Samuel Waybright Sabin

Our father Sam has joined our mother in heaven for their happily ever after. Sam was born and raised in very rural eastern Wyoming. (A sign outside of town says “population 8”.) After graduating from high school at age 16, he studied at the University of Wyoming.

In 1951 he joined the navy and served on the crew of two different submarines. While stationed in New London CT, he met and married our mother Joan. The newlyweds moved to Wyoming and Oregon to start a family and to complete his master’s and PhD degrees. After Oregon, the family moved to Fayetteville Arkansas and then Ithaca NY where Sam worked at Cornell University until his retirement in 1992.

Sam’s sudden passing has given us -his daughters - the opportunity to reflect on our parent’s adventurous spirit (they traveled to 49 states in their RV) and the way we celebrated life, friends and events with food (lobster-fests, holiday goodies, backyard grilling). He supported our mother’s talents as an artist and green thumb gardener. They both encouraged our education and training to be strong professional and business women.

After retirement, Sam transformed into an avid reader and story teller. As they traveled the US in the RV, he would send several pages describing the breathtaking scenes or the delicious restaurant or food dish they discovered. Since arriving in North Carolina in January, he had been wowing the residents and staff of his retirement community with his tales (some of them pretty tall tales) of growing up in Wyoming, stories of how the Ithaca high school BBQ was done, his adventures rafting in the Grand Canyon.

Our favorite pictures tell the story so much better than our words can….

Wilmington Funeral & Cremation 1535 S. 41st Street Wilmington, NC 28403 910.791.9099.

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