Clifford Joseph Mauton “Buddy” – a long-time resident of Columbia, MD, passed away from respiratory failure at Howard County General Hospital on September 13, 2011. He was 74.
Cliff was born in Smithville, MO, to Oliver Frank Joseph Mauton, a farmer and veteran of World War I, and Grace Belcher, a farm manager and accomplished agriculturist. Cliff attended a one-room schoolhouse in nearby Paradise, and graduated from Smithville High School in 1955. He worked as a lab technician at the Smithville Hospital while attending junior college in Kansas City and later graduated from University of Kansas in 1961 with a degree in Bacteriology.
Cliff joined the United States Air Force in 1962. He attended Officer Training School in Texas and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. His 21-year career as a communications and electronics officer included two tours in Germany and many assignments in the United States. Prior to a tour in Vietnam from 1967-68, he married Barbara Mallen of Plattsburgh, MO. They met at the Smithville Hospital where she was a nurse. Cliff retired from the USAF in 1983 as a Lieutenant Colonel, and his service decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Air Force Commendation Medal.
After retiring from the military, he worked as a federal account and program manager for Digital Equipment Corporation which later became Compaq-Hewlett Packard. He retired in 2002.
He is preceded in death by his parents, his wife, his brothers Kenneth, Donald, Lawrence; and his sisters Marian F., Dorothy, and Kathryn. He is survived by his sister Lois of Kansas City, MO, many nieces and nephews, and his son, Clifford “Jody” Joseph Mauton, Jr. of Washington, D.C. There will be no service. Donations may be made in his memory to the American Heart Association, Howard County General Hospital, or a charity of choice.