Richard Thomas Walsh
Richard Thomas Walsh
Richard Thomas Walsh went to be with Jesus September 4th 2017.
Born 4/27/1935 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma to Agnes Marie Walsh and James Edward Walsh (theirs was a true love story). Richard’s dad was killed in an accident when he was 3 years old so he was raised by his mom and his grandparents Wilhemina (Boettcher) and Andrew Fyfe in Alder Washington.
Upon graduating from Stadium High school, he went with his buddies, who ended up being friends for a life time, to check out the University of Washington. He decided to sign up and graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree in 1959.
While attending the University he also regularly attended Calvin Club at University Presbyterian Church. It was at Calvin Club that he met the love of his life Lois Van Camp. They were married on August 30th 1958.
After graduation there were job offers around the country, he chose to work for what was then Garrett AiResearch. He worked for them his entire career. He always felt blessed to have ended up in a career where he enjoyed going to work every day. Given opportunities to move from Seattle to further his career he always chose to stay in Washington. He retired from what had become Honeywell in 1995.
Richard and Lois first lived in Seattle, it was there in 1960 that their only daughter Sheri Lee was born. Richard and Sheri shared many adventures, completed wonderful projects and continued to figure out problems until the very end.
The family moved to the new suburb of Bellevue in 1962. In 1980 his life was altered by a very rare disease, granulates vasculitis of the central nervous system. He spent many months in Virginia Mason hospital trying to diagnose the illness, finally a biopsy was sent to the National Institutes of Health were Dr. Anthony Foucci came up with a treatment plan and published a paper on the disease. Richard was the only subject in the paper to survive.
In 1994 Richard and Lois purchased acreage in Winthrop and built their dream home. Richard loved the project of building and engineering the home. Time spent above the clouds looking at the mountains and valley below was special to the whole family. The home was sold in 2007 and Richard and Lois moved to Kenmore to be close to their daughter and her family.
Richard was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather; genuine, kindhearted and giving. He left a positive imprint on many lives and will be greatly missed by his family. We look forward to joining him in Heaven someday.
The Family would like to thank all of the doctors, nurses, aides and techs that helped diagnose and take care of him over the years, there were many wonderful and outstanding people by his side.
Richard is survived by wife Lois, daughter Sheri, son-in law Davie, granddaughters Michaela and Sylvia, brother James, sister-in Law Janet and aunt Mildred. He was preceded in death by his parents James and Agnes.
Richard loved Winston Churchill, “Make no small plans for they have no magic to stir the hearts of men”
A Memorial service with reception to follow will be held:
Saturday, September 30, 2017 at 1:00
Westminster Chapel, Bellevue
Donations can be made to cancer research or the charity of your choice.
7 Responses to “Richard Thomas Walsh”
Leave a Reply
Please be respectful. Disrespectful comments will not be published
When you have successfully submitted a comment, look in the space above to see your comment.
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
If you do not see your comment, click HERE
What a beautiful tribute to a man who obviously loved well and was well loved. Lois, we in your church family so appreciate your friendship, service and love as you faithfully care for the children every Sunday. Our prayers are with you now.
I know him as Dick.
A friend and fellow employee of Garrett AiResearch.
He in sales and I in Field Service.
I enjoyed the fellowship we had for many years.
I remember Dick and his wife from Calvin Club and the Men’s Residence Hall on Campus Parkway along with Phil Lemoine we partied together and remember some fun times from the UDub. God Bless you all.
I meet Dick in Jr. high Stadium and on to UW. We were friends ever since. Thru the years we had many great dinners thru out Seattle and Tacoma. Dick, was special and was like a brother to me and our family. I sure will miss him and I’m happy he is now at rest. Will see in later.
Dennis
Dick was one of the first people I met when I came to work for Boeing in June, 1986. It was my privilege to have worked with Dick and Tom Wich until they both retired from Honeywell in 1995 and attended their retirement get together. Dick was always a sterling gentleman, and a pleasure to work with over the years, as was Tom; they were a winning team that always could be counted on. I have many fond memories of business meetings, business lunches and dinners spent with Dick and Tom, discussions, laughter, and knowing that each of them would do what they said they were going to do, always. The business relationship with Dick was one that I highly valued, and was fortunate to have also met with his lovely wife, Lois through the years. What a gracious couple, and very close to their faith, which is to be dearly admired.
I first met Dick in 1965 when he personally delivered a Garret or Airesearch document I needed. Since then I have had numerous meetings with him, took few trips to Pheonix and Torrence, many dinners/luncheons where he hosted those events. He was always very professional, pleasant and courteous. I do not have enough adjectives to describe his attributes. I remember one event when I was having dinner at four season with my family and he happened to be also having dinner with his family, he came over and introduced himself and paid for our desert. What a classy guy! Wish his soul rest in piece.
Tek Goel
I was fortunate enough to work with Dick for many years at our company, and I found him to be pretty much the paradigm of a great company representative. He was well liked both in the company and by our customers, and knew everything there was to know about our products, how they worked, how they should be used, and further, he fully understood the business side, and was able to work out the deal that was best for everyone. On top of all this, he was a great guy, always, fun to be with, and he was exemplary in the way he led his life. The world is a little poorer with Dick gone, but his memory will always be with us.