Rolando Morada Ocampo's Obituary
Rolando M. Ocampo
Retired U.S. Naval Petty Officer Rolando M. Ocampo of Bartlett died Dec. 10, 2022, of COVID-19 at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis. He was 76.
Yearning to travel and see the world, Ocampo joined the Navy at the age of 21 in 1967. He grew up in the coastal town of Cavite City, Philippines.
During his 20-plus years in the Navy, Ocampo visited Sweden, Spain, Italy, Iceland, Germany, Vietnam, and parts of the Middle East. He served as a cook on the USS Enterprise and the USS Kitty Hawk.
In the 1970s, he was briefly stationed in Millington. After he retired, he left the Philippines and moved to California in the late 1990s. In 2000, he settled in Bartlett and worked at Seth’s Lighting & Accessories.
A doting father, Ocampo taught his daughter how to ride a bike and took her crabbing in the San Francisco Bay near the Golden Gate Bridge. He beamed with pride as he danced with his grown daughter at her wedding.
When his daughter announced she was expecting but declined to reveal the gender of the child, Ocampo turned a spare bedroom into a nursery and painted it blue anyway. After his grandson’s birth on Nov. 1, Ocampo was already making plans to take him fishing.
Ocampo loved to paint, cook, garden and watch his Atlanta Braves play. He loved Christmas songs on the radio and listening and singing such favorites as Elvis’s, “Can’t Help Falling in Love” or The Righteous Brothers, “Unchained Melody.”
He often immersed himself in Tom Clancy novels or in one of his 200 DVDs of action and sci-fi movies.
He excelled in the kitchen by making to-die-for chicken adobo over rice and a mean lasagna. His culinary skills in the Navy once earned him second place in a baking contest.
Ocampo was born to a master electrician and a homemaker, the late Enrique and Honorata Morada Ocampo. He was the 7th child among 11 siblings and the last surviving son. Before COVID, he had planned to return to his place of birth with his daughter and son-in-law.
Visitation will be from 1-2 p.m. on Dec. 23 at Memorial Park Funeral Home. His service will immediately follow. Burial will be at West Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery in Germantown at a later date.
He leaves his daughter and son-in-law, Alyssa Ocampo and Micah Herrington, and a grandson, Sergio Finn Herrington, all of Memphis, and four sisters, Rosalinda Blankenship, Amelia and Elizabeth Ocampo, all of the Philippines, and Elvira Boldreghini of Olive Branch, Mississippi.
In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He often called the hospital’s patients his “grandchildren” and said they needed his help.
What’s your fondest memory of Rolando?
What’s a lesson you learned from Rolando?
Share a story where Rolando's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Rolando you’ll never forget.
How did Rolando make you smile?