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John Hugh Waldroupe Jr
Eulogy
John Hugh Waldroupe Jr was born in Las Animas Colorado on the 16th day of November 1941.
His parents were John Hugh Waldroupe Sr and Margaret Deatherage, who were married in early 1941.
John was the oldest of 5 children, his siblings are Luther, Andy, Beverly and Nona.
He grew up in Alamosa Colorado and graduated from Alamosa High School in 1960. His young life consisted of hard work on the ranch, breaking wild horses and raising cattle.
A few months after graduation he joined the Air Force and headed out to places all around the world, including Germany and fighting in Viet Nam.
He left the Air Force in October of 1964 but remained in the reserves until 1966.
He returned to Alamosa and got a job selling shoes and a summer job in Walden Colorado until 1967 when he moved to Denver with his brother Andy and Andy’s girlfriend Sandy.
He found a job with IBM repairing typewriters.
John married Marilyn Dee Shaner (Waldroupe) in 1969, where he became an instant Father to Marilyn’s 2 daughters Kim and Heidi. A year later IBM transferred him to North Carolina where they gave birth to his one and only son James Frank Waldroupe in January of 1972.
In 1975 he requested a transfer back to his beloved Colorado, in 1980 he and Marilyn went their separate ways and he remarried in 1984 to Julie Rae, until 1989 when he and Julie parted ways. He continued living in Denver until he retired from IBM in 2002.
Some of his favorite things were “The Prospector’s Sertoma Club”, Church services (dedicating his life to the Lord in the early 70’s) watching his Son grow up and all things hunting and fishing.
In 2005 he gave up his life in Colorado to be closer to his Son and his 2 beautiful red headed granddaughters in Kelso, WA.
John made friends easily where ever he was. In longview/Kelso he was a member of several Senior Centers and bingo halls, he even ran bingo a few times a week.
John Hugh Waldroupe Jr passed away at his home in Kelso, WA on the 17th day of December, 2020.
--Eulogy courtesy of John's son James.
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LeRoy Wiedeman
.John and I became friends our junior year after we both started wrestling. We had a lot in common as we both grew up on a ranch working with the cattle horses and doing farm work. I remember John is being quiet soft-spoken and struggling to wrestle because it was something he really enjoyed. Neither one of us was great athletes but we enjoyed the companyAnd the challenge of individual effort.
I lost track of John after graduation but I am sure he had a full and fruitful life and will be missed by his family. Sorry to hear about the loss but at our age we are all headed in the same direction.
LeRoy Wiedemann
Charles Asay
John always reminded me of Big Huey...the oversize duck in the comics. Maybe "Big Bird" from Seseame Street, might be a better example. He was big and tough but always gentle in spirit.
I had some contact with him on the internet. He was on my 40-year-ago cartoon list. We were brothers in the Lord and in politics.
I'm sorry to hear about his passing but I'm pretty sure he's in a better place.
The memories column, above, was quite interesting.
To all those who knew John better than I did, I'm sorry for your loss.
Joe Sherriff
What sad news. I have been trying to put together soom words to say. All I come up with to describe John is two words. GOOD GUY!
Joe
Terry Jones
I was working in an office job in the early 1980's in SE Denver as circulation manager for the Denver Magazine. Our IBM large commercial style photo copy machine went on the fritz. We called IBM for a repairman. To my surprise, John Waldroupe arrived at the door. He repaired the copy machine and we got caught up on each others lives. He came back several times over a two year period to do routine maintenance. One story he told me was about a tragic car accident on Monarch Pass that affected one of his family members but I don't remember the details now.