Richard E. Stuth

Richard Stuth

Richard Eddy “Dick” Stuth died unexpectedly on Monday, July 16th due to complications during an angiogram procedure. He is survived by his wife, Lana Stuth, daughter Victoria Stuth, son-in-law Mark Smedley, son Tom Stuth, grandchildren Miranda and Sam Smedley, and daughter and son-in-law Lana and Phillip Spagnoli, and step-grandson Phillip Kuznetsov.

He is also survived by his brother, Bill Stuth, and sister, Lori Hyde. He is preceded in death by his wife Janis Vander Hoek in 2001, and his brother, Al Stuth, in 2017.

Dick was born in Seattle on February 22, 1941 and lived his entire life in the south King County communities of Renton, Issaquah and Maple Valley. He attended Issaquah schools (Class of ’59), Western Washington University, and graduated from Seattle University with a degree in Civil and Mechanical Engineering in 1966. He was proud of his career in engineering and, while employed by Robbins Engineering, was instrumental in the development of the tunneling machine that was used to bore the tunnel under the English Channel. While working with Robbins, he worked on tunneling projects in France and Italy. When he left Robbins, he started his own firm, Resco, Inc., engaging primarily in Civil Engineering. He was called back by Robbins to work as Project Engineer on a tunnel in Japan where he was headquartered in Kobe shortly after the terrible 1995 Kobe Earthquake.

Dick enjoyed his last years on his Maple Valley farm, working on cars in his shop, improving the land with his Case and Kubota backhoes, and many other projects at his house in the Renton Highlands, and was working on his hot water heater the day he went into the hospital. Dick recently hosted his wife Lana’s annual piano recital, and was looking forward to hosting his Issaquah High School class reunion luncheon at his home this week.

Dick was known for his sense of humor, his generosity and his love of family. In his youth, he was an athlete, excelling in track and football. Dick had a brief amateur boxing career. He loved to dance, rode motorcycles, snow skied, water skied, scuba dove, got his pilot’s license, was excellent in Toast Masters, and even tried sky diving a few times.

He was well loved and is dearly missed by family and friends.

Services will be held at noon on Monday, July 30^th at the Metropolitan Banquet Hall in east Renton.

Address: 16420 SE 128^th Street, Renton, WA 98059.

Dick and Lana