In Memoriam
Obituaries of Special Adobe Lodge People
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Warren Harris Widmyer
1940-2024
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| Best Buck 1999 |
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| Last visit to Adobe 2020 |
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Warren Harris Widmyer May 24, 2024
Warren Harris Widmyer, 84, of Honeysuckle Lane, Orange died on Friday, May 24, 2024, at the University of Virginia Hospital Charlottesville. He was born on February 12, 1940, in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia to the late W. Ralph Widmyer and Ora Hawvermale Widmyer. He is also predeceased by his first wife Gwen Widmyer; and a grandson Timothy Garland.
He is survived by his wife Bobbie J. Widmyer of Orange; two daughters Amber Widmyer Garland and husband James of Maryville, TN., and Ginger Widmyer Shifflett and husband Paul of Staunton; stepdaughter Wendy R. Malamphy and husband Tim of Mechanicsville; a step-son D. Scott Hughes and wife Michelle of Spotsylvania; fourteen grandchildren Holly Potter, Madison Shifflett, Michael Garland, Jennifer Garland, Ruben Garland, Nora Garland, David Hughes, Michael Hughes, Christopher Hughes, Wesley Hughes, Katelyn Hughes, Daniel Malamphy, Brian Malamphy, and Annie Malamphy; six great-grandchildren.
He graduated from Berkeley Springs High School where he was known as an athlete, bandmember, and scholar. He attended West Virginia University where he earned his bachelor's degree in education, followed by receiving his master's degree in education from the University of Virginia. He settled in Orange Virginia where he served the Orange County School System for many years, as a teacher, principal, supervisor of special education services, and finally the assistant superintendent of schools. After retirement, he continued to volunteer within the school system and for the local nursing facility. He was active throughout his life in church and was a member of the Trinity United Methodist Church of Orange, where he served as a Sunday School teacher and lay minister. He was an avid outdoorsman and a true Mountaineer enjoying gardening, hunting, and fishing with his many friends. He continued to stay active and enjoyed weight lifting and exercising into his 80s. He was an animal lover and considered his pets to be family members. He cherished time with all his family and endeavored to pass along Godly values and virtues. He has now fulfilled the call to run the race that was set before him and is receiving his reward in Glory with his Saviour and those who went before him.
A celebration of life will be held on Monday, June 3, 2024, at 11:00 A.M. at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Orange. The inurnment will be private. Pastor Josh Munnikhuysen will officiate. The family will receive friends at the church after the celebration of life services. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, the Trinity United Methodist Church, Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Berkeley Springs, or your local SPCA. Preddy Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.
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Brian James Ormsby
1977-2021
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Brian has been a guest of the Lodge for many years. Jim and I first met him several years ago back when Skipper was still here and we lived in North Dakota. Jim and Brian hit it off right away, it was easy because they are both such great men. Over the years Brian started to bring his daughters out to the Lodge and last year Jim and I had the privledge to meet his two daughters, Madi and Carlee. Brian and his wife Tara raised some wonderful and beautiful girls. It is such a loss to the Lodge to lose such a geat man, he will truely be missed. We think of his family everyday. Please continue on to read his obituary.
Brian James Ormsby
December 31, 1977 - November 1, 2021
Petersburg, Pennsylvania - Brian James Ormsby, 43, Petersburg, West Township, died unexpectedly at 9:16 a.m. Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, in Chama, New Mexico.
Born Dec. 31, 1977, in Huntingdon, he was the son of Kathy (Miller) Ormsby of Huntingdon and the late Terry Ormsby. He married Tara Elizabeth Gibboney July 20, 2002, at the Abbey Reformed United Church of Christ in Huntingdon. She survives at their home.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by four children, Madisyn Ormsby, Carlee Ormsby, Terry Ormsby and Bricen Ormsby.
He is also survived by a sister, Tricia Keller and husband, Scott, Pittsburgh, nieces Ellie and Tessa and nephew Phillip, all of Pittsburgh.
