Former Assistant Charles County Attorney, H.A. Turner, IV, died on July 17, 2011 at his home near St. Joseph, MO.

Over more than 20 years he worked for the county, he had a long tenure advising the Board of License Commissioners, and also during different intervals, he provided legal counsel to the county planning commission, the board of appeals, and the department of social services. He was at the same time, an attorney in private practice with the Hayden Law Firm in La Plata, MD. He retired from practicing law in late 2000 and moved with his wife to Missouri, because he was an avid hunter of various wild game and could pursue that pastime with a large population of ducks, geese, quail, deer, turkeys, and rabbits. He did not believe in shooting animals just for sport, and the family freezer was full of game, the family ate regularly.

Turner, 66, attended La Plata School from first grade through his graduation from the high school in 1962. He worked daily after school at the family's dairy store on U.S. 301 beginning in junior high and until he left to attend Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After earning a bachelor's degree there in political science, he went on to the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, graduating and passing the Maryland Bar in 1969. During his third year of law school, he commuted regularly between La Plata and Baltimore to work as the La Plata Town Manager, then a part-time position.

He held several offices, including president, for the Charles County Bar Association. He chaired the Charles County Cancer Society in 1975, and was a member of the National Rife Association.

His parents were Harry A. Turner, III, who operated Agricopia Farm Dairy and Delma K. Turner, long a registered nurse at Physician's Memorial Hospital, now Civista. Both predeceased him.

He is survived by his wife, Merle Kasten Turner, to whom he was married in 1974, and by his sister, Teri Turner Burns and nephew, Jeffrey (Chrissy) Burns of Alabama.

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at St. Paul's Episcopal Piney Church at 11 am. Interment of cremains will follow in the church cemetery. The Rev. Joy Rose will officiate.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.

Arrangements provided by Brinsfield Funeral Home.