Neil Elder

Neil Owen Elder (90), WWII Navy veteran and retired president of Neil Elder and Associates passed away on July 4, his favorite holiday. He had lived in Albuquerque, NM since 1961. Mr. Elder was born July 6, 1921 in Wakita, Oklahoma. His grandfather, Jason Thomas Elder, had homesteaded from the famous Cherokee Strip Run, on a parcel known as Elder's Corners. During the Great Depression his parents, R.B. and Agnes Elder, moved their small family to the Texas Panhandle. After five consecutive crop failures during the Dust Bowl, the family moved south to the Rio Grande valley where Mr. Elder graduated from Weslaco High School in 1939, president of his senior class and affectionately known as Cocklebur. He played football, baseball, basketball, tennis, ran track and played saxophone for the Panther band. After studying radio communications, he enlisted in the Navy in 1940 where he served 6 years as an aviation radioman, flying scout missions in a SOC Seaplane catapulted at sea from the USS Portland. His picture appeared on deck in Life magazine, January 5, 1942 in The First Ten Days of War. His distinguished service in the South Pacific Theatre earned him medals for the following battles: Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal and Tulagi, Savo Island, the Eastern Solomans, Santa Cruz, and Guadalcanal. Mr. Elder was honored during the dedication of the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C., 2004, at the Midway Memorial on the podium, one of eight honored survivors of the battle which included the late Tony Curtis. After military service, Mr. Elder spent 17 years as a salesman for Brown and Bigelow, an advertising specialty firm. In 1970, he formed his own advertising firm Neil Elder and Associates, Inc. He retired in 1999. He and his late wife, Adele, were long-time residents of the village of Four Hills where he enjoyed golf. Also preceding him in death was his sister, Allena Belle Elder Aycock (TX), wife Fran Yoast Elder (ABQ). He is survived by son Scott Elder and wife Karla, grandson Micah Elder, and great-grandson Hayden, all of Miles City, Montana; niece Colleen Aycock and the Wallace family: Dave, Jason Thomas, and Neil Daniel (namesake) of ABQ; the Thompson cousins and their families: Tommy Neil (namesake) (CO), Gene, and LeRoy Thompson, (ABQ); and family member Deneille Mann Butler (CA). He also leaves a loving friend, Betty Hulabeck (ABQ). He will be interred at a future date at the Santa Fe National Cemetery.