams “I’m just teaching you kids about life. It just happens to be around this fantastic game of hockey”. In Florida, John also became part of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) which re-enacts the middle ages. For more than 25 years, he learned and shared his love of history through the teaching of archery and arrow making, thrown weapons, constructing leather goods (quivers, arm guards, tankards, belts, etc), calligraphy, and playing medieval and modern instruments…among other diverse arts. He could always be found at the archery range helping when it was needed.He was Baron Christophe of Grey, but known to one and all as CoG. On hearing of his passing, a good friend described him as:”Crotchety. Opinionated, Obnoxious. Beer-mooching. Kind. Generous. Wickedly funny. Talented. An amazing man. He will be missed.”He leaves behind his beloved wife of 28 years, Carol; a daughter, Alisa McMullen and grandsons, Miles and Reid Riley; sister, Christina; nieces, Sunny and Carrie; nephew, Rob and two bereft greyhounds, Tawny and Manny. A Memorial Service will be held at 6:00 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2018 at St Paul’s Episcopal Church, Kingsport TN with the family receiving friends immediately afterwards in the fellowship hall. His remains will rest in the East Line Street Cemetery in Bishop California next to his parents.In lieu of flowers, please donate to a greyhound rescue organization or a charity of your choice. The care of John William Atkins and his family has been entrusted to the staff of Oak Hill Funeral and Cremation Services.Read Obituary