Walter Frank Redpath Jr.

1933 - 2016

Redpath, Walter Frank Jr.

Lt. Col. Ret. USAF





Walter Frank Redpath, Jr. passed away at his home in Tucson, Arizona on November 21, 2015, with his children by his side.

Frank was born January 7, 1933 in Olathe, Kansas to Walter and Martha Milligan Redpath. Having spent much of his youth on his grandparents' farm on Black Bob Road, then outside of Olathe, the young Frank later worked on farm crews following the harvest. In 1939 Frank moved with his mother to Fullerton, California where he graduated from Fullerton High School in 1951. Following graduation he attended the University of Colorado in Boulder.

In 1954 Frank joined the U.S. Air Force and completed officer candidate training to become a second lieutenant. The following year, he married Nancy Jane Barthelmes in Anaheim, California to whom he was married for thirty-five years.

Frank spent twenty-one years in the Air Force as a B-36 flight engineer, a pilot on B-47s, and as command pilot on B-52s. During the Cold War, he served in the Strategic Air Command. The military sent him to college and in 1968 he graduated from Colorado State University in Fort Collins with a BS degree in computer science. From 1968 to 1969 he flew C-7A Caribous on various missions in Vietnam. Then Frank and his family spent three years at Yakota Air Base in Japan where he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

In 1972 Frank retired from the military and brought his family back to Kansas where he worked selling and servicing church bells in several Midwestern states. He became a master gardener, a licensed drug & alcohol counselor, and was very active in the AA movement. In 2000, Frank moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to help care for his parents, Martha and Herman (Slim) Hoch. He studied and became a certified practitioner for the Center for Spiritual Living. Later he relocated to Tucson to care for his lifetime friend, Catherine Boushey.

Frank is survived by his former wife Nancy and four children: Karen Rutledge of Carlsbad, California; Sue Redpath of Rancho Santa Fe, California; Steve Redpath of Seattle, Washington and Linda Hoffmann of Evanston, Illinois; and five grandchildren: Clayton and Dylan Rutledge of Carlsbad, California; and Veronica, Carlton and Etienne Redpath of Seattle, Washington.

Memorial services will be held on March 24, 2016, 11:30 a.m., at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Point Loma, San Diego, California.