Richard "Dick" Slaughter

Richard Polk Slaughter passed away at his home in Austin due to pancreatic cancer on September 23rd, 2014. Dick was born on March 9, 1935 in Dallas, Texas to Gladys Braly and Richard Brooks Slaughter.

He graduated from Kaufman High School, Kaufman, Texas in 1953 and attended the University of Texas for one year. He then transferred to Texas Christian University and worked his way through college after obtaining a full-time job at General Dynamics in Fort Worth. At TCU, he earned his B.A. degree in Math and Physics in 1961. Upon graduation, General Dynamics offered him an engineering job in Roswell, New Mexico where he was in charge of the flight controls for 12 Atlas Nuclear Missile sites being constructed to surround and protect Walker Air Force Base in Roswell during the Cold War in 1962. It was in Roswell that he met and married Barbara Fay Corbin on February 23, 1963. Immediately after their marriage, they moved to the Los Angeles area where Dick worked as an engineer on the Paraglider Landing project for the Apollo Spacecraft program at North American Aviation. However, California wasn’t Texas and after six months, they moved to Dallas where their only son, Brooks Collier, was born in 1964. In Dallas, Dick was employed as an engineer at Texas Instruments and worked on several programs including the Shrike Missile program. In March of 1969, the family moved to Austin when Dick became an engineer at Tracor. He held several positions at Tracor including serving as the Manager of the Test Department and the Director of Proposals.

During this time, Dick became interested in investing and he entered a Barron’s Magazine nationwide stock-picking contest. Out of thousands of entries, Dick placed 40th in the top 100. Barron’s listed those winners in a feature article on the front page of their national financial publication. His interest in investing resulted in his changing fields and he became a financial advisor, working first for Paine Webber and then for Prudential Bache.

In January 1991, Dick formed his own company, Richard P. Slaughter Associates, Inc., as one of the very first fee-only financial advisor companies in the United States. As a pioneer in this field, he remarked that he wanted a business that would make the client King and Queen and that would represent their interests one hundred percent. His goal was to offer his investment expertise to clients and to always put their interests first. Dick served as President, CEO and Treasurer of the company until 1997 when he appointed his son Brooks to succeed him as President and CEO. Then he served as Chairman of the Board until he retired in June 2014. In all these positions, Dick established guidelines for the growth of the company and the business has grown steadily for the past 23 years. During his leadership tenure, Dick directed the company's path to providing clients with a full range of expert financial services including financial planning and asset management. He also managed client portfolios and was a member of the company’s investment committee. Dick was named as a Five Star Professional Wealth Manager three different times by Texas Monthly Magazine.

Dick came to know his Lord and Savior at the age of 15 in Kaufman. When he moved to Austin, he became a member of Crestview Baptist Church and served his Lord faithfully as a Deacon, a Leadership Team member, as Chairman of the Pastor Search Committee, and as a member of the Long-Range Planning Committee.

Dick was also active in the community. In the early 1970’s he was instrumental in helping found the North Austin Civic Association and served as its first president. During that time the Association was successful in working toward obtaining the Little Walnut Creek Branch of the Austin Library and the Kennemer Swimming Pool for the area.

Dick was a caring man of integrity and knowledge. He loved his Lord, his family and friends and will be greatly missed. We treasure the time we had with him.

He is survived by Barbara, his wife of 51 years, his son Brooks and daughter-in-law Kirsten, his granddaughter Alyssa Michelle and his grandson Tyler David, all of Austin, his sister Diana Boles and her husband Frank of Kaufman, and three nephews, Brian, Kent and Kyle Boles and their families.

We wish to thank the staff and friends at Longhorn Village, Cathy and the people at Heart to Heart Hospice, and Caring Senior Services, especially Tamara and Modesto, for their loving care and support during Dick’s illness. We also appreciate all the loving support and prayers of the members of Crestview Baptist Church.

The family will receive friends at a visitation to be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Friday September 26th at Cook-Walden on N. Lamar. Burial services will be Saturday September 27th at 9:00 a.m. at Cook- Walden Capital Parks at 14501 N. IH 35, Pflugerville, Texas. A Memorial Celebrating Dick’s Life, with Dr. Jeff Cramer officiating, will follow at 11:00 a.m. at Crestview Baptist Church, 7600 Woodrow Ave. A reception/luncheon at the church will follow the memorial service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any donations be made in Dick’s memory to Crestview Baptist Church (7600 Woodrow Ave., Austin, Texas 78757), Texas Christian University, Annual Fund Memorial Gift (2800 S. University Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas 76129), or to a charity of your choice.