Truitt Malone Fore
March 25, 1940 – March 16, 2025
Truitt Malone Fore of Knoxville, Tennessee, passed away on March 16, 2025, at the age of 84, at Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Born on March 25, 1940, in Monticello, Georgia, Truitt was the son of the late Virgil and Dovie Fore. Truitt spent his formative years in Monticello and throughout his life felt a special bond to Jasper County and Monticello. Both Truitt and his wife of 64 years, Camilla Brittain Fore, were members of the Monticello High School Class of 1958. Truitt and Camilla were married in 1961, and the next year Truitt graduated from the University of Georgia, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry. Daughter Connie was born in 1962, followed by daughter Ann Marie in 1965.
Truitt built a distinguished 31-year career with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), working in forestry and public land management. During his early career, TVA would move Truitt and his family every year or two around the Tennessee Valley as Truitt continued to advance through the TVA ranks. In 1971, TVA sent Truitt to attend business management courses at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, where Truitt and his young family lived on-campus in married student housing for a fascinating year away from the Southeast. His oldest daughter Connie, then in second grade, remembers him as being the only man on Stanford’s campus (maybe in the whole state of California) with a crewcut and white socks.
In 1975, TVA relocated Truitt to TVA’s Headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he eventually advanced to the position of Manager in the Property Management and Administration Department within TVA’s Office of Natural Resources. In this role, he helped oversee management of retained public lands within TVA’s reservoir system, which spanned portions of seven states across the Tennessee Valley.
After retirement, Truitt enjoyed working on public assistance projects with both TVA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Working with other federal agency retirees, many of whom he considered dear friends, he conducted damage assessments following natural disasters across the United States.
Truitt loved working in the yard and growing things. Having grown up on a farm, he knew how to make plants grow and how to maintain them. His yard was pristine when he was still able to do yardwork. He also was the quintessential handyman; he could fix anything, and he enjoyed doing it. He enjoyed building furniture and birdhouses, and refinishing antique furniture. A meticulous perfectionist, whatever he was doing had to be done right – and it was. Until recent years, he also enjoyed learning about and using his personal computer, often making photo calendars for family and friends.
Truitt was a devoted husband and father. He always took care of and pride in his family. His daughter Connie is grateful for many things her “Papa” did for her. In addition to the obvious, larger things, she remembers fondly his providing to her when she moved away from home a fully equipped toolbox that he made sure she had at all times (and that she has to this day); his moving her every summer to Washington, D.C. during college and law school, and then back again when the school year resumed; their father-daughter project to install crown molding in her first condo (his mitered corners were perfect!); and their project to install a brick patio at her townhouse in Atlanta.
Daughter Ann Marie remembers Truitt teaching her how to fish – including how to put a worm on a hook without being squeamish. He also taught her about football – the rules and the positions – and they enjoyed watching SEC games on Saturdays and NFL games on Sundays. It became harder for her to watch with him in recent years though because their favorite college teams were huge rivals and Truitt’s Georgia Bulldogs won every time! Ann Marie will always treasure the table Truitt made for her son Christopher’s first birthday so that Christopher would have a place for his Thomas the Train set, as well as the wooden checkerboard table Truitt made on which Ann Marie taught Christopher how to play chess.
Truitt loved animals. As a youngster participating in 4-H, he raised and showed pigs. One named “Truitt’s Queen” won many ribbons. As a boy, he also enjoyed his pet beagles. Since 1974, Truitt and Camilla were never without a basset hound and usually one or more cats.
Truitt is survived by his wife, Camilla Brittain Fore of Knoxville, Tennessee; daughter Camilla Constance Fore Dotzenrod and her husband Thomas K. Dotzenrod of Livingston, Montana; daughter Ann Marie Fore Fisher and her husband Phillip Fisher of Knoxville, Tennessee; grandson Christopher Brittain Fisher and his fiancé Alicia Robino of Knoxville, Tennessee; and many loving nieces, nephews, friends, and neighbors. He was preceded in death by his five sisters: Judith Constance Fore, Agnes Vivian Fore Jordan, infant Juanita Clarice Fore, Alda Oleta Fore, and Ethelind LaRue Fore Lindsey.
Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend a Memorial Service at Church Street United Methodist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Friday, July 25, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Truitt’s honor to Church Street United Methodist Church at https://churchstreetumc.org/ or to the Young-Williams Animal Center of East Tennessee at https://www.young-williams.org/.