He was preceded in death by an infant son, Hayden Robert Ormsby.
Mr. Ormsby was a member of the NRA, a lifetime member of the North American Hunting Club and was a member of the Juniata Lodge 282 of the Free and Accepted Masons, Hollidaysburg.
He graduated from Juniata Valley High School with the class of 1996.
He entered the construction field, working for various companies in which he became a successful, well-known general superintendent, most recently with Mitchell Knorr Contracting, Bloomsburg.
He loved spending time with his family, his dogs and being on his farm. He enjoyed hunting, fishing and being in the outdoors, especially with his children. He will be forever missed by his loving wife, children and all who loved him. A lifetime resident of Huntingdon County, he had resided at his West Township address for the past 16 years.
Family and friends are invited to a viewing and visitation from 2-4 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, at the Petersburg Bethel Church, 5435 Bethel Road, Petersburg.
All other services will be held private.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in memory of Mr. Ormsby to the Huntingdon County 4-H, c/o Penn State Cooperative Extension, 10722 Fairgrounds Road, Suite 6, Huntingdon, PA 16652.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Cutright Funeral Homes — Smithfield Chapel, 313 Fairgrounds Road, Huntingdon.
Online condolences may be offered at www.huntingdondailynews.com/obituaries.
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Harold George Lemley
2/28/1953-10/13/2021
Harold George Lemley passed away on October 13, 2021, after a hard battle with Lyme Disease. Harold was born in Midland, Texas, to Clovis and Olivia Lemley. The third child and baby of the family, he grew up in Odessa, exploring the surrounding areas and developing a love for the outdoors that would carry on throughout his life. Harold graduated from Permian High School in 1971. After high school he began working in the oil field during summers to pay for his tuition. He graduated from Angelo State University in 1975 with a degree in Business Administration. Harold loved the Lord, his family, and friends deeply. He wore many hats throughout his career: rancher, maintenance director, hunting guide and cook; but none was more important than his faith and being a loving husband, father, and friend.
His passion for the outdoors led him on many hunting and fishing expeditions across North America and around the world where he met many new friends, experienced many cultures, and saw all that he could. One of Harold’s greatest achievements was sharing his knowledge from those adventures and instilling the love for hunting and fishing with others. Many people thought of him as a walking encyclopedia because he could tell you random facts on just about any subject. Harold loved people by serving…and he loved well. He was always willing to help build/fix/repair anything for anyone. He held bragging rights for his cooking abilities. Once he made a complete Thanksgiving meal with a microwave, crockpot, and his smoker when the oven went out. He even toasted the marshmallows on the sweet potato casserole with a blow torch! He volunteered his time, knowledge, and expertise to numerous humanitarian activities within the region. He always greeted you with a smile and a handshake, a kind word, or a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He will be greatly missed by many.
Left to cherish his memory are his wife Cynthia Lemley, son Jason Lemley, daughter Lisa Cowart and six grandchildren. He is also survived by his bonus children, Matt Blevins and family, Ashley Stockhousen and family, and Erin Pierce and family. He has two beloved sisters, Joyce Jonsson and Linda Sudnick and her husband Lawrence. He has numerous nieces and nephews and other extended and blended family members.
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John R. Newsome
Shumway, IL
1938-2020
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John Robert Newsome, 82, of Shumway passed away on Tuesday, July 7, 2020.
John was a long time friend of Skipper, Jeri and the family. He has been coming to the Adobe lodge as a hunter for 25 years and during that time a great friendship was established. John will be greatly missed here in TX.
He was born May 1, 1938 in Chicago, the eldest son of John O. and Helen F. (Slezcka) Newsome. After high school, he became an apprentice bindryman at RR Donnelly in Chicago. He then moved his young family to Lawrence, Kansas, where he took a job as a bindery foreman at Kansas Color Press. From there, he took a job with Kroeger Printing Company in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. In 1970, he took a job and moved his family to Effingham, where he began a career with World Color Press, until he started his own engineering and manufacturing company in Shumway. Originally known as Southern Illinois Machinery Company Inc., it was later renamed SIM Products. John was a self-taught engineer with over 50 patents to his name.
