Bryce Winston Whiteside

Bryce Winston Whiteside, 76, died peacefully on October 6 following a brief illness. He passed surrounded by the family he adored at the Dawsonville, Georgia home he built with his wife of 24 years. 

He is survived by many who loved him dearly: wife Edith (Edie) Whiteside; sister Connie Rae Whiteside of Conyers, GA; son and family Kevin R. Whiteside and Mary Beth Whiteside with Hannah and Noah of Douglasville, GA; stepson Joe Gulash of Clearwater, FL; and stepdaughter and family Angela Petrie and Brian Petrie with Elijah and Malakai of Cumming, GA.    

Bryce was born in Texas on June 24, 1947 to Conon D. Whiteside and Frieda Baker Whiteside. He spent his youth in Oyster Bay, New York, and at 22, enlisted in the armed forces. A proud member of the Air Force, he worked as part of the Avionics Maintenance Squad during the Vietnam War. 

After his military service, Bryce attended Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and received a degree in accounting. Shortly thereafter, he relocated to Georgia, where he enjoyed a 30-year career in the software industry and built a life centered on family, friendship, and a love of learning.  

Post-retirement, Bryce seized every opportunity to acquire new skills, especially those that enabled him to do more for others. He practiced carpentry (constructing cribs and toy tables for his grandkids); taught himself wood turning (gifting handmade housewares to his children); and customized his home (building bookshelves and a quilting room for his wife). When his stepdaughter asked to be married at the home he shared with her mother, Bryce designed a backyard replete with shade trees, hillocks, and fish pond — and then landscaped it himself. 

Bryce was uninhibited by what he didn’t know and never met a stranger who didn’t become a friend. He pored over Kiplinger’s, National Geographic, and Bloomberg News, and often read multiple books at the same time, with science, current events, and historical fiction among his favorite subjects. He dedicated countless hours to researching his family’s lineage, and added more than 7,000 entries dating back several generations to ancestry.com. He delighted in adventure travel and was an intrepid eater. Recently, he and Edie visited Puerto Rico, cruised the Caribbean, and traversed the Northeastern U.S. in their RV, the latter itinerary chosen for its abundance and variety of seafood. And he loved fishing with his son Kevin. Though the prospect of a good catch was exciting, it was the quiet time the two spent together on the water that meant the most to him.  

These are the things for which friends will fondly remember Bryce. For his family, his legacy is his love. Bryce’s heart was — and is still — first and always with his wife, sister, children, and grandchildren. He will be greatly missed, but never forgotten. 

A graveside funeral will be held at Sawnee View Gardens in Cumming, Georgia at 1:00 pm, Saturday, October 14. Further details are available through Ingram Funeral Home.

Ingram Funeral Home, 210 Ingram Ave, Cumming, GA is in charge of arrangements.