Donald Dudley passed after nearly 84 years on this Earth in the early hours of October 26, 2024.
He was predeceased by his parents, Austin and Hazel Dudley, and dear brother, Russell.
Surviving him are his wife, Jessie; brothers, Austin of Fincastle and Evan of California; sisters-in-law, RaLinda of Fincastle, Lois of New Jersey; brother-in-law, Charles Lightfoot of Rhode Island; as well as numerous nieces nephews, cousins, their children and in-laws who called him Uncle Don.
From childhood, Don was an aircraft enthusiast, graduating from Teterboro School of Aeronautics after graduation from Chatham High School, Chatham, N.J. He and his brother, Austin, had worked wage-free on weekends and after school at a small airport near their home in Chatham, and Don took his experience with him when he enlisted in the Army and became a helicopter mechanic. When his stint in the U.S. Army was over, he worked as a mechanic for cargo airlines Flying Tigers and Fed Ex, retiring as a lead mechanic for Fed Ex at Newark airport. He often recounted amusing stories of the race horses, beefalo, giraffe, cows, chimps and other animals shipped by Flying Tigers.
In retirement, he enjoyed working on radio-controlled model airplanes and taking field trips with the Roanoke Valley Mineralogical and Gem Society with his wife and members that group and the Gem and Mineral Society of Lynchburg, as he had with friends in New Jersey with the New Jersey Mineralogical Society. He enjoyed cutting the stones he and his wife collected or purchased into cabochons or knife handles, using skills learned from the New Jersey Lapidary Society. He was a devoted son, husband, brother and uncle.
Services will be scheduled at a later date.
