Richard Dale Greffe

My wonderful, loving, funny, smart, articulate, stubborn, talented, supportive, reliable rock of a husband died on Thursday, June 5, 2025– the only way to escape the torture of Lewy Body Dementia with Parkinsonism. I will miss him every day of my life, but I am happy and relieved that he is no longer in pain, misery, and confusion. I loved him and could not have had a better partner to journey through life with.

Richard became a Texan 50 years ago when a friend called from Austin after spending a beautiful February afternoon drinking cold beer at Barton Springs Pool. Richard had spent the day battling the winds and slush of a Chicago winter. About month later, that same friend woke up one morning to find Richard’s car parked in front of his house with Richard fast asleep, surrounded by all his worldly possessions.

Richard was born and raised in Champaign, Illinois, graduated from The University of Illinois and loved his hometown upbringing. His dad, Dale, was a professor of mechanical engineering at the U of I. His mother, Veneta, and his older brother, Fred, completed his immediate family, but the Greffe clan was very large, very close and loved family gatherings. He was proud to have ridden his bicycle as a paperboy, his first job, and still has the coin changer he wore as he collected subscription money door-to-door each week. He loved taking photographs. He was always the audio/visual guy at school and the guy taking pictures for the newspapers and the annuals and everything in between. He was on the staff of the U of I newspaper, the ILLINI.

He enrolled in The University of Texas in 1974 where he studied photojournalism - but, more importantly, he made friends with a marvelous group of people who remain Compadres to this day. Richard’s many beautiful and sensitive photographs from his travels and experiences document everything from the political unrest of the 70’s and the Chicago 7 to the Huntsville Prison Rodeo, the Big Bend, and many country roads and small Texas towns. If the “light was right” he was taking a photo. Although photography remained his lifelong passion and hobby, he ultimately earned both his MA and MBA at UT and pursued a 40-year career in electric utility regulation at the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

I met Richard when I moved into the apartment above his in 1983; it took him 7 months to ask me out, but neither of us ever dated anyone else again. We married a year later, had our precious daughter, Robin Elizabeth, soon after and now, suddenly, it’s been 42 years! It’s been a good 42 years.

Richard is survived by his wife, Judy Greffe, daughter Robin Laine, son-in-law Sam Laine, and little shining star Tally Elizabeth Laine of San Antonio, his brother Fred Greffe and his wife, Joyce, of Champaign IL, and cousin Annette Spears and husband Ron of Taylorville, IL. He is also survived by sister-in-law Sondra Carlton of Georgetown and brother-in- law Rusty Tally and wife, Mary, of Austin, and Uncle Del Tally and wife, Betty, of Lockhart as well as multiples of wonderful nephews and nieces, greats and cousins. Richard loved and valued his family enormously.

Richard didn’t want a service. We will bury his ashes, sometime, on a beautiful Texas morning in the Old Red Rock Cemetery in Red Rock Texas with generations of our family around us.

If you wish to honor Richard with a donation, it will be greatly appreciated: Lewy Body Dementia Association https://www.lbda.org/donate/.