Waldo Orton Wilde

Waldo Orton Wilde was born March 26, 1936 in Union, Oregon, to Oscar Clephen (OC) Wilde and Elma Orton. He was the second of nine children. His oldest sister (LoRene Hatchett) and two younger sisters (Joyce {Don}Baxter and Melanie {Dennis}Vest ) are still living. They were born to wonderful parents who owned a dairy outside of Union, OR. The family was surrounded by both set of grandparents, aunts, uncles and many cousins.
Waldo graduated from Union High School, attended BYU for one year with his cousins, then worked on the dairy until he turned 21. He served in the Western States Mission, the same mission his mother served in. The headquarters was in Denver but his service included Nebraska and Missouri.
He returned from his mission, joined the service, and married his childhood sweetheart all in one month’s time. His parents took Waldo and Oneita Umbarger to Los Angeles, CA to be married in the Los Angeles Temple as well as to visit and meet OC’s brother and wife, Virgil and Lydia Wilde in Van Nyes.
They returned to Union for the reception and he left for 6 months of military training. Waldo and Oneita moved to Provo so he could continue his schooling in electronics in 1959. Their daughter Lorinda was born there June 1960. Waldo and Oneita both worked at Cloverleaf-Pet Dairy, she in the office and he as a truck loader in the very early morning. It was there that he received the call that his National Guard unit in Springville were being activated and sent to Fort Lewis, Washington to prepare to depart either to Cuba or Berlin. They spent 10 months in Olympia, Washington to back up the units that were deployed.
It was in Madigan Hospital that their daughter, Shaelyn, was born. By the end of the crises they were sent back to Provo where Waldo finished his schooling at BYU. Those were wonderful years when all our friends were poor too, had no tv, and everyone a member of the Church. Jobs were hard to come by as Waldo graduated and as they searched for jobs his mother-in-law contacted a classmate in Santa Barbara, California. He didn’t have room to hire Waldo but said if they got a place to live there he could guarantee he would get a job within two weeks. Waldo’s first job was a supervisor at Viro, which made flushing meters for aircrafts.
His Bishop at the time was Kent Humpherys and Kent got him a job at E G and G, where he worked until Kent, Waldo and three others formed a company called Far West Technology, Inc. Waldo built ion chambers to measure radiation for the World. His chambers were the standard for those who tried to imitate. He worked under a microscope much of the time on wires that were 1/10 the size of a hair. Because of the international interest in the products of Far West Technology Waldo and Oneita were able to travel to Yugoslavia, Israel, The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zeeland, Australia, San Diego, San Francisco, etc.
Trae, Wendila (Wendi), and then Corin were all born in Santa Barbara. All of the children were born two years apart. We called it “Planned Parenthood”.
Waldo eventually served as President of Far West as Kent Humpherys retired. He retired in 2000 and Oneita retired as secretary to a civil engineering firm in 2003. They sold their home in Goleta and purchased 28 acres in El Dorado County California where their daughter Shaelyn and family were living. They built Oneita’s dream house and had fruit trees, gardens, deer and turkeys (wild of course).
Waldo served as Ward Clerk and Stake Clerk in Goleta as well as a few years as Bishop of the YSA Ward in Isla Vista. He has served lately as a High Priest Group leader and the Secretary of the Elders’ Quorum. He also served a few years as the El Dorado Family History Center Supervisor.
They sold their home in El Dorado and moved to West Bountiful January 2, 2020 just before Covid19 hit. Waldo needed open heart surgery so they moved into an apartment in the home of their daughter Wendi and her husband. Wendi is one of many nurses in our family and was there for his surgeries and care.
Waldo and Oneita served for many weekends as temple workers in the Los Angeles and one of the reasons to move to the Sacramento area was to serve in their new temple. While the temple was being built they served an 18 month mission in Maine filming courthouse records for the Geneological Society of Utah. They had two different missionary tags: one that said Genealogical Society of Utah and one for Sunday that was the regular missionary tag. They loved their mission and the people of the court houses they worked with. They did not, however, come home putting an “R” at the end of most words, Waldo continued after their mission to serve in the Sacramento Temple each week while his wife worked in a dental office for another 8 years. Together they served for an additional three years before coming to Utah. Family History and now family search has played a big roll in their lives.
They had five children all married in the temple and active. The boys became Eagle Scouts and the girls achieved their recognition. There are 29 grandchildren and 50 great grandchildren with three more on the way.
The service will be streamed live on Facebook at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, January 2, 2021 @ https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Funeral-Service—Cemetery/Russon-Mortuary-Crematory-105412734572327/