Jonathan S. Wilford Jr.

Jonathan (Bus) Seltzer Wilford, Jr., of Slipper’s Cove on Island Creek, Oxford, died on Saturday, July 24, 2004. He was 81. Born in Philadelphia, March 18, 1923, he was the son of the late Jonathan S., Sr. and Grace Christine Geiger Wilford. “Bus” as he preferred to be called, attended the Easton High School on Idlewild Ave and was graduated in 1941 from St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, DE. In the fall of 1941, he entered Williams College in Williamstown, MA and, early in 1942, enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve. His Marine Corps service took him to Guam and Iwo Jima. Following his release from active duty in 1946, he rejoined others from his class at Williams College and was graduated as a member of the Class of 1945. After his return to Talbot County, he started farming at home and, later, became extensively engaged in continuous grain farming. On rented land, he increased his activity to over 2000 acres, which included his own grain drying and storage facility which, at that time, was the largest such operation in the county. In 1968, he entered the Real Estate business and later founded and operated the Wilford Land Company, licensed in both Maryland and Virginia, brokering exclusively boatyards and marinas around the Chesapeake Bay. A lifetime member of the Tred Avon Yacht Club, he was the last living member directly descended from a Founder of the Club, his father. He served on the Alumni Council of St. Andrew’s School and was, for many years, his class representative at the SAS Alumni Association. At the Country School in Easton, where all four of his children were graduated, he served for nine years as a trustee and was a member of the committee that drew the first plans for the beginning of the brick building that is the present school. A lifelong member of Christ Church in Easton where he attended Sunday School and was confirmed in 1937, he had served the church as an usher, Vestryman and Senior Warden. Mr. Wilford is survived by his wife, the former Beatriz LeBaron Zar; two daughters, Kate Spencer Wilford Carraher and her husband, Dick and Evelyn Seltzer Wilford Lippincott and her husband, Richard; a son, Charles Curry Wilford and his wife, Susan, all of Oxford; a sister, Jean W. Ewing, of Easton and six grandchildren. Another daughter, Grace Cordo Wilford, died in 1977 and a sister, Grace W. Myers, died in 2002. Memorial services will be held at Christ Church, Easton, on Friday, July 30th, at 10:30 A.M. Private inurnment services will be at the Oxford Cemetery, Oxford, MD. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to Christ Church Memorial Fund, 111 South Harrison Street, Easton, MD 21601, would be appreciated. Funeral arrangements are by the Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home, P.A., Easton, MD.