03/03/2026
John Samuel Lupold
John S. Lupold, longtime resident of Columbus, Georgia, died Thursday, February 26th, 2026, in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in 1942 in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Dorothy Delle McColl and Melvin Garfield Lupold. After his father, affectionately known as Lup, was killed in WWII, his mother took her sons, Mac and John, to live closer to family in Columbia, S.C. There, he was raised by many strong women and regularly attended Washington Street United Methodist Church.
He attended Dreher High School, where he was band captain and played the trombone. During his junior year at Dreher, his family’s church hosted a student through the International Christian Youth Exchange. Bo Stenson, from Sweden, spent a year living with the Lupolds and became like a brother to John.
While attending Wofford College, he sang in the glee club and studied history. At Wofford, esteemed historian Lewis P. Jones shaped John’s future and inspired him to pursue his Ph.D. in History from the University of South Carolina. Immediately after graduating from Wofford, he completed his ROTC obligation and served in the United States Army, where he spent two years in the 10th Calvary commanding tanks at Fort Lewis, Washington.
John met his future wife, Jo Turpin, in college. Together they raised two children, Jennifer and Wes. John enjoyed taking his family down long-winding country backroads, to Braves baseball games, to battlegrounds all around the South, and camping in the Okefenokee swamp. A doting, proud grandfather, nobody could escape long phone calls about the escapades of Lucy Mae and Tucker. In his last few years, after relocating to Charlotte to be closer to family, John’s loving son-in-law, Tucker Pearsall, started the tradition of eating Sunday lunches together as a family.
In 1970, he was hired by Columbus College as an associate professor of history (and later Chair of the department), where he would remain a fixture for 33 years. While there, he made a lasting impression on his students, many of which still tell fond memories of lessons learned in his class. His enthusiasm and passion in the classroom brought history alive to his students. His lively approach to the study of Southern history inspired many of his students to go out into the community and document local history for themselves. He and his History Department colleague, Richard Hanks, founded the Columbus State University Archives. He was instrumental in cultivating its early collections as a local history repository, including the oral history project, and worked tirelessly to promote the dissemination and accessibility to researchers. After retiring from Columbus State University, he remained deeply involved in the campus community, especially the Archives, and even served as host father and site director for the college’s study abroad program at the Spencer House in Oxford, England.
He held a deep passion for sharing his knowledge of local history and historic preservation, instilled by his mother. His first publication was Columbus, Georgia, a history that was published in 1978 to honor the 150th anniversary of the founding of Columbus.
Later, John drove up and down the Chattahoochee River region documenting the many resources that are held in every library, archives, county courthouse, and town hall within the 18-county region of the Lower Chattahoochee River Valley region. The resulting massive twin publications, titled Chattahoochee Valley Sources and Resources: An Annotated Bibliography Volume I: The Alabama Counties (1988) and Volume II: The Georgia Counties (1994) are treasured by genealogists, local historians, and anyone who has an interest in the history of the region. Together with friend and neighbor Tom French, he later wrote Bridging Deep South Rivers, The Life and Legend of Horace King (2004). With his second wife, writer and historian Lynn Willoughby, he published Upson County A Pictorial History (2009).
John Lupold brought history alive, both for his students and for the community. While at the college he coordinated six annual editions of the Festival of Southeastern Indian Cultures, which featured scores of indigenous tribal people who travelled from their post removal lands in Oklahoma and elsewhere to visit their people’s original homeland in Georgia. As an indication of the breadth of his interests, he served for many years as a board member and patron of The Pasaquan Preservation Society in Marion County, GA. He researched and wrote the treatise that resulted in Pasaquan’s being listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He also served on the Georgia National Register Review Board, which is responsible for reviewing properties to the National Register of Historic Places, and facilitating various National Register neighborhood nominations such as Wearcoba/St. Elmo Historic District, Wynnton Village Historic District, Peacock Woods-Dimon Circle Historic District, Wildwood Circle-Hillcrest Historic District and the Bibb City Historic District in Columbus, GA. Together with his brother Mac Lupold, he ensured that the family farm, Broad Oaks, was also placed on the National Register.
Along the Chattahoochee River Walk and Promenade in Columbus, many of the historical markers were written by John Lupold. As an active preservationist, he protected the industrial buildings on the Chattahoochee River in Columbus with the designation of National Historic Landmark. These included the Columbus Iron Works, the Eagle & Phenix Mills, Muscogee Mills, City Mills, and Bibb Mills, along with their related waterpower facilities. Due in large part to John’s intuitive, insightful, and always entertaining flair with local history, the Columbus Historic Riverfront Industrial District is now a lively, fun place to live, work and play.
He was a 1986 recipient of the Georgia Governor’s Award in the Humanities and the 1997 recipient of the Sarah Turner Butler Heritage Award, Historic Columbus’ highest honor. He collaborated frequently with Historic Columbus on projects and developed an exhibit and historic marker trail honoring Dr. John Pemberton, the originator of the Coca-Cola formula. In 2021, John was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Georgia Archives for his contributions through teaching, publishing, working to make historical records accessible, and for the establishment of the Columbus State University Archives.
In retirement John’s hobbies and pastimes included sitting on the porch of the Pemberton House, the historic home he owned in Columbus, membership in the 6:18 dinner club, watching his alma mater’s ball teams on TV.
Whoever entered John Lupold’s orbit became like family to him. His family would like to honor those who helped him to thrive during the later part of his life. We salute those who drove him to appointments, got him chocolate milkshakes and kept him company in Columbus. In Charlotte we honor all the staff at both Merrywood and Summit Place. He never quit regaling everyone with vivid family history and impassioned discussion of how history really happened.
A memorial service will be held at St. Thomas Episcopal in Columbus, Friday April 10th at 11:00. His final resting place will be alongside his mother’s family on the banks of the Little P*e Dee River at the Bluff Cemetery near Clio, South Carolina.
In lieu of flowers, the family invites those who wish to honor his memory to consider a donation to the Columbus State University Archives. Supporting the preservation and understanding of Columbus' history was one of John's enduring passions. Contributions made in his name will help ensure that future generations can continue to learn from the stories he cherished.
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