Ronald Whiddon

Age 77, a resident of Albuquerque since 1987, died on Sunday, December 23, 2012, after a long, difficult, and brave battle with cancer. He was born in 1935 in Barnesville, Georgia, to Roy Elton Whiddon and Martha Newton Whiddon. Ron married Gloria White and joined the U.S. Coast Guard. They adopted two boys, Jason Franklin Whiddon and Matthew Wayne Whiddon. Ron had two tours as a communications-electronics (C-E) technician with the Coast Guard on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, and a tour at the LORAN station in Lewes, Delaware. Philco Ford hired Ron to work in Trinidad, West Indies, where he and his family lived for seven years. While there, Ron got his small aircraft pilot’s license and learned to play the guitar. Ron then was hired by the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service and spent several years living and working in the Middle East, taking care of C-E needs at embassies and consulates in thirty-five countries, including Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Jordan, Israel, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. While living in Jakarta, Indonesia, he set up communications for Secretaries of State Schultz and Kissinger on their trips to the Middle East. While living in Karachi, Pakistan, he helped set up a new communications system at the officers barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, following the bombing in 1983. Ron and his family were evacuated for several months during the riots in the early 1980s under Zia-ul Haq’s dictatorship. Ron was curious about other countries and their cultures and took full advantage of his many travels. He kept a log of all of his trips, and by the time he finished flying to different countries, he had accumulated almost half a million air miles. He and his family enjoyed a trip back to the States on the Queen Elizabeth II, which he enjoyed. On his return to the States, Ron entered a classified program that required him to travel extensively within the country’s borders. His marriage ended, and he moved to Albuquerque in early 1987 to continue work with the Department of State. Ron married Carol Price Caulking. They enjoyed traveling around the Southwest by slip-in, fifth-wheel, motorhome, and travel trailer. They hiked; crewed a hot-air balloon; went country and western dancing; and enjoyed C&W, Bluegrass, and classical music concerts, and had season tickets to the NMSO for many years. Ron also did leatherwork, researched the genealogy of the Whiddon family, and became quite knowledgeable about the computer. Ron retired from the State Department in 1989 and went to work for Jaycor, from which he retired after ten years. He stayed on as a contractor for two more years and worked with FEMA during natural disasters. He set up the communications unit in the Roundhouse in Santa Fe during the Cerro Grande Fire, as well as comms units during the heavy flooding in Houston and the massive ice storm that devastated parts of Arkansas in 2001. After his final retirement, Ron and Carol enjoyed more RVing, a paddlewheeler cruise on the Columbia River, and lots of hiking. One of Ron’s favorite things to do was to meet a group of former co-workers for lunch every Wednesday, which he did for many years until shortly before his death. In addition, he was a volunteer at the New Mexico Telephone Museum, where he helped keep old equipment displays in working order. In 2003 doctors found that Ron had cancer. He had three surgeries, including a Whipple procedure in Los Angeles, chemo, numerous infections, hospital stays, and rehab, but through it all, he remained upbeat. Following his release from the nursing home where he had intensive rehab, he had nearly seven years in which he led a very active life, taking a cruise to Alaska with friends, then RVing to Alaska with his traveling buddies, Neville Herbert and Clyde Washburn. The “three musketeers” went to Africa for a photo safari in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Tanzania, and later to New Zealand. There were also numerous trips throughout the West and to Louisiana. Ron’s cancer returned in early 2011, and he fought valiantly for almost two years, going through every type of chemo suitable for his type of cancer. Despite his illness and his extreme fatigue and weakness, Ron wanted to travel as much as possible, so he and Carol made five more trips in 2012 in their travel trailer with their two kitties, Cody and Sheba. The last trip was five weeks to Georgia and Tennessee to visit family and friends. They returned home on October 19, and the following week Ron joined a Stage I Clinical Trial at UNMH Cancer Center for a new chemo, but it was too late. The cancer had spread to Ron’s brain, and his health deteriorated rapidly. His body finally gave out on December 23 in Kaseman Presbyterian Hospice. The family is very grateful to everyone in hospice for the gentle and attentive care they provided. Ron donated his body to the UNMH Medical School and will be interred at the Santa Fe National Cemetery once his ashes are returned. Ron’s life was a blessing to his family and friends, and he was loved and respected by all who knew him. He was a truly good man: caring, loving, thoughtful, compassionate, generous, always willing to help anyone who needed it (even when he didn’t feel good), hardworking, friendly, energetic, lots of fun, full of adventure (demonstrated by his first jump out of an airplane when he was 74), and blessed with a wonderfully dry sense of humor. Ron never hesitated to help a stranger. For several years he volunteered with the Albuquerque Senior Affairs Office, where he visited regularly with a gentleman who had Alzheimer’s, and helped a woman who was blind do her grocery shopping and go to doctor’s appointments. He also did minor repairs around her house and continued to visit her often after she went into hospice. Ron was preceded in death by his parents and his son Jason. He is survived by his wife, Carol Whiddon; his son, Matthew Wayne Whiddon; his granddaughter, Mercedes Briana Whiddon; and many cousins scattered around the country. The family is grateful to the many doctors who made it possible for Ron to have almost seven more years, even though few thought he would make it that long. His two oncologists were Bernard Agbemadzo at Lovelace and Dr. Richard C. Lauer at UNMH Cancer Center. At Lovelace, Dr. John Deflice found the initial cancer, and Dr. Dale Strawn operated on Ron twice. If desired, donations can be made in his name to the Roadrunner Food Bank, 5840 Office Blvd., N.E., Albuquerque, NM 87109; to Animal Humane of New Mexico, 615 Virginia St., S.E., Albuquerque, NM 87108; or to Best Friends Animal Society, 5001 Angel Canyon Road, Kanab, Utah 84741 (www.bestfriends.org).

Ronald Whiddon

March 24, 1935 - December 23, 2012