David Reynolds Koontz ’50

David Reynolds Koontz ’50, of Burlington, N.C., died Feb. 20. Mr. Koontz was born Oct. 26, 1929, in Lexington, N.C. He was the son of David Kermit Koontz and Colleen Leonard Koontz, both deceased. David was a faithful member of Front Street United Methodist Church, where he served as an honorary member of the administrative board, a member of the Methodist men’s Bible study group, the Christian Service Scholarship Committee, the Helper’s Sunday school class, and past president of Front Street UMC Senior Citizens. He was an Eagle Scout and a graduate of Davidson College with a B.S. degree in business and economics. He holds a master’s degree in quantitative mathematics from UNC Greensboro (1972) and studied further at N.C. State University at Raleigh. Mr. Koontz was a Mason for 55 years, serving in many capacities and honored with several awards. Mr. Koontz served as a past president and chaplain of the Alamance Battleground Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), a past historian and genealogist emeritus of the North Carolina Society SAR, and a member of the Genealogical Society of Davidson County, N.C. He was a member of Wake County Historical Society and a trustee of Cherry Hill Foundation, Inez, N.C. Mr. Koontz was an avid genealogist of Davidson and Warren County, N.C., families and was instrumental in locating and obtaining the early German records of Frieden Lutheran Church. Mr. Koontz published “Johannes Kuntz Family in Davidson County” and transcribed and edited “Early Pilgrim German Records (Leonard’s Church).” Mr. Koontz was a special agent in the U.S. Army with counterintelligence corps (CIC) during the Korean War. When General Douglas McArthur spoke to the Mississippi State Legislature in January 1952, Mr. Koontz was one of the CIC agents who conducted a protective surveillance for General McArthur. Mr. Koontz worked in the hosiery industry for 18 years as an industrial engineer and retired from AT&T in 1989 with 19 years in industrial engineering, human resources, and contract engineering. He taught mathematics and economics for one year at Elon College and Alamance Community College. During his retirement he worked as an on-call assistant at Edward D. Jones. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Mrs. Sara Elizabeth Davis Koontz, 518 Shadowbrook Dr., Burlington, NC 27215; a brother, Dick Koontz (Jan); three daughters, Sara Rebecca Koontz Lee (Barry), Deborah Reynolds Koontz Snider (David), and Cynthia Elizabeth Koontz Smith (Jerry); three grandsons, Chad Smith, Alex Snider, and Jeffrey Lee; and a granddaughter, Allyson Snider.