Donald R. Edmund

Obituary For Donald R. Edmund

Donald R. Edmund, passed away on April 3, 2025 at his home in Chloride, NM. Don was born to Harold and Irma Edmund on October 14, 1932. He grew up on a farm near Merrill, Wisconsin, and after graduating High School in 1950 headed to the west coast to explore and to work. The next year he went east to Ohio for a job at a paper mill, where he met the woman he would spend the next 70 years with, Dona. They were married on September 20, 1952 and their daughter, Linda, was born at McChord Air Force Base Hospital in 1954.

After 4 years in the Air Force, Don went to school on the GI Bill and was recruited by IBM Corporation in 1956. Don’s work with the Federal Systems Division of IBM took the family from coast to coast and border to border, including several years at the Pentagon. His final assignment took them to White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 1976. On a camping trip into the Gila National Forest over Labor Day weekend, in 1977, Don took a “wrong turn” and they ended up in Chloride. Dona said, “this is where we need to be”. That weekend they bought a derelict house, which was the start of almost 50 years of restoration work in Chloride. When Don retired from IBM in 1986, they moved to Chloride full time.

Don’s interests were many and varied. He was an athlete, lettering in high school football, and loved to watch the Green Bay Packers play. He was a sportsman, enjoying hunting, fishing, camping. He loved his “toys”, cars, trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, and tractors. He spent many hours through the years rebuilding/restoring everything from a 1933 Auburn to a 1941 International pickup to a 1960’s AMC Mighty Mite (now in the Marine Corps Museum).

He was a pilot, an author, a patriot, serving in both the National Guard and the Air Force. He was a preservationist and historian, spending almost 50 years restoring and protecting many of the old buildings and the historical artifacts in Chloride. He was always community oriented, serving on PTA and church boards, county boards, active in various service organizations. He was instrumental in starting the WCC&D Community Association and spent 30 years with the Winston/Chloride VFD, about half of those as the fire chief. He enjoyed meeting and talking with visitors from around the world that found their way to the Pioneer Store Museum in Chloride. But most of all, he loved time spent with family and friends.

Don is survived by his daughter, Linda Turner of Chloride; a sister, Anne; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Dona; a sister and a brother.

A Memorial Services will be held in Don’s honor, Monday, May 12, 2025 at 2:00 P.M., at the Greenwood Cemetery, in Chloride, New Mexico.

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