Sidney Raymond Nettles

Sidney Raymond Nettles, 62, passed away January 3, 2020 from complications from Frontotemporal Dementia. Sidney was born in Darlington, SC January 22, 1957 to John L. Nettles and Ann Rogers Nettles. He grew up a free range child in Darlington and Florence and especially on Lake Robinson. Sidney learned to sail almost as soon as he learned to ride a bike and he could water ski and windsurf much better than his older and better looking brothers. His swimming skills were used as a lifeguard at Central United Methodists’ Camp Sexton where the campers called him Mr. Sidney. He graduated from McClenaghan High School in 1975. Along the way he found his calling, without knowing it, while maintaining lawnmowers, mini-bikes, and outboard motors (sometimes with his brother reading him the manuals). He attended the University of South Carolina where he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He moved up from those lawnmowers and mini-bikes to piston and turbine combustion electrical generators. He kept your lights on and your phone charged with dependable power. When he started at USC, students were still programming on punchcards. Early in his career, he was the new guy with Westinghouse who showed the old guys how to use an Osborne portable computer to balance turbine rotors, something he tried and failed to explain to his brothers. He met and fell in love with Kyra Hoffmeyer who he married in 1982. They had twin daughters Sydney Allison and Ammie Connor in 1999.  After Kyra’s untimely death in 2003, he raised the girls on his own, watching their footprints in the beach sand grow with them. He married his second wife, Karen, in 2007. She joined him in helping raise the girls.

Sidney spent the majority of his career with Carolina Power and Light, and retired from Duke Energy in 2017.

He was predeceased by his parents and his wife Kyra Hoffmeyer Nettles. He is survived by his daughters, Sydney A. Nettles and Ammie Connor Nettles, both of Boone, NC, and his brothers, Louis (Tami) Nettles of Florence SC, Leonard (Hope) Nettles and niece Sarah of Pawleys Island SC.

There will be a Memorial Service followed by a visitation, at 11 a.m. Wednesday January 8, at Central Methodist Church 167 S. Irby St. Florence SC. Services are being arranged by Belk Funeral Home in Darlington.

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