Olpea I'm glad you did say that because it seemed strange to me that tip wasn't dead yet as well. The white dots suggest fungus. I can't see very well by the photo but what I thought was happening was Fireblight in the wood (eg. Small lesion from the year before growth) or spread by bug , deer, bird etc. In this link is an example picture which is one of the reasons I did not rule it out as fire blight. As Appleseed70 mentioned regardless cut it back and get rid of the problem. Fungal instead of bacterial is possible but I've never seen any fungus like that. On a side note my cherries all had dead tips and so I went to look what the problem was and grasshoppers girdled the tips. Not at all what the problem looked like from 7 - 10 feet away. Here is a link that might be useful: fireblight This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Wed, Oct 1, 14 at 20:30

Hello again, Everything happened as you all predicted. The branches fell one by one and although I didn't witness it, I think it pretty much happened the way Pineresin wrote starting with the 2 branches to the right and then the rest of the branches fell landing on this home and a neighboring home. The tree was removed about a week after this happened. I am not saying that you all are not experts, it's very obvious to me that you all know what you are talking about based on your predictions and later what came to be which is the reason why I came to this forum in the first place. But for documentation purposes...the reason for me asking for an arborist is that I was hoping one of you were an arborist or might know of an arborist on this site or in my area that might be able to diagnose, from the pictures, what the actual cause was for the deterioration of the tree. I need to find out if vandalism could have been the cause for the destruction of this tree i.e. kids hanging from the branch causing it to break thereby causing shock thereby killing the tree or if this was going to happen anyway because it's the nature of tree, rotted or because of improper care. So again your help is appreciated.

Looks like greasy spot; lots of humidity, poor orchard floor sanitation. Most any fungicide will deal with it.

Thank you everyone. Much appreciated. Phyllissteen, that's what I initially thought, too - slugs or something similar... Kentucky-rose, I'm seeing some kind of boring going on, too. Grasshoppers have been having a go as well. Gettin' tired of relocating them! I guess I'm some kind of a pacifist or something... Sheesh. Elvi, I'll take a look on the ARS website as well. I have been removing more tips that're thrip damaged and bagging - religiously. "Thrip Party in a Bag!" And, I have sooo many oiled-up blue cups in my garden I swear it looks like the bushes are blooming them. This morning I put more out and watched the thrips fly right to the cups. Thanks for your advice and good luck to you as well. I also agree it has been a challenging year. This year it was record heat, grasshoppers, horned catepillars and the trips. Less deer this year for me. No black spot here - yet. That usually shows up in the Fall. I am grateful for a few really beautiful blooms. Almost unscathed. :-) Sunset Celebration, Guy de Maupassant and Marilyn Monroe.