Dr. Ernest Mapp Dunton, Jr.

Dr. Ernest Mapp Dunton, Jr., 94, of Exmore, son of the late Ernest Mapp Dunton, Sr. and Maggie Lankford Dunton, died March 25, 2006 in Nassawadox. Dr. Dunton graduated from Franktown-Nassawadox High School and obtained a B.S. in Agronomy and an M.S. in agricultural science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He earned his PhD from Corrnell University in soil chemistry in 1942. He served with the US Army in World War II from 1942 to 1946 and remained with the Army Reserves, retiring in 1972 as a Lieutenant Colonel. The bulk of his professional career was as a soil scientist, spending 10 years with the Virginia Truck Experiment Station in Virginia Beach. He was instrumental in obtaining the funding to open the Virginia Truck and Ornamentals Research Station on the Eastern Shore in Painter and spent the remaining 15 years of his career as a scientist in charge of this station, retiring in 1972. Dr. Dunton served on the Board of Directors of Delmarva Power and the Northampton Marketing Coopertive and was past president of the Exmore Rotary Club and the Eastern Shore Yacht and Country Club. He was a member of Belle Haven Presbyterian Church. He was predeceased by his wife, Martha Anne Upshur Dunton, and a brother Henry Lankford Dunton, Sr. Survivors include a sister, Virginia Dunton Duer of Belle Haven, and a brother, William Edmund Dunton of Exmore, three nieces, Peggy Bell Ebert of Columbia, South Carolina, Susan Nottingham of Franktown, Linda Dunton of Exmore, three nephews, Henry Dunton of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Andy Duer of Davis Wharf and Ted Duer of Onley, and several great-nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be held Tuesday March 28, 2006 at 2:00 PM at Doughty Funeral Home in Exmore with the Reverend Donald Broad officiating. The family requests in lieu of flowers that donations be made to the charity of one's choice. Arrangements made by Doughty Funeral Home, Exmore.