On Friday, July 24, 2020, Richard Frederick Church, Captain USNR, lost his battle with leukemia at the age of 85. He passed peacefully in the care of his loving wife of 31 years, Sally, at his home in Portland, Oregon.
Dick was born in Portland in 1934 to Wilbur and Eve (Hansen) Church. While attending Grant High School in Portland, he became an Eagle Scout, continuing to support the Boy Scouts through his life. He went on to attend Willamette University where he joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, transferring to University of Oregon in the fall of 1953. In June of 2020, after serving as district chief and eventually president of the Corporation Board, he was presented with an award for his lifetime of service to the Beta Rho chapter of the organization.
After graduating from the University of Oregon in 1955, Dick joined the Navy, completing Officer Candidate School in 1957. He married Alberta (Altorfer) that same year and deployed to Hawaii where he served aboard the destroyer USS Philip. He transferred to submarines in 1960 and qualified for Command of Submarines in 1963, an accomplishment that gave him much pride. From Pearl Harbor he was transferred to San Diego, and when his tour of duty ended, took a job with General Mills moving his wife and three young daughters north to Lodi, and eventually back to Portland in 1968 where he entered the financial services industry and rose to become a Senior Vice President and Branch Manager for Shearson Lehman Bros, retiring in 1996.
Dick’s lifelong passion was golf and he enjoyed a membership with Portland Golf Club for nearly 50 years. An avid WWI historian, he was a member of the Western Front Association where he frequently conducted sessions at their conventions, mostly on both the British and German Navy. He loved to travel, from his Navy days into his later years, going often to the WWI battlefields in Europe, as well as Egypt, Japan, Israel, Gallipoli, to name a few, and rode the Orient-Express. He was a member of the Episcopal Parish of St. John the Baptist and served on boards of Boy Scouts, Oregon Military Museum, Good Samaritan Hospital, Arlington Club, Portland Golf Club, and Episcopal Diocese of Oregon.
Dick is survived by his wife Sally (Wilson) Church, his sister Mary Gurney, his daughters Leslie Leland, Deborah Miller (Patric), Theresa Owens (John), his granddaughters Katie McGuire (Ryan), Hannah Tate (Jason), Alison DeAnda (Ryan), Madelyn Miller, and his great-grandson Jacob Patric McGuire.
Dick will be interred at Skyline Memorial Gardens, and a celebration of life will be held when possible. In lieu of flowers, consider a donation to the Beta Theta Pi Foundation, earmarked for Beta Rho Chapter University of Oregon in Dick Church's honor.
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