Richard T. Danks

Dick was born November 25, 1924, in New London, Wis., the son of Charles and Martha Danks. He was raised in Sheboygan Falls, Wis., and joined the U.S. Army in 1942 after graduating high school. He served in Europe during World War II with the 44th Calvary Reconnaissance Squadron-Mechanized and was discharged in 1946.

Dick attended St. Norbert College in DePere, Wis., and graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee with a mechanical engineering degree before going to work for the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis in 1949. He was chief engineer for the Order's Midwest hospitals and held professional engineer certificates in several states.

Dick married Irene Kraus in 1947 and they moved from Sheboygan, Wis., to Springfield, Ill., in 1956. They raised ten children without a television, teaching them the value of talking and playing games as a family. They moved to Fresno in 1971. Dick was an engineer and part owner of Muller Irrigation in Terra Bella and later worked for Lawrence Nye & Associates.

Richard sang with the Sheboygan Catholic Male Chorus and always kept his harmonica handy. He loved remodeling his family's homes, building furniture and turning buses into motorhomes. An advocate of Catholic education, Dick helped local youths attend parochial schools.

Besides his wife, he is survived by daughters Mary of Cayucos, Eileen Lawrence of Buhl, Idaho, Martha Danks-Ferguson of Fresno, Joanne Hall of Tracy, Kate of Waldport, Ore., Patricia of Butte, Mont., and Jane of San Luis Obispo; sons, Daniel of Portland, Ore., and John of Wichita Falls, Texas; brother, Donald D. of Sheboygan Falls; 28 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A son, David, died in 2010.

Burial was held in St. Peter's Cemetery.

The family wishes remembrances be to Hinds Hospice, Sister Pious Disciples of the Divine Master or St. Anthony of Padua School, all of Fresno.