Obituary Chittock Obituary

Longtime Durango resident Lewis N. Chittock, retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, died in his sleep Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, in Alexandria, Va., at the home of his daughter Judith Fraine. He was 92.

Col. Chittock was born June 9, 1918, to Edward and Anita Francesa Chittock in Bendigo, Vitoria, Australia. By 1928, he had moved with his family to Salt Lake City, where he began his lifetime love affair with skiing, still a primitive sport at the time.

Joining the ROTC at the University of Utah at age 16, he began a 28-year military career riding the lead horse pulling a caisson with a French 75-millimeter artillery piece.

Soon after joining the Army Air Corps in 1937, Col. Chittock became a charter member of the Air Weather Service – the determining factor for a lifelong career. Most interesting to him was developing early papers about radiation carried aloft by prevailing winds.

In 1941, Col. Chittock met Eleanora Beitz while attending an air weather school in Illinois. On Nov. 3, 1941, they were married in Alaska. Their first home, immediately after Pearl Harbor, was a tent in Alaska. The next 56 years were spent traveling the world in service to their country from Albuquerque to Honolulu, Tokyo to Arizona, Saudi Arabia to Amarillo, Texas. In Amarillo, Col. Chittock completed his career ensuring that the Strategic Air Command remained airborne at all times.

In 1965, the Chittocks retired to Durango. Here they pursued a busy retirement schedule of skiing, square dancing, traveling with extensive Wally Byam Airstream caravans, skiing, more dancing and more skiing. Col. Chittock groomed the early Purgatory ski runs, working off the family lift tickets. Achieving an age to get senior lift tickets, he continued the sport until he completed his last double-black-diamond run at age 86.

In Durango, the Chittocks were regular luncheon participants at the "55 Center," now known as the Senior Center, enjoying their friends and neighbors. St. Paul Lutheran Church was the center of their family life and where Col. Chittock maintained the building for many years. In the early days on Durango's in-town slope, "The Red Baron" Chittock aided many a little skier to find their way down their first runs.

Col. Chittock moved in May 2007 to Alexandria, Va., to live with his daughter Judith Fraine.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Eleanora Louise Chittock. He is survived by daughters Judith Fraine and Nancy Lasley, both of Alexandria.

Memorial services will be held at 1 p.m. today, Jan. 17, 2011, at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield, Va., and at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 21, 2011, at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 2611 Junction St. in Durango.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Lutheran Women's Missionary League in care of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 2611 Junction St., Durango, CO 81301.