He was a philanthropist, donating to local charities like the YMCA, Kluthe Center and Effingham County Sheriff’s Department, among others.
John was an avid hunter; big game hunting all over the world. His office was a showcase for hundreds of trophies, with fishing being his second love. He was an intelligent, outgoing, colorful man measuring many with his stories about everything.
John is survived by his wife, Helene Newsome of Shumway; daughters, Emilie (Silas Guenther) of Edwardsville, Jeanne (Tim) Wendt of Effingham and Julie (Brian) Burke of Naperville; 10 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren; brother, Terrance of Chicago and daughter-in-law, Angie Newsome of Effingham.
John was preceded in death by his parents, son, John A. Newsome and brother, Norman.
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Max Sanders
San Angelo, TX
1939 - 2019
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Max Sanders
Remarks by Skipper Duncan at the Funeral
Don Griffis asked how I came to know Max so well. When a lawyer of Don’s caliber asks you a question, you better give it some deep thought.
Max and I hadn’t been all that close in high school where he was a year ahead of me. Max hung out with Joe Henderson, Jimmy Wheeler and other deplorables who were into coon hunting and bluegrass music during their mis-spent youth.
I told Don that when Max returned to Texas after his career as a Ph.D. scientist studying effects of exercise on the heart, he forced himself on me. He “encroached” on my ranch often. Using military terms since Max was a genuine marine: he invaded my ranch and then occupied it. Finally, I gave him the run of the place. Literally. Since he loved the outdoors so much, it was much cheaper than buying his own land. If I had a dollar for every mile Max jogged or walked out there, I could buy a King Ranch Ford Double-Cab.
But it wasn’t all one sided. Max loved physical work and he helped with countless projects that came along. No telling how many bow blinds and tree stands he built. He loved to repair our wooden blinds and had a truck full of tools for the job. He and his wife, Gene, built a pump house for a new well back during the 2011 drought. He always proudly claimed to buy Gene a new pair of work gloves every Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, since his return from California, a day or two before that holiday, Max, with his military way of doing things said here’s the way we’d do it. He’d bring me a case of whatever beer I was drinking at the time, and I would give him a case of long-neck Budweiser’s. You might call it “Red Neck Gift Exchange.”
But his passion was trail cameras. He would keep six or eight active in the lead-up to either deer season or turkey season. His goal, which he never achieved, was to get a good photo of a mountain lion. But he did get countless bobcats and foxes, plus a coyote or two. And, thankfully, only a few hogs. The best photos Max ever collected were at a wet-weather water puddle up on a hill. You could see many tracks of various critters there in the mud. I encouraged Max to put one of his cameras there, just to see what he might get. For the three photos he showed me, he should have won a Pulitzer Prize. The first one was of a jack rabbit, standing tall and proud. The second image was a gray fox, trotting by the camera, right to left. The third image showed the fox, this time headed left to right. And he had the rabbit in his mouth.
There is no telling how many people were led to long distance running, or biking, or simply working out by Max. You’d never know it now, but 40 pounds and 40 years ago, I would run many races with Max. Of course, he was always way ahead – I was certainly no competition. For those of you who have never participated in such races, the field of runners quickly gets strung-out over a long distance. The speedsters are so far out front, you never even see them. The laggards are way behind and are of no interest. But those runners in your immediate area are your competitors. You are trying to get ahead of them; they are trying to out run you. Especially as you approach the finish line. You give it your best kick, and hope to pass as many as you can. It makes a huge difference if you finish as # 145 instead of # 146.
