He was born to the late Winfred Hubert and Myrtle Garmon Statham on May 25, 1931 in Rockmart, GA.
After his graduation from Rockmart High School Mr. Statham joined the United States Navy serving before and during the Korean War. While in stationed in Jacksonville, Fla. in 1951 he met and married his late wife, Crystal Ann Thompson Statham.
Throughout their life together, Mr. Statham had a deep love and devotion for Chris until her departure in 1999. After leaving the Navy, he worked with the space program in Cape Canaveral, Fla. as an electronics technician.
In the late 1950's, they moved to Marietta and while working at Lockheed he began his career in nuclear sciences. Mr. Statham joined the staff at Georgia Tech in 1965 to work in the Nuclear Engineering department. In 1971 he graduated from Southern Technical Institute and later that year he and Dave Walker founded Applied Physical Technology. Together they grew the company into a supplier of sophisticated radiation monitoring systems for nuclear reactors throughout the world and sold their company to Nuclear Data in 1981.
Mr. Statham left Georgia Tech to work with Nuclear Data for three years and then returned to GA Tech in 1985 working at GTRI. He eventually returned to the Nuclear Engineering department as the director of Reactor Operations and retired in 1993 and continued to work part time until 2007.
Outside of his career, Mr. Statham loved to play golf, he spent much time traveling the world with his wife and friends.
He was preceded in death by his parents and wife.
He is survived by his sons, Kenneth Roy Statham and his wife Robbie Crossland and Mitchell Alan Statham and his wife Iris Links Statham and several grandchildren.
Funeral services were held on Saturday, Oct. 20 at 11 a.m. in the chapel of H.M. Patterson and Son Canton Hill Funeral Home.
Interment services followed at 2 p.m. at New Prospect Baptist Church Cemetery in Rockmart.
The H.M. Patterson and Son Canton Hill Funeral Home, of Marietta was in charge of the funeral arrangements.
The local announcement was made by the Freeman Harris Funeral Home.