Final Salute

Frank Gordon Dotson Sr., 72, passed on to his heavenly reward at HCA North Florida Hospital in Gainesville on Saturday, March 9, 2024.

Frank was born in Lyons, New York, to the late Hellen Ashby Dotson and the late Gordon Dotson, on Nov. 14, 1951.

He grew up on a farm on Limestone Road in St. George and gave credit to farm work and his Granddad Ashby (who could “mend anything with a length of bale wire”) for many of his abilities.

In 1969, Frank graduated from Parsons High School, where he was in the band and is remembered by many classmates for his guitar playing, even then. While working in Nashville and attending Nashville Auto Diesel College, he was informed by a Navy Recruiter that his number indicated he was about to be drafted into the army, so he joined the Navy. He became a Seabee (Naval Construction Battalion) spending the first of his. time in Rhode Island, California and Vietnam

Upon returning from Vietnam, he married a widowed friend and neighbor, Priscilla Nestor Shaffer (P.Ann), adopted her children, Ann Marie, Nancy, Julie & Karl and became stepfather to Mike and Ronnie Shaffer who, along with Frank Dotson Jr., are left with their mother to mourn their dad’s passing.

Having been stationed at all the existing Seabee Bases (Davisville, Rhode Island, Norfolk, Virginia, CBU, Gulfport, Mississippi, and Port Hueneme, California, and serving in Guam, Adak AK, Italy, Spain and Puerto Rico), building, organizing and teaching, Frank received many letters of commendation for his leadership abilities. After 10 years as a U.S. Navy Seabee, he moved to the Navy’s technical programs studying Aircraft Doppler Radar Navigation, Digital Data Link Communications, and related systems where, for the next 10 years he was stationed at Millington, Tennessee, Key West, Florida, Washington, D.C, Massachusetts and others. Frank earned National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Services Medal, many marksmanship and good conduct ribbons & medals, Bronze Star, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Armed Forces Meritorious Unit Citation, RVN MUC Gallantry cross w/ Palm, Navy Expeditionary Medal, Meritorious Unit Citation and others too numerous to mention. More importantly, during his Navy Career, he taught many people to play guitar, helped remodel a bar in Spain into a church, taught a children’s Sunday School class in Adak, Alaska, and generally spread music and good will at each spot.

While he didn’t finish college (Fairmont State) until after retirement in 1990, Frank’s natural ability to teach was recognized and utilized by the U.S. Navy. That and his talent for organizing earned him many letters of commendation. After retirement, he farmed his land on Limestone, then moved to Martinsburg to work for an engineering firm, traveling the world and teaching the construction of their building systems. Since his retirement from the work force, he has learned to play a hammered dulcimer and violin and has shared his music in many locations.

In addition to his immediate family, he is survived by brothers, Lonnie (Brenda), Donnie (Sandy) and Sam Dotson.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a sister, Sandra; an infant brother, Joseph; and a grandson, Bradley Shaffer.

The family will receive friends at the Lohr & Barb Funeral Home of Parsons, West Virginia, on Sunday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Final rites will be conducted from the funeral home on Monday, March 18, 2024, at 11 a.m.

The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Brown will officiate and interment will follow at the West Virginia National Cemetery at Grafton, West Virginia, where full military honors will be accorded by the United States Navy and the Taylor County Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The Lohr & Barb Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements for Frank Gordon Dotson Sr.

Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.lohrbarbfuneralhome.com.