Richard Villasana

Richard Villasana Sr. passed away Saturday, February 1, after a long and interesting life spent in San Antonio, Texas, and Los Angeles, California. He and his wife of 65 years, Mary Lou, spent an adventurous life together, first with a home design firm, and then as an importer decorative Mexican stone. Later, he was one of the charter founders and a director of the first Hispanic-owned bank, Plaza Bank of San Antonio. Richard also served on the city planning commission. He designed many homes for local builders and his firm built many homes in San Antonio. He also ventured into stints as a restaurateur and silver prospector with mines in Mexico. Richard was active in civic duties and was particularly proud of projects early on with the Optimist Club of West San Antonio. He volunteered as a Boy Scout leader for Troop 46, where he was awarded the Order of the Arrow. Later, he spearheaded the construction of the first two Habitats for Humanity homes in San Antonio. He spent the last few years in semi-retirement in Los Angeles renovating apartment complexes and doing room additions. Richard also became involved in the movie business as a site consultant and Spanish translator, where some of his translations of English words found their way into Spanish movies and television shows. Since his return to San Antonio, he has been volunteering at Grace Community Church. Richard is survived by two sons, Richard Jr., married to Betsy, Michael married to Rebecca, and daughters Marianne Villasana married to Charles Grimes, Rebecca Lankouski, married to Rick, and Loretta Villasana, along with 6 grandchildren, Amy, Crystal, Zachary, Marissa, Welton and Morgan. Richard is also survived by his brothers Fernando, Carlos, Henry and Alfonso and his sisters Carmen Sidiki and Isabel Champion. The memorial service will be held at Grace Community Church, 701 Kitty Hawk Rd, Universal City, TX 78148, on Friday, February 7, at 5:30 p.m.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be made in memory of Richard Villasana at http://www.alzfdn.org/ContributetoAFA/makeadonation.html.

Please sign the guestbook at www.colonialuniversal.com