Waldo
E. Dodge
Mr. Waldo E. Dodge, Trustee Emeritus of the Hobart Ames Foundation and an Honorary Director of the National Field Trial Champion Association (NFTCA) Inc, passed away peacefully on August 21, 2011 at the Hospice of Wake County in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mr. Dodge had been associated with the Ames Plantation and the NFTCA since 1950. He first visited the Plantation with his mentor, Charlie Collins, Vice President of The First National Bank of Boston. They were both very instrumental in working out the details of the estate planning for Mrs. Julia Colony Ames when she created the Hobart Ames Foundation through her Will. They also worked with William A. Parker, a trusted confidant of Mrs. Julia Colony Ames, and the first Trustee of the Hobart Ames Foundation.
Mr. Dodge started with the Old Colony Bank and Trust Company in Boston, which later merge to become The First National Bank of Boston, then BankBoston, then Fleet Bank Boston and finally Bank of American. He started in the mail room after completing his education at Amherst College, MIT, Rutgers and Babson Business School and serving in the U.S. Army, from January 1943 to June 1946. The First National Bank of Boston was the “Institutional” trustee of the Hobart Ames Foundation and Mr. Dodge eventually became the representative of the Bank after Mr. Collins. After he retired from the Bank as a Senior Vice President, he was made a Trustee of the Hobart Ames Foundation in his own right. While moving up through the ranks at the Bank, he never relinquished his association with the Plantation.
Mr. Dodge attended the National Championship each year in February with his wife Pearl and was known as the “tough ole bird who rode horses without a hat.” He rode for a week in every kind of weather that can be imagined for February in West Tennessee. He only rode horses twice a year, once on his visit to the Plantation in the fall of the year for a couple of days during their annual meeting with The University of Tennessee and the management of the Plantation, and then again during the National. He was one tough Yankee!
Mr. Dodge was a huge supporter of the National Championship as well as field trials in general. He was a generous donor to the NFTCA, the Ames Plantation and the Bird Dog Foundation. He also served on the board of the Beverly School Committee, Trustee of The School for the Deaf in Beverly, MA and Trustee of the Forsyth Dental School in Boston. He believed in giving back to the communities he was a part of and contributed financially to various charities. He was a member of the Ames Plantation Quail Task Force and always offered good advice. He was made an Honorary Director of the NFTCA in the late ‘90’s and came to support the trials each year despite his failing health.
His son, Rhett, would drive them to the National and assist Mr. Dodge and his mother over the 2 week period and then take them home. His daughter, Pam, brought her parents over this past February for the trial. Even though the disease had taken its toll, he continued to ride in the 4-wheel drive pickup each day of the trial making his presence known. When he got ready to leave at the conclusion of the National, he told us that he probably would not be back as his health was rapidly declining. He was absolutely one of the toughest men I have ever met, but also one of the most generous.
Mr. & Mrs. Dodge donated the Dodge Recreational Facility to the Ames Plantation in 1999 for the employees and their families. It is a state of the art recreational facility. It has a nice commodious indoor gathering area along with a spacious screened in side-porch with ceiling fans, picnic tables and “Cracker Barrel Rockers” overlooking Lake Dodge across the road from the Ames Office and Manor House. The Dodges felt that the employees of the Plantation should have the same opportunities as folks that lived in the city had to maintain their health. No one since Mrs. Julia Colony Ames has had more influence on the direction of the Plantation and the Foundation than Waldo E. Dodge.
Mr. Dodge is survived by Pearl his wife of 67 years, children; Rhett (wife Susan), and Pamela (husband Gary), a granddaughter and 3 great grandchildren. During the last couple of years, Mr. & Mrs. Dodge lived with Pam and Gary after they sold their home in Hilton Head, South Carolina. He was born and raised in Beverly, Massachusetts. He lived there during his years of working for the Bank and will be laid to rest there on September 24, 2011. The service will be held at the Church of the Cove, which he helped found, with interment to follow at Central Cemetery.
The family request that donations, in lieu of flowers, be made to; Hospice of Wake County, Raleigh, NC or the Ames Plantation, P. O. Box 389, Grand Junction, TN 38039.