Near the end in one such race, I was firmly into my kick when Max’s wife, Gene, flew by me as if she’s been shot out of a cannon. Try as I might, I couldn’t even keep pace those last fifty yards. When it was all over, and when I finally had re-captured my wind and was able to speak, I told Max about the end of the race and how Gene had beat me so badly. Max asked if I knew how she was able to do that? Was there some secret to competitive running that he’d never told me?
He admitted that he had offered to buy Gene a new dress if she beat me in the race.
I told the always frugal Max that had I known that fact, I would have walked the entire ranch and she would have beaten me so badly, he would have to buy her two new dresses.
My main regret now is that no longer will I be seeing Max’s footprints in the dusty roads in all corners of that ranch. But I know he is in a much better, and pain-free place.
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| Max Sanders 1939 - 2019 |
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John A. Newsome
Effingham, IL
1962 - 2018
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We always referred to John A. Newsome as "Johnny" or "Junior" since his dad, John R., had the strongest claim on the name "John." John Senior first hunted with us way back in 1995. Within just a couple/three years, Johnny began accompaning the Newsome group which almost always included business associates and family. Johnny worked for his dad's company, SIM Products, as head of Sales.
In 2010, Johnny collected our Home Camp's "Buck of the Year." Both the hunter and the magnificent buck are memorialized on our Home Page, as seen below once again.
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Back when we first met him, Johnny was a power-lifter and had arms like tree trunks. During the course of a four day hunt, he would leave camp to find a gym in town to get in a good workout. And he hunted just as intensely. He loved to walk and was fully capable to shooting an animal at a great distance. Johnny was often accompanied his Adobe Lodge hunts by his beautiful wife, Angie, and one of his children, John IV, who is almost as beefy as was his dad before the ravages of cancer finally took him down.
The entire Newsome clan has been an integral part of Adobe Lodge for almost 25 years. Losing Junior is akin to losing a family member. We offer our sincere condolences to his entire family, especially his dad and his wife.
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Bill Knapp
Wethersfield, CT
1936 - 2017
T. William (Bill) Knapp hunted whitetails with us every single year since 1997. He passed away only a few months shy of his 21st hunt at Adobe Lodge.
Most remarkably, Bill Knapp collected our fabled "Buck of the Year" three separate times - the only hunter ever to do so - and his first time was on that very first hunt with us back in 1997. In fact, despite our standard warning to first-time hunters - "Don't shoot the first buck you will see" - that is exactly what Bill did. In confessing the error of his ways, Bill was fearful of some kind of admonition. But all he got was heaps of praise for harvesting such a magnificent buck.
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Bill's second "Buck of the Year" also just happens to be the largest buck ever taken by a Home Camp hunter. What's more, the big guy was "rattled-in" by Bill's guide, Jerry Watts, obviously the largest buck ever collected by rattling.
The third Best-Buck came from a blind which Bill's guide (not Jerry) decided held little chance for success of any kind. The guide was trying to placate Bill's unhappiness at seeing little or nothing by placing him where the trend was likely to continue. Shows you how much any of us know about where the big ones might lurk. This 2006 buck currently sits in fourth place on our All Time Best Buck's list. Bill credited nothing but "Good Luck" for this one.
Back in 2002, Bill's buck that year was sitting in the # 1 position until our final hunt of the season. So he almost had a fourth title on his wall.
Only half in jest, Bill referred to himself as "The Legend of Adobe Lodge." None of us ever challenged his claim.
Over the two decades of hunting with us, Bill introduced us to his good-buddy, Ray Reynolds, his son, Eric Knapp, and a host of other friends including Wendell MacPherson. During the coming 2017 season, Bill was bringing two grandsons, Dylan and Andrew Knapp to show them what he found so addicting about his Adobe Lodge experiences.
We offer our sincerest condolences to Bill's entire family. For sure, he was speical to everyone at Adobe Lodge. The link below will take you to his obituary.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/hartfordcourant/obituary.aspx?n=t-william-knapp&pid=186557952&fhid=4082
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