Page 30 - WBG Dec 2025

IN MEMORIES

In Memory & Tributes

Ray Pendleton

Louisiana, USA

Bob Heales, Executive Director ……. Passing of Past President
Ray Pendleton of Louisiana. Ray joined WAD in 1970. He was 86
years old. Ray was a fixture at many of our meetings over the years.
Ray and the Pendleton family were very influential in the earlier
days of WAD.

He was in frequent communication with me until about two years
ago until illness started to take its toll. I have many fond memories
of Ray going back to my first meeting in Hawaii in 1983. Our sincere
sympathy to Ray’s family and friends.

FBI New Orleans

This was posted 4 years ago in the @FBINewOrleans Twitter

Col. (Ret.) Raymond Pendleton, USA, and SAC Bryan Vorndran
standing under the photograph (top left) of his father Forrest
Pendleton the first SAC of #FBINewOrleans when the #FBI was
called the Bureau of Investigation which was created on July 26,
1908.

Following in the footsteps of his father, who served as
In 2016, Ray was honoured the W.A.D PRESIDENT EMERITUS General John Pershing’s liaison to Poncho Villa during
prestigious status, awarded for a lifetime of dedication and service the 1916 punitive expedition into Mexico, Raymond and a
to the investigative and security professions. fellow WAD colleague were tasked and supported by the US
Defense Department in 1981 to conduct a private, covert
One of W.A.D’s founders, Forrest Pendleton, was a former regional study of East European military personnel and activities
director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation during the “Cold War”. Doing business in today’s complex
(later to be the FBI), who opened its New Orleans office in 1913 world can be very challenging – and costly - unless one has
and started the first private detective and security service firms in effective sources to guide and assist.
the South in 1920.
The value of WAD’s global network of investigative and
Raymond Pendleton, his son, assumed leadership of the security agents, skilled in a variety of fields, has repeatedly
family businesses in 1970, and led their growth with offices in proven its worth to both private and public sector clients,
five Southern states, along with regional drug and contraband and Pendleton has strived with WAD over the years to refine
searches, maritime support and investigations that spanned the and maintain the leading edge that allows this industry to
international arena. He was a West Point graduate, retired Army benefit its clients and the communities they serve.
Colonel, Special Forces (Green Berets) combat veteran and former
Inspector General, and remains actively involved in research for
cases that deal primarily with forensic liability issues in both the
domestic and foreign fields.