Lionel K. Maddeford

Lionel K. (Maddy) Maddeford was born May 16, 1926 in the Bronx, N.Y. and after a brief battle with lung cancer, died at home on Jan. 30.

During his final weeks he had the happiness and comfort of a gathering of all of his seven children; Lee Maddeford of Switzerland, Chris Cummings of Louisiana, Keith Maddeford of Kansas, Ann Maddeford of Portland, Eileen Payseur of Snohomish, Marilyn Rutledge of Edmonds and Mary Jo Maddeford of Seattle.

He graduated from Our Lady of Mercy and St. Francis Xavier Military Academy and attended Fordham University, all in New York City before joining the Marine Corps in 1944. During the war he served as a radio gunner on torpedo planes and dive bombers, and survived plane crashes in the South Pacific and later in China. He was also attached to the squadron which lost several planes in the Bermuda Triangle in 1945.

After the war he became an air traffic controller in Alaska, principally in Anchorage for 23 years, and during this period earned a degree in business administration from Alaska University. He was transferred to Seattle in 1971 as director of personnel and labor relations for the Federal Aviation Administration where he remained until his retirement in 1981. He also served on the mediation board for the FAA during the air traffic controllers strike later that year.

He was a member of St. Hubert Catholic Church in Langley and was a Papal Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

His best-loved hobbies were building a cabin and developing his acreage off Thompson Road in Bay View and working his special magic on his roses and all their floral neighbors.

He is survived by his above-mentioned children and their families and their mother, Marilyn Maddeford of Seattle.

He is also survived by his loving wife and companion of nearly 14 years, Betty Robinson (Gearheart) Maddeford, his stepdaughter Cathy Tauscher of Clinton and other members of the Gearheart and Robinson families.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10 at the Visser Funeral Home chapel in Langley, followed by a gathering to which all are invited at the home of a Robinson family member at 6078 Robinson Road on Mutiny Bay in Freeland Sunday, Feb. 5.