Kendall Cumming

Kendall Cumming died on March 10, 2002, at the Margaret T. Morris Center in Prescott. He was born on a cattle ranch in Santa Cruz County, Ariz., on Aug. 14, 1924. He was the third generation of ranchers in that area, a pioneer Arizona family.




Mr. Cumming served with the 101st Airborne as a paratrooper in WWII and was badly wounded at Bastogne. He received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.




After the war, he enrolled at the University of Arizona and graduated with a master’s degree in range ecology in 1950. It was at the university that he met his wife of 54 years, Dorothy. They have two sons, Bruce and Earl, and three grandchildren.




In October of 1950, Mr. Cumming went to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Chinle, Ariz., as a range ecologist. He continued in this role working in three Navajo agencies and one Hopi agency until 1962, when he was appointed superintendent of the Jicarilla Apache Reservation at Dulce, N.M. In 1965 he was appointed superintendent of the Gila Reservation at Sacaton, Ariz., where he remained for 15 years.




He was awarded a Citation of Meritorious Service by Robert Morton, secretary of the Interior upon retirement in 1980.




The Cummings moved to Prescott in 1980. Kendall taught courses in ranching at Yavapai College and was sheriff of the Westerners Corral in 1981.
He worked as a range consultant here in Prescott and for the Navajo-Hopi Relocation Commission in Flagstaff.




He will be fondly remembered by the many ranchers, cowboys and the Indian people who knew him throughout the Southwest, as well as his loving family.




Memorial contributions can be made to either the Margaret T. Morris Center, 878 Sunset Ave., Prescott, AZ 86305 or the Nature Conservancy, Kendall Cumming Memorial Account, 4245 No. Fairfax Dr., Suite 100, Arlington, VA. 22203.




Originally published in the Prescott Courier.