In Memorium


Wayne Elmer Malon

Wayne E MalonIt is with great sadness that St. Louis Genealogical Society faces the death of another of our good friends. After a six-month battle with lung cancer, our former treasurer, lecturer, teacher, map-maker, and Photographer for Hire, Wayne Malon, passed away on Monday, 15 June. Just sixty-nine years old, Wayne had handed his “treasurer hat” to Ann Fleming last year and was looking forward to doing what he really liked most, tinkering with technology.

Wayne was such an incredible asset to the Society. Most of our members saw his public face as a lecturer, teacher, and photographer. He grew into the first two roles, but the latter was a natural talent. The office was filled with beautiful photos that he took, and when he volunteered to share his expertise with the Society as Photographer for Hire, he started a hugely successful program of photo duplication and restoration that helped preserve hundreds of family photos. He was justifiably proud of the high quality service we were able to give our members.

He found a set of historic atlases on CD on the Internet and arranged resale rights with the publishers so we could sell them to our members. Knowing that most people needed help printing large graphic images, he expanded our member services to include maps made to order.

Wayne’s knowledge of GPS devices meant he could go into cemeteries or other locations and photograph anything, anywhere, which he did. He loved to discover new gadgets, new websites, and new software, although he was a bit slow to purchase his iPhone and got teased a lot by the Apple/Mac people surrounding him in the office.

Making hundreds of CD labels and burning hundreds of CDs at a time was expensive and time consuming for our volunteers, but Wayne and his wife, Pat, found a CD-making machine for us. Wayne taught himself to use it. We did indeed speed up the process and save money.

He was a whiz with tools and never hesitated to fix anything in the office that was in need of repair. From replacing leaky soap dispensers in the ladies’ room to re-electrifying our classroom and mounting our digital projector from the ceiling, his touch is everywhere around us.

Wayne had set his sights on helping our printing staff, when he took sick. He knew how to set up files from our computers to send electronically to the quirky Canon copier, no matter how unusual the specifications were. He was a problem solver who loved challenges and always knew he could find solutions.

Wayne was a big man with a big heart. He was committed, caring, and generous. We already miss his smile, his deep voice, and his ever-present sense of humor. Our hearts go out to his wife, Pat, his two daughters, Krista and Nikki, and the rest of his family.

Per the family’s request, contributions to StLGS can be made in Wayne’s memory.

– Ilene Murray, Publications Director