Acquaintances of Luther Warnock Jr. remember him as an active outdoorsman, a friend, and a man who actively served his country, county and church.

Warnock, a retired National Guard brigadier general and former director of Warren County Civil Defense, died Sunday. He was 88.

“He was a wonderful man and a mentor to me in public service. He was a good friend and we hunted together,” said former Vicksburg Mayor Joe Loviza. “He taught kids in the schools about safety and had an agreement with Vicksburg Chemical to train firefighters.”

“He was a dear friend and we were comrades in arms,” said George Cronia. “He and I were avid outdoorsmen and we would go dove and quail hunting together. We would take our young’uns fishing at catfish pounds and dove hunting.”

Warnock served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He retired from the Mississippi National Guard in June 1986 as a brigadier general.

“He worked his way up through the ranks,” Loviza said.

Cronia said they served together in the 168th Engineer Group of the National Guard.

“He also served in the 155th (brigade combat team),” he said. “He went to Natchez during the chlorine incident they had there years ago, and he did a yeoman’s job.”

Warnock retired from the Lower Mississippi Valley Division — Mississippi River Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1982 with 36 years of service. Besides serving as Warren County Civil Defense director, he was chairman of the city-county E-911 Commission.

“He helped us get 911, I believe,” Cronia said.

“He was the father of our modern 911 system,” Sheriff Martin Pace said. “After many years serving as Civil Defense director, he was largely responsible for putting together the group of agency heads that created the 911 Commission and consolidated the dispatchers into one center.”

Pace said the 911 system “is a model for the centers in the state. We are very fortunate to have a centralized communications center, and he is largely responsible for it.

“He was a good guy. A gentleman,” Pace said.

Besides his work with Civil Defense and 911, Warnock was active in the VFW and the American Legion, and was a past commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 2572. He also served on many commissions, including the Vicksburg Parks and Recreation Commission, where had served as chairman; the Warren County Port Commission, Central Mississippi Planning and Development District, Hinds Community College Advisory Council, the Vicksburg Community Relations Council.

Loviza said Warnock served on the Hinds Votech advisory board, adding, “he was the oldest serving member when he died. He was a good athlete and he was a referee. He was a well-rounded person and worked with the youth and high schools.”

Warnock was a member of Highland Baptist Church, where he was a deacon and taught Sunday school.

“He was a very active deacon,” said Joe O’Quinn. “He was a member of my Sunday school class and then we taught Sunday school together. At one time, we were going through a growing process and he was a member of our outreach team. We grew from 100 people in Sunday school to 400 in Sunday school.”

“He was a good, Christian man and he helped a lot of people in Warren County,” Loviza said.

Warnock is survived by three children; six grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandson; three sisters; and a brother.

Services with full military honors will be 3 p.m. Friday at Greenlawn Gardens Cemetery with the Rev. Brian Ivey, pastor of Highland Baptist Church officiating.

Visitation will be Friday from 1 p.m. until the service at Riles Funeral Home.