Thomas Coltrin Duddleston

DUDDLESTON, Thomas Coltrin

Died peacefully at his daughter's home in Arivaca February 24, 2021 surrounded by his family. He was a man of incredible honesty with an inquisitive and generous spirit that guided him as a husband, father, brother, uncle, grandfather, nephew and cousin for 96 years. He did not waste any of that time on this good Earth. Born to Charles and Lucille Duddleston in July 1924 in Syracuse, N.Y., he grew up in Buffalo, where he met his wife, the late Frances Elizabeth "Betty" Berg. They were married for seven decades until her death at 90 in 2018. He earned a journalism degree at the University of Missouri, bridged by duty in WWII as an Army sergeant on an artillery battalion in the Philippines. He and Betty had children in Missouri, western New York and Tucson as he plied his trade as a newsman in Niagara Falls, Buffalo, New Bedford and eventually, in 1960, in Tucson. He worked for the Tucson Citizen until the 70's when he was an assistant journalism professor at the University of Arizona while he earned a master's degree. He later went back to the Citizen as business editor until retiring in 1986, then worked for U.S. Rep. Morris K. Udall for several years. He and Betty loved to demolish pieces of homes and rebuild them and were voracious readers. They loved to travel by auto across America, taking most pleasure in the simplicity of crops waving in the wind, mountain passes, waves lapping shores or the stark realities of refineries and steel mills. He is survived by his children, Priscilla of Arivaca, Thomas Jr. (Beth) of Tucson, Robert (Candi) of Oklahoma City, James of Arivaca, Amy (Hilary) of Los Angeles; seven grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren, one great-great- grandchild and seven nieces and nephews. Bear Down, Boppa, we love you. Arrangements by EVERGREEN MORTUARY.