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Letter to the editor

Craftsman outlived doctors' expectations

By Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer
Published March 12, 2008

Diagnosed with a genetic disease that affects about one in 2,500 people, Allan "Ron" Wilton waited two years for a lung transplant.

In 1995, he got it. For years, he took medicine to keep his immune system from attacking the lung. His family kept sick people away. He breathed from an oxygen tank and got around in a motorized wheelchair.

Doctors told him he could expect to live seven years.

***

When Mr. Wilton and his sister were growing up in Chicago, their mother gave them two bars of soap and knives to see what they could carve.

After they finished, she had a pile of soap shavings, said his sister, Lynn Wells, 62.

Her brother had a car. "He didn't realize how truly talented he was," she said.

As an adult and a father, Mr. Wilton started woodworking in the basement of his Chicago home, building a grandfather clock for his first project.

In 1973, the family moved to Safety Harbor when Mr. Wilton became head of research and development at what is now called Nielsen Media Research in Oldsmar. He started when cable was first entering American households.

In his off hours, he moved from the little soap car to bigger projects. He towed a Ford Model A from North Carolina with plans to restore it. His daughter, Cynthia Shaver, 41, described it as a "beat-up rust bucket."

By the time her father was done sandblasting and painting, it was showcase material.

***

Early in the 1990s, a genetic disease called Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency began to affect Mr. Wilton. His body stopped producing a hormone that make the lungs elastic. He needed a new lung to survive. For two years his name sat on a waiting list.

Finally, there was a match. Surgeons told Mr. Wilton the longest he could hope to live would be a decade.

"It was a constant battle," said his daughter, Shaver.

Still, Mr. Wilton turned to making model airplanes and trains. He shared his love of tinkering and fishing with his grandsons.

On Monday, Mr. Wilton died after a cold shut down his immune system. He was 65.

He lived 121/2 years after his transplant.

Stephanie Garry can be reached at sgarry@sptimes.com or 727 892-2374.

Biography:

Allan Wilton

Born: Sept. 25, 1942.

Died: March 10, 2008.

Survivors: wife, Carol Wilton; sister, Lynn Wells; children, Scott Wilton, Cynthia Shaver, Janine Pabst, and Sharon Britten; grandsons Matthew and Andrew Pabst.

Services: 1 p.m. Monday at Sylvan Abbey Funeral Home, 2853 Sunset Point Rd. in Clearwater. Donations may be made to Lung Transplant Program, attention Wendy Swafford, 1600 SW Archer Road, PO Box 100223, Gainesville, FL 32610

Lung Transplant Program:

Attention Wendy Swafford

1600 SW Archer Road

PO Box 100223

Gainesville, FL 32610

[Last modified March 11, 2008, 23:47:15]