Richard Arden Fleener

Richard Arden Fleener (fondly known as Dick or Dicky) was born in Dodge Center, Minnesota – the heartland of the great American Midwest and his heart would always remain there. His beginnings were modest, but pastoral as he lived as a young lad on 33 acres of farmland in Wasioja and later in Owatana where he attended high school.

His youthful passions were baseball and fishing and according to family folklore he was consumed with them almost to the point of obsession. And so it would be forevermore.

The amber waves of grain, great lakes, baseball fields and woodland glens that only Minnesota can conjure up with such majesty would have been his playground until leaving for Cornell college, Mt Vernon, Iowa in the autumn of 1953, where he continued to run bases and hit home runs both literally and metaphorically.

In the autumn of 1955, he met Mabryn McClelland while distributing programs at a football game. Big home run! They married on 7 September 1958 and created two little ones – Kristen Lee and Richard Thomas – shortly thereafter. A beautiful twinset were to follow eight years later and as legend would have it, quite unexpectedly. The parental pleasure was doubled in 1967 with the birth of Bryan Craig and Sharlene Rhae.

Dick had a short stint in the Army and then joined Connecticut General Life Insurance Company where he earned countless accolades and awards as the ‘consummate and quintessential salesman’ as he was referred to on many occasions during his 35-year career.

He believed in ‘The American Dream’ and Protestant work ethic resolutely and executed it vigorously, relocating frequently (Chicago, Milwaukee, Miami and ultimately Houston, Texas which was by far and away his most beloved of adopted cities) and with determination, striving to give his family all of the material splendors he could afford and most importantly a debt-free college education.

But work, awards, bright lights and big cities were not his passion, comfort or joy. He lived, breathed and was nourished by God, family and fishing – in that order.

He retired early and escaped as often as humanly possible to his Canadian wilderness idyll. He bought an island in Ontario, Canada on Lake Wabindon where he took countless friends, children, and grandchildren to experience the ‘Gifts of the Lake’ to twist a turn of title from Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

He also had a house in Northern Wisconsin, frequented exotic fly-in fishing resorts, camped, fished and hunted his way across the great state of Alaska.

Nature for him was where all the world is a stage. He loved its primal rhythms, the sound of the wind through the pines, the flapping of geese overhead and waves lapping at his feet. His generosity was such that he played every role in these great productions: location finder, prop provider, director, choreographer, sound engineer, and stunt man.

“What I’ve always loved about fishing is that it’s not competitive.

Either the fish bite or they don’t.”

- Richard A. Fleener