Richard Budd

Portland, ME- Richard Budd passed on April 24, 2026, at the age of 90. He was born in New York City on March 24, 1936, his mother was employed by a construction firm and she worked on procuring steel for New York’s bridges. His maternal grandparents were immigrants from the area now called Ukraine and the Baltic; Jacob and Tilly Rudolph.

From an early age he wandered NYC by subway to visit museums. His particular favorite was the Museum of Natural History where he spent many hours studying dinosaur bones with the curator. He studied at Bronx Science High school, then at the NYU College of Engineering, graduating in 1955. He continued his studies at Harvard leading to a PhD. He spent most of his career developing special-purpose scientific computer systems. He and his team developed the guidance system for the spaceflight to Mars. He developed ways to map the ocean floor with accuracy that aided ship navigation as well as locate volcanoes down the Pacific ridge. He and Patricia Merrill married in 1959 and had two sons, Rolf and Eric. He volunteered as a Boy Scout leader while his sons were members and instituted the Paper Airplane competition still being used to this day. He was a birder and kept a Life List for almost 50 years. After retirement, he taught at OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at Southern Maine University on a wide variety of subjects including bridge, development of the physical sciences, movies, science fiction and history. He achieved the title of Grand Life Master in the American Contract Bridge League.

He leaves his wife Patricia Merrill Budd, his sons Rolf Lawrence Budd and his wife Diane Decker, and Eric Merrill Budd as well as three grandchildren: Jamie Patricia Budd, Victoria Williams Merrill Budd and Tyler James Richard Budd. One great grandson, James Sydney Frederick, says he wants to be an engineer like his great grandpa Richard.

Services will be private.