Richard Charles Ourand, Sr.

Richard (Dick) Charles Ourand, Sr, a resident of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and lately, Fort Smith, Arkansas, was born in Toledo, Ohio on September 16, 1926, to William Ralph and Hazel Bowne Ourand. As a youth and all through his life he was active in the Boy Scouts. Upon graduation in 1944 from Oak Park High School in Illinois, he enlisted in the US Navy in October 1944, and did his basic training at Naval Station Great Lakes. In January 1945, he was sent to the Pacific Theater during WWII. He shipped out from Bremerton, Washington. He served on board the USS Kennebec, a fuel resupply ship. At the end of the War, in August 1945, Dick’s ship tied up in Shanghai, China while he and his fellow crew members waited for their discharge papers so they could go home. He enjoyed his time in Shanghai. The Navy’s way to muster out the troops was based on a point system, whereby the longer you served in the war, the sooner you got to go home. Dick had so few points it meant he was one of the last to get orders for home. On one day, the ship’s captain, executive officer, and senior enlisted member all got their orders and left the ship. For the next 18 months, Dick and his fellow crew members had a great time with little to no supervision. When he was shipped home, he reentered the US at San Diego, California. His parents met him, and they took a family vacation touring Yellowstone National Park and spending time with his brother, Jim, at Hill Field, Utah.

Dick returned home to Chicago and went to college on the GI Bill. He was a student at Northwestern University, which held classes for the returning service members on Navy Pier. Dick said Northwestern did not want the GI students to go on the Evanston Campus with the “real students”, except on graduation day, which was June 1949. Dick met the love of his life, Jennie Wallin, who was attending the University of Illiois on Navy Pier. Dick and Jennie married on January 31, 1948, on the University of Illinois Chicago Campus in the University Chapel. Having little money, they honeymooned at a “relative’s house” in the blissful town of Plymouth, Indiana, a short train ride from Chicago. The night was very cold, and Jennie told the family Dick had spent much of the night in the crawl space under the house attempting to defrost the frozen waterpipes.

Dick graduated from Northwestern with a degree in Industrial Engineering. While going to school, he worked in the Chicago stockyards for the Armour Meatpacking Company. In March 1953, he began his career with Campbell Soup Company in Chicago. Dick and Jennie began the family with Janice born in Chicago on November 10, 1950, Richard born in Berwyn on February 12, 1953, and Nancy born in LaGrange on February 3, 1956. The family moved from LaGrange Park, Illinois to Napoleon, Ohio in 1959, where William (Bill) was born on March 21, 1960. One of the highlights of the move to Napoleon, Ohio, besides the birth of his son Bill, Dick and Jennie won a 1959 Chevrolet in a Henry County Hospital Auxiliary contest. Dad used to say that was the only thing they ever won. They moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey in 1961, and finally in February 1965, to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Dick held many positions during the 39 years he worked for Campbell Soup. He retired in March 1992.

Dick and Jennie were a great team over the years. They sponsored numerous foreign exchange students who attended the University of Arkansas. Dick was a member of the Evening Lions Club, served as President and coordinated and participated in the sale of Christmas trees for many years to raise money for the many programs the Club supported. Also, Dick was a member and served as President of the Northwest Arkansas Transportation Club. They volunteered at the Walton Arts Center and the Washington Regional Hospital. From 1975 until 2012, he drove a Veterans Administration (VA) van from Fayetteville to the Little Rock VA hospital so veterans could get the medical help they needed. He worked as an Election Poll worker, along with his wife Jennie. Dick loved the outdoors and canoeing and was a member of the Razorback Campers and an active member of the Ozark Society, helping to clean up the Buffalo River on numerous outings. The Rotary Club presented the Community Service Award for 1997 to 1998 to Dick and Jennie Ourand. In 1998, Dick and Jennie were named the State of Arkansas Volunteers of the Year for their contributions. In 2001, Dick was awarded the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) Volunteer of the Year. In 2001 to 2002, Dick was named Lion of the Year by the Fayetteville Evening Lions Club. In June 2009, the Walton Art Center gave Dick and Jennie Ourand its Outstanding Achievement Award for 17 years of extraordinary service as volunteers. Dick also donated over 26 gallons of blood over the years.

Dick purchased 120 acres on Skylight Mountain in Washington County, Arkansas and grew rocks, trees, and raised a few cows on the place he called “Ponder Acres” from 1973 to 2014. To ensure he was able to relax on the farm, he did not allow a telephone line to be installed on the property.

Dick and Jennie loved to travel and visited many destinations: China, Europe, Belize, Mexico, Canada, and all over the United States. Dick traveled to all 50 states and every continent except Antarctica. He loved to tell everyone he was down on the tip of South America, and could have gone to Antarctica, but chose not to. He also flew over the area near Valdez, Alaska looking for Mount Ourand, named for his great-grandfather, Brigadier General (BG) Charles Holden Ourand, who was a master Cartographer for the US War Department in the 1880’s through 1920’s. BG Ourand’s maps included the Civil War map that depicted the hour-by-hour Battle of Antietam. Dick loved to golf. He made a hole in one at a course in Monet, Missouri. He played on the Old Course, with his son Richard, at St. Andrews in Scotland. Dick and Jennie loved being parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. When Jennie passed away on May 12, 2017, after 69 years of marriage, Dick continued to pour out his heart and love to his family.

Beginning in 1965, Dick was a member at First United Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and served as an Elder and Clerk of Session.

Dick is survived by his four children: Janice Fritsch and late husband, Rick; Richard and late wife, Donna; Nancy Schneider and her husband, David; and Bill and his wife, Marquetta; his grandchildren: Will and his wife, Katie; Rachel White and her husband, Elias; Jennie Delgado and her husband, Sergio; Trey and his wife, Jenny; Ray Schneider, and Becca Herrig and her husband, Chris; and his great-grandchildren: Claire Ourand, Paige Ourand, Mateo Delgado, Mara Delgado, Jaxson Herrig, and Wyatt Herrig.