Charles Woodworth Reno

Article Last Updated; Wednesday, November 25, 2009 12:00AM

Former area resident Charles Woodworth Reno died of metastatic melanoma in Green Valley, Ariz., on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009. He was 84.

Mr. Reno was born to Charles Francis Adams and Mayme Reno in Los Angeles on April 27, 1925. He graduated from Colorado Springs High School (now Palmer) in 1943 and earned a Bachelor of Science in geology from Colorado College in 1950.

During World War II, he served in the Marine Corps aboard the USS General Harry Taylor, primarily in the Pacific Theater. He was discharged with the rank of private first class.

On Aug. 30, 1949, he married Dorothy Crosson in Redlands, Calif.

Mr. Reno was a mining engineer who specialized in startup operations. He worked for firms such as Kaiser Steel, Bechtel, Rio Tinto and Cyprus Minerals and managed projects around the world in Iran, Papua New Guinea, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Namibia, Australia, Mauritania, Canada and all over the U.S.

He served as president of the Arizona Mining Association.

His family said Mr. Reno was a natural athlete and outdoorsman. He enjoyed helicopter skiing, hunting, fishing, hiking and any sport.

He enjoyed landscaping his homes and became an expert on palm trees.

Long after retiring, in 2005, he and his wife bought a ranch next to Jackson Lake near Mancos and named it the Dos Hermanas Alpaca Ranch, where they raised alpacas.

“A colleague, Howard King, wrote, 'He was a man whose word was as good as his bond and had a way of working with others that left him with devoted friends wherever he traveled or worked," his family wrote.

Mr. Reno is survived by his wife of 60 years, Dorothy Reno, of Green Valley; daughters Kathleen Edwards and Deborah Reno; and one granddaughter.

A service was held on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, at Valley Presbyterian Church in Green Valley. There will be a service dedicated to Mr. Reno in 2010 at the Mancos Methodist Church.

Memorial contributions may be sent to the Mancos Methodist Church, 470 West Grand Ave., Mancos, CO 81328.