Roy Samuel Ingle, known as Sam, was born November 10, 1918 in Statesville, Surry County, North Carolina, the son of Isaac C. Ingle and Margaret Kennedy, grandson of Archibald Kennedy and Cely Henson/Hinson.
He entered elementary school in 1925 at Mulberry Street School, where he stayed from 1925-1928. In 1929 he went to the Avery Sherril School for 5th grade and returned to Mulberry in 1930. He went to school on Davie Avenue during the 1931-1932 academic year and entered high school in 1932 at D. Matt Thompson High. In September of 1937, Ingle began college at North Carolina State College (now North Carolina State University) where he received a Bachelors degree in Geological Engineering in July of 1941.
After graduation, the Raleigh Granite Company in Raleigh, NC employed Ingle from August 1941-February 1942. Although the exact date is unknown, it was also around this time that Ingle married Lois Blanche Eller, the daughter of Mr. L. Eller of Mooresville, NC. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) then employed him as a Junior Inspector of Construction for the Douglas Dam in February of 1942. From September 1942 to January 1946, Ingle actively served in the U.S. Air Corps as a bomber pilot during World War II. At the end of the war, Ingle returned to North Carolina and joined the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development in Raleigh from June-September, 1946. In this capacity, Sam Ingle participated in state geological survey work and was a student instructor at North Carolina State University. The Bryan Rock and Sand Company of Raleigh employed Ingle as a mining engineer from March 1947 until January 1948. In January of 1948, Ingle returned to work for the TVA as a geologist in the Chemical Engineering Department and the Division of Chemical Operations. After returning to the TVA, Ingle, his wife, and their two daughters resided in Columbia, TN.
From the guide to the Roy Samuel Ingle Papers, 1940 - 1985, (Special Collections Research Center)
