Leon Harold Wilkin

LEON HAROLD WILKIN Funeral services for lifelong Cortez resident Leon Harold Wilkin will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, November 3, 2016 at Ertel Memorial Chapel. Interment will follow at Cortez Cemetery. A reception will be held following the funeral at the Cortez First United Methodist Church at Hampton Hall. Visitation will take place at 9 a.m. on Thursday at the funeral home. Leon was born May 15, 1942 in Cortez the son of Harold Leon and Margaret Esther (Leonard) Wilkin. He passed away on Sunday, October 30, 2016 at his residence at the age of 74. Leon attended the Aztec School in the Lower Valley through the sixth grade. He attended the Caulkins School through eighth grade and graduated from MCHS in 1959. In Leon's younger years he was an avid deer hunter and served in the National Guard. He worked for Story Brothers International and Brubaker Equipment as a farm equipment mechanic. He took great pride in working on local farmer's equipment and created many lifelong friendships. Later, he went to work for Neilsons Inc. for 30 years first as a mechanic and then as a preventative maintenance superintendent. After retirement, Leon kept busy mowing lawns and restoring antique Farmall tractors. He rarely missed having a cup of coffee with his extended family at the Ute Coffee Shop. He dearly loved his children and grand children and the abundance of friends in his life. Surviving Leon are his children, Danny Wilkin (Jeanie) of Cortez, Debbie Parrish (Craig) of Denton, Tex., and Donna Murphy (Bill) of Denver, Colo.; his grandchildren, Amanda Winter, Dominique Hancock, Tanya Wallace, Kambria Wilkin, Kalley Hinton, Lindsey Hinton and Jackson Parrish; seven great-grandchildren; and by his sister, Karen Cravens (Don) of Farmington, N.M. Memorial contributions may be made in Leon's memory to the medical fund set up to assist Keenan Elliott located at www.gofundme.com/Keenan-Elliott/donate.