Trelles Tidmore

As his son Clay wrote on September 18th, just hours after Trelles joined the Lord, “Today is the day I lost my father. He was a graduate of Jesuit High School, a graduate of Tulane University, and an officer and pilot for the USAF. He was an educated man with a big heart who always gave to others. Dad loved to drink his fine wines and teach others all the wonderful things he knew. His values taught me to be a man and how to work hard to achieve goals. He loved his family and cherished his grandchildren. He left a legacy in our family that will not soon be forgotten. In the end dad was surrounded by loved ones and family.”

Trelles was named for his grandfather Macrino Trelles, the founder of the EL Trelles Cigar company. A box of the company’s "triangles" Cigars held a prominent position in his sitting room, as it had the face of his grandmother Maria Venta Trelles on its masthead.

His father David, known to friends as “Ted”, hailed from the prominent Tidmores of Moundville, AL, nephew to the Speaker of the Alabama legislature and the son of the most prominent landowner south of Tuscaloosa. When Ted met the raven-haired Mathilda “Tillie” Trelles while running the Bethlehem Steel office in New Orleans, it was an epic, if sometimes emotional love match. Trelles was born in Birmingham, and returned to the Crescent City as a young child, growing up on its outskirts on Bellaire Drive on the border of Old Metairie.

After graduating from Jesuit, Trelles served as President of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity at Tulane, majoring Aeronatutical Engineering, and then studied at LSU as well, obtaining a degree in Business Administration. Having earned the rank of Company Cadet Captain in the Tulane AF-ROTC, Trelles then joined the United States Air Force as a pilot during the height of the Cold War. He flew KC-97s in constant rotation during the Cuban Missile Crisis in patrols over the Island itself, just one of the many planes on which he qualified during his six years in the military. Returned to New Orleans, Trelles became a stockbroker, rising to the Vice Presidency of Kolmeyer & Co. As his career advanced, he accepted an offer from a client to help run his company, and Trelles eventually became President of Bacon Lumber by the early 1980s.

There, he noticed the tragic number of his employees who never learned to read. Trelles jumped into action, creating one of the most prominent literacy training programs of that decade, which not only served his employees, but much of the Greater New Orleans population. The first graduate said, “Mr. Tidmore gave me what I always wanted. I can now read my Bible.”

In his spare time, Trelles often held court at the Southern Yacht Club, where he was a lifelong member. As he rejoins Tillie and Ted, Trelles Tidmore is survived by his daughter Jamie Tidmore Dey; his sons Clay and Lee Tidmore; his brother David Borden Tidmore; his grandchildren Lindsey, Danielle, Matthew, Joshua, Nicholas, Shelby, and Stacy--as well as a great-grandson Duke and a nephew, Christopher.

Trelles last conscious act was to toast his family, take a sip of a fine wine, and then quietly fall away.

A graveside service will happen at the Trelles Family Tomb on end of Avenue R at Metairie Cemetary on Saturday, September 24th at noon. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Junior Achievement of Greater New Orleans, 5100 Orleans Aenue, New Orleans, LA 70124 or via the Junior Achievement website at www.jagno.org in Trelles Tidmore's name.

To view and sign the family guestbook, please visit www.lakelawnmetairie.com .