Richard Dennis Warren

Rick was a Marine veteran, engineer, pilot, and teacher with a list of hobbies, interests, and projects so long that he declared in 2011 that he’d need another 30 years to complete it all.

He was born January 21, 1943, in Des Moines, Iowa, at the same hospital as his father, Carl Willam—with the same physician attending. Just 12 days after Rick’s birth, Carl reported to Kelly Field for basic training, ultimately flying aircraft including B24s in World War II.

After the war, Carl worked as a game warden in Maquoketa, Iowa. Rick remembered how his mother Viola would “mail” him into town with the postman to visit his father. A new baby brother soon joined the family, which didn’t suit Rick. He packed up and ran away with his dog, but his father tracked them down. As they marched back home, Carl administered periodic spanks. For every spank he gave, the dog defended Rick by biting Carl.

By the time Rick was in junior high school, the family was living in Clinton, Iowa. Rick attended Clinton High School, but at that stage of life, found tinkering with cars and hanging out at the pool hall more compelling than academics. He met Jean Triphahn at a weekend Club Pep dance. Mutual friends were already dating, and they cruised around Clinton together in a ’57 Chevy. Jean accompanied Rick to his senior prom, and they dated long-distance after Rick graduated high school in 1961 and joined the Marines.

He completed basic training at Camp Pendleton and was stationed at Camp Hansen in Okinawa. He worked on radio communication systems on naval vessels, carrying out an unofficial motto: “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” He transferred to the Marine Corps Reserve in 1964 and was honorably discharged as a lance corporal in 1967.

On July 3, 1965, Rick and Jean married at St. Patrick’s Church in Clinton. They spent their honeymoon on the road, driving cross-country in their new Plymouth Valiant to start a life in California. With Jean needing the car to commute to her job at the phone company, Rick “had” to buy a Honda motorcycle to get to his work as a journeyman machinist in the San Fernando Valley aerospace industry. Jean recalls the tail end of their honeymoon—a motorcycle ride in the Hollywood Hills capped off with the Honda breaking down. It was a long walk back to their apartment in Burbank, pushing the motorcycle all the way.

Their first child, Richard Bryan, was born in 1966. By that time, Rick had earned his private pilot license and planned to enroll in Cal Poly on the GI Bill. Jean transferred her job with Los Angeles County to San Luis Obispo and found a temporary apartment, while Rick and Bryan stayed in Woodland Hills, flying up on the weekends to house hunt.

After Rick completed his degree in mechanical engineering, he joined Southern California Edison and worked at generating stations along the coast of Southern California, moving the family every two years as he laddered up professionally. In 1973, Rick and Jean welcomed a daughter, Andrea Marie, followed by a second daughter, Elizabeth Ann, in 1976. Being on the coast inspired new pastimes with friends: scuba and skin diving, sailing, boating, and ocean fishing. Rick would set caught lobsters loose in the backyard, electrifying dogs and kids alike.

In 1981, Rick’s job took the family to Kingman, Arizona, a short commute from