Fernando L. Maldonado

1923 - 2015

Fernando L. Maldonado, age 92, of Concord, died Monday, September 28th at Emerson Hospital in Concord. He was the beloved husband of Madeleine Evans Maldonado of Concord. Born in Cordoba, Argentina on June 11, 1923 he was the son of the late Julio Maldonado and Amalia Aguero. He attended schools in Argentina and studied law at the University of Cordoba. Mr. Maldonado moved to the United States in 1948, where he married Catherine Cocke Moyano and lived in the Greenwich Village district of New York City until their divorce in 1974. He subsequently moved to Concord, where he married Madeleine Evans and lived for many decades. In the 1950s Mr. Maldonado was a Travel Industry Executive working with Argentine Airlines. In the early 1960s he joined the founding team of Lindblad Travel, the pioneer in luxury adventure travel. He directed scores of tours to exotic locations including across Russia, China, Afghanistan, Outer Mongolia, and the Sahara desert (where he was once trapped in a sandstorm). Mr. Maldonado also accompanied the first tourist trip to the Antarctic in 1965, one of the highlights of his career. With his wife Madeleine, he also lived in Cairo for a time, directing Lindblad business throughout Egypt. He later worked for another leading travel company, Abercrombie and Kent, directing its sales operations in the New England region, until his retirement. Mr. Maldonado was a longtime member of the Skal Club for fellow travel executives and was also an avid watch collector. He became an American citizen in the mid-1960s and took an active interest in American politics and world affairs throughout his life. The evening news at 6:30 p.m. was almost a sacred hour for him. Mr. Maldonado greatly loved Concord. Having traveled the world during his career, he often remarked that he could not imagine living anywhere other than Concord, with its natural beauty, rich history, and welcoming citizenry. In addition to his wife, Madeleine, he is survived by his son, Lewis Maldonado and his wife Shelley Stevens of Berkeley, CA, and his stepchildren, Magda Moyano of Buenos Aires, Argentina, George Peabody and his wife Nancy Kaplan of West Acton, and Carey Peabody and her husband Edward Isaaks of Redwood City, CA, his grandchildren, Anna Sweeney, Katherine Peabody, James Isaaks, Eric Martin, Christian Martin, Carlos Moyano and Max Moyano, his siblings, Susana Damianovich, Ivan Maldonado, and Magdalena Maldonado Agüero, as well as many nieces and nephews.
A funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, October 31st at 10 am in Holy Family Parish, Monument Square, Concord Center. Interment will follow at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to Doctors Without Borders, P.O. Box 5030, Hagerstown, MD 21741, a charitable organization that Mr. Maldonado strongly supported. Arrangements are under the care of Susan M. Dee and Charles W. Dee, Jr., Dee Funeral Home of Concord. To share a remembrance or to send a condolence in his online guestbook, please visit www.deefuneralhome.com.