Robert Jackson “Jack” Whiddon, 76, of Tifton died Sunday, March 15, 2009, at his residence. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 19, 2009, in the Memorial Chapel of Tifton’s First Baptist Church. Dr. W. Ches Smith III and Dr. Wayne Roe will officiate with burial to follow in Mount Zion Baptist Church Cemetery in Chula. Gene Cannon, Ronald Hand, Robert Miles, Clair Troxell, Ed White and Wilbur Webb will serve as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers will be members of the I. D. Morgan Sunday School Class of Tifton’s First Baptist Church. The family will receive friends on Wednesday, March 18, 2009, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals.
Mr. Whiddon was born on March 20, 1932 in Tift County and was the son of Roy Tilman Whiddon and Lou Mildred Cheek Whiddon, both deceased. He was retired from A. A. Jones and A. S. C and was a member of Tifton’s First Baptist Church. He graduated from Tifton High School in June of 1949; attended Massey Business College in Atlanta from 1960-1961 and graduated from there, Suma Cum Laude, in 1961, where his courses were automation (IBM accounting machines, programming and operation). He was a farmer from 1949-1954 and left to go in service from 1954-1958 in the U.S. Air Force, where he attended Radio Intercept Operator School at Kessler AFB M1 Setup in operation and calibration of radio transmitters and receivers, morse code and voice transmissions from March through October 1955 and served in Radio Intercept as an operator in electronic surveillance and was honorably discharged.
Mr. Whiddon worked with T.H. Sales and Service as the store accountant from March 1961-March 1976; from March 1965-April 1967 was Business Manager at Norman College and Manager of 500 Acre College Farm in hog and cattle operation; from May 1957-August 1967 was the accountant for Bob Patton Construction Company in Roswell; from August 1967-October 1969, worked at ABAC; 1970-1971, opened and set up food stamp office; 1971-1976 was a clerk at Roddenberry Hardware; 1976-1979, was store manager at Old Sarge Army Navy Surplus; 1979-1980 was the accountant for Venezuelan National Baptist Convention through the Mission Service Corps of Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board; 1980-2002 was store manager for Tifton Paint and Supply Company and retired in June 2002; August 2002 through April 2007 was a delivery truck driver for Hornbuckle Wholesale Florists in Omega.
Mr. Whiddon is survived by his wife, Judith Peckham Whiddon of Tifton, who he married in 1981; four sons, Marc Peckham of New York City, Jim Peckham of Athens, Richard Peckham of Moultrie and Joe Peckham of Tifton; and two sisters, Mrs. J. E. Spradley, Jr. of Tifton and Mrs. Charles Robinson of Merritt Island, Florida.