Richard F. Gonzalez

Died Thursday, October 19, 2017. He was born in Sioux City, Iowa to the late Florentino and Soledad Gonzalez on June 30, 1927. He attended Sioux City Public Schools and served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1945 to 1947. He attended Iowa State University and The University of Iowa, earning baccalaureate and doctoral degrees from the University of Iowa, “The Athens of the West.” 1

In 1956 he married Ellen Theresa Kepros. That year he joined the faculty of the College of Business Administration at Michigan State University. After thirty three years he retired from the University. During that tenure from 1971 to 1977 he was head of the Management Department.

From 1958 to 1960 he was a member of the mission to the MSU-Getulio Vargas Foundation-USAID collaboration to establish the first university school of business administration in South America; the Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo, Brasil.

He was a visiting instructor at the University of Oklahoma and visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a Ford Foundation fellow at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Chicago. With co-authors he published books about the United States expatriate managers, computer simulation, machine computation, and manufacturing management. He was an officer and fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute.

A pre-Vatican II and practicing although sometimes a questioning Catholic, he and Ellen had six children who survive him. Mary Alexis (Jon, and children Jennifer (John Kelleher) and Melissa (Alex Hardecki) Elliott, of Ann Arbor, Therese Aimee, of Zion, Illinois, Hilary Gonzalez (Todd and children Abigail and Daniel) Morrison of Falmouth, Massachusetts, Timothy Mark (Karla and children Laine and Elizabeth) of Carmel, Indiana, Richard John (Shannon and children Olivia and Benjamin) of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Matthew James (Colleen and daughter Aimee) of Westfield, Indiana.

Also surviving are his spouse, Ellen, the heart and soul of the family, and sisters, Dolores Hahn and Genevieve Anderson of Novato, California. His sister, Loretta Rose Gonzalez, predeceased him.

He enjoyed the performing arts, classical music, non-fiction, butchering wood, international travel, liberal causes, winters spent at the town house in Tucson, and in his carefree days skiing, scuba, and golf.

He was indebted to his many benefactors including those he never knew, friends, colleagues, teachers, confessors, and physicians who extended his life many years, especially those at the Cleveland, Mayo, and Menninger Clinics, and the University of Michigan Cardio-Vascular Center.

He would like to be remembered as a man who knew right from wrong and tried to do what was right.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday, October 23, 2017 at 10:00am at St. Mary Cathedral, 219 Seymour Ave., Lansing. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the Mass and on Sunday, October 22, 2017 from 4pm until 6pm. A Rosary will be prayed at 5:30pm. Interment will follow in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery, Lansing.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Mary Cathedral.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.greastlansing.com.