Carl Townsend was born in 1934 to James and Myrtle Townsend in Fisk, Missouri. He was one of 11 siblings that reached adulthood. After deciding to leave high school early, Carl joined the Air Force and was stationed overseas on a couple of occasions. During the summer of 1954, while back in the US on leave, he and his brother decided to stop in at Frosty’s Drive-thru for a root beer float. It was this decision that began a seven decade love affair with our mother, who was working as a carhop at Frosty’s. After dating for about a year, he and Mom were married in Hernando, MS. They were in the Air Force for about 18 months and upon leaving the service, Dad enrolled at SEMO St in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
After graduation from SEMO St, Dad got his first coaching and teaching job at St Mary’s HS. After leaving there, Dad was hired as the Principal and Coach at Qulin, MO. In the fall on 1967, Dad was hired to be the principal at Malden HS in Malden, MO. It was at Malden that Dad really shaped and helped mold the lives of thousands of young men and women. While working as the Principal at Malden HS, Dad also continued his education. He ended up with his BSE, Masters and Specialist degrees.
That’s not too bad for a young man that dropped out of high school his junior year.
Besides being the HS principal, Dad also officiated HS basketball games in the Bootheel of MO. And he did this so well that on multiple occasions he had the number 1 rating for basketball officials in the state of Missouri as rated by the coaches. Dad called numerous state championship game over the years as a result of his high ratings. When he wasn’t calling basketball games during the fall each year, Dad was quail hunting. As any of the farmers in the Malden area will tell you, Dad would hit the fields anytime he could find a spare couple of hours.
After twenty two years as principal, Dad finished out his career at Malden as the Superintendent of the Malden School District. The year after Dad retired, Dad was honored by the MSHSAA for a Lifetime Achievement Award in Hearns Field House in Columbia, Mo. It was an honor well deserved and earned.
After retiring from Malden HS, Dad worked for Shelton Office machines for several years and Dad also began to participate in missionary trips each year. Dad went to Haiti, Mexico and the Dominican Republic on multiple occasions to help spread God’s word and to share his testimony. My father was a man of faith in that he lived his life like he felt the Bible told him to live it. He felt that having faith in Lord was the only way to truly live one’s life each day and that by doing this maybe he could help someone else find the peace that he had in his life.
My father is survived by his wife of over 65 years, Dorothy, sons Carl Jr ( Monica ) and John David ( Judy). He and Mom have 11 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother, Pete Townsend, Jackson Mo and his sisters Emma Lou Hobbs of Jonesboro, Ar and Joanne Horn of Farmington, Mo.
Dad was preceded in death by his daughter, Judy Lynne Curtis and 7 of his siblings.
A service will be held in Malden, MO, on Sat Dec 5th at 1 pm. The service will be held at the Malden HS gymnasium. Due to current Covid situation, the family is asking that everyone attending please wear a mask or face covering and please practice social distancing. There will not be a memorial sign in book and there will not be a receiving line due to the current situation. Doors will open around 12:15.
For those that cannot attend, the Malden R-I School District will be live streaming the service on the their Facebook page. Go to Malden R-I and ‘follow’ the page. On Sat, Dec 5th you will be notified that the event is online and available for viewing.
In Lieu of flowers, donations made be made to the following charity:
Seed to Root Ministries - S2R
This organization helps recovering addicts, thru the use of the Gospel find the ability to reenter society and become contributing members to our communities. Dad felt very strongly about the power of prayer to help heal people and families. Please look them up on Facebook if you would like to honor Dad with a contribution to this charity. Donations can be made at http://www.seedtorootministries.com/.
Our family would like to express our appreciation to Landess Funeral Home and the Malden R-I Administration and Board for all of their help in honoring Dad.
