Morvan Richard Girouard

January 26,1931- January 25, 2021

“To all who knew the man”

Morvan Richard Girouard left this Earth in his 90th year to prepare for the next journey beyond…

He passed in San Antonio, Texas, his adopted home after having spent a great many years in New England and Oregon.

As a Soldier, Father, Inventor, Entrepreneur, and sometime Horseman, he left his mark on this world! It was a good long run!!

Having grown up in the Great Depression, he, like many of his contemporaries, lived their lives conservatively and frugally, never taking wealth or a comfortable life for granted. Richard joined the Army in1951, earning the rank of Sergeant quickly in post War Germany, where he honed his electronics skills in the Signal Corps by eavesdropping on the Soviet held territory of East Germany at the time.

“The Battle of the Beer Halls” was how he described the action he witnessed firsthand there! And it was there that he would fall in love with Europe at large, which must have seemed another planet from his upbringing in the impoverished State of Maine in the 1930’s.

When he returned from Europe, he took advantage of the GI Bill and attended Lowell Tech, now MIT Lowell, in Massachusetts. He received a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering and worked in the aerospace industry upon graduation. Along the way, he fell in love with, and married Margaret Edith McPherson (who passed in 2020) and for 25 years together raised two sons, Michael Richard of San Antonio, TX (Joy) and Thomas Paul of Cottage Grove, OR (Carlene).

Destiny took him West, to Oregon. And in the early 70’s, Richard moved his young family to the Portland area and started over. From the back of an old CB radio shop in Hillsboro, Oregon, he founded Lewis Electronics with two local curmudgeon inventors, Bob Lewis and Maurey Hanen, whom he no doubt had met at the nearest watering hole in town.

And with cocktail napkin blueprints, they set out on an idea trail that eventually led to the successful creation of Lewis Controls, which exists to this day. Designing and producing software and controls that drive machinery for sawmills throughout the world. And they were the first!

We always say “he leaves behind”…but here we’ll say “he leaves ahead of” his two sons, Michael and Thomas, an “adopted” daughter, Lisa Lambert from a second marriage to Patricia Morrisroe of Dallas, Oregon, nine grandchildren,

Elise and Taylor Girouard of Los Angeles, CA., Kelley Girouard of Portland, OR., Katie and Sarah Girouard of Seattle, WA., Regan House of Houston, TX., Dylan House of Austin, TX., Cody Vineyard and Wyatt Richter of Dallas, OR and great grandchild Emily Rose Vineyard of Dallas, OR.

A Celebration of Life will be held in the near future after the world has settled down a bit.

“Every Life ends the same way…It is only the details of how they lived that distinguish one man from another.”