Comments on: Donald Alford Weadon, Jr. (1945-2008)

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:49:09 +0000

I feel like an idiot, coming here so late, but I have to say something. I sent Don an email today and it bounced back and it was in looking for a new one that I realized he had passed away. I just want to say what others have said. He was a terrific human being and the guru on export controls. I will miss him.

By: Dawn Ortiz Legg

Dawn Ortiz Legg — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:56:20 +0000

I last saw Don in June of 2006. I had been out of the country until this July. Today, I thought to call him and got a disconnected message. Uhh oh. I googled and found this – and that today September 15th was his birthday.

I had known Don since I was a pup consultant in export controls and he was the guru. No one could explain and exhort export compliance like Don! I always thought he would have been a great operatic performer!I loved his theatrical approach to business — and of course, his gentle and kind ways.

Happy Birthday Don, I am going to miss your humor, support and vast intelligence. Dawn

By: Scott Neely

Scott Neely — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:53:23 +0000

In the 1980s I was the general counsel for a now long forgotten technology company whose European operations were run out of Monte Carlo. I was a novice in export control laws and was alarmed when I discovered that our Monte Carlo office and the person who headed it were suddenly blacklisted by the DOC. I can’t remember now, nearly 3 decades later, who introduced me to Donald Alford Weadon, but I’ll be forever grateful. Don’s knowledge, contacts, intelligence and fervor made an immediate impresion on me and others in that company. A great story about that blacklisting: We had Don descend on our local office in Monte Carlo. He was staying at the hotel (whose name I forget), but through the tunnel under which ran the Grand Prix de Monte Carlo. One night, Don ventured out on his balcony and shut his sliding glass door. Unfortunately he locked himself out. More unfortunately, he was in his “tighty whities” and nothing else. He climbed to another room that ultimately let him in.

I recall another time when I visited him on the East Coast and was fortunate enough to have him host me at the Chincoteague Oyster Festival. Sadly I had never tasted oysters before that visit in the mid-1980s when i was in my late 30s. But that weekend was memorable not only for my new found love of oysters, but for getting to know Don as a friend.

While we had one more opportunity to work together a few years later, I lost regular contact with Don after that.

Don will always remain in my heart and memory as a brilliant lawyer, a great humorist and a valued friend.

I am so saddened to learn that all of his many, many friends will no longer get to share his great laugh and humor other than in our memories.

Scott Neely

By: Sharon Nobles

Sharon Nobles — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:21:06 +0000

My husband and I had the opportunity to meet Don in 1994 while vacationing in the Caymans. Don and I share the same birthday (Sept 15) which we were both celebrating that weekend and love of animals, so we had an instant connection. We thoroughly enjoyed his stories, wit and humor and consider meeting him one of the highlights of our trip. We have fond memories of a great afternoon on Rum Point drinking Mud Slides.

Meeting Don was just a chance encounter, but I feel fortunate to have crossed paths with such a wonderful individual.

I have occasionally kept in touch with Don and was saddened to learn of his untimely death. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife and family.

By: Jim Poffley

Jim Poffley — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:20:20 +0000

Weeds and I were freshmen at Cornell in 1963. The Glee Club drew a small like-minded cluster of us together.

I knew his parents and sister; he knew mine. Donald was bombastic in those days and a chance encounter upon a small lunch room in a county hotel could go anywhere. We found one in Pirates Cove that served Harvey’s Bristol Cream in a milk shake glass, all for 75 cents. This weekly pilgrimage morphed into the Wednesday Afternoon Luncheon Club. Two silly 19 year olds, gunning down the lake shore in his TR-4, between classes, to toast something or somebody grand with our 75 cent sherry.

After graduation, wars, grad schools, families, etc. we were separated. Happily, I was introduced to Donald’s wife, Suzie, and we learned that she and I had heap of mutual friends from Sea Pines Corp. days.

So, Suzie. Here’s to you. (Advice I received when my wife Jeannie died in 1988: “You must be very curious where life will take you next.”

I pray you will develop that curiosity because in my case, it sustained me.

Warm regards,

James K. Poffley
jkp3@psu.edu

By: LI Genxin

LI Genxin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:36:27 +0000

Don is a typical American who is friendly, wise, and generous. I met him several years ago when I need his help to advise me on China’s export control. I am benefit from his advise all the time.
My Chinese friends and I will remember him all the time when we continue to work in export control, he will live in our heart forever.
Don’s friend in China–LI Genxin, Secretary General of China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.

By: Mike Deal

Mike Deal — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:24:32 +0000

I met Don nearly a quarter century ago. Typically gracious, he invited me to stay at his Georgetown home instead of putting up in a hotel, even though I was a just a green young lawyer from Tulsa, and we talked export law most of the night.

I hope that he and Sir Blackamoor, his beloved lab that he just lost to a brain infection, are reunited now.

By: Ann Elizabeth Mayer

Ann Elizabeth Mayer — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:19:03 +0000

I am heartbroken and shocked to learn that this brilliant lawyer and splendid human being has departed our ranks prematurely. I was hoping to get to Washington to have lunch with him in April; I had no inkling that we were about to lose him. Don’s wit and vibrant humor, his keen insights into legal and political developments, and his deep love for his adored wife always impressed me. He was truly one of a kind and will be sorely missed by those of us who had the privilege of knowing him.

By: Greg Landers

Greg Landers — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:59:16 +0000

Don and I served together in the Navy 30 years ago and I cherish every memory, every wit and every glass of wine that we shared irregularly over three decades. In this age of selfish individualism Don swam against the current and was a genuine hero. I “gun-decked” a few Physical Fitness evaluations for him lest he run out of breath during the 2-mile run – thus leaving him incapable of finishing the latest humorous story. In return, he plied me with fine wine and stories of the Admiral who forgot to wear his shoulder board insignia to a Change of Command ceremony. My favorite story was of his summons to dine with Admiral McCain on 10/27/1967. Perplexed by being the only junior officer invited to the Admiral’s quarters for dinner, Don subsequently discovered that the Admiral had learned that his son John McCain had been shot down in VietNam and he wanted to spend an evening conversing with a junior officer similar to his son’s age. I also wonder if that “Donald Alford Weadon” brass plaque that he installed in the basement of a building at Cornell, “for the hell of it,” still remains?

The Donald A. Weadons of this world are few and far between. I am a much better man for knowing him. I offer my sincere condolences to Suzie of whom he raved whenever we met. Thank you for loving and caring for Don, Suzie. May the loving memories of your “funtastic” husband comfort you in your loss.
Greg Landers
San Jose, CA &
Naval Air Station Moffett Field

By: John Liebman

John Liebman — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:08:21 +0000

This is very sad news, indeed! All of us who worked with Don have dozens of “Don Weadon Stories” – warm and very personal memories of an extraordinary attorney and a warm, true friend. I last saw Don at the Hudson Institute, where Linc Bloomfield was speaking, and he was walking with some difficulty but was as cheerful and welcoming as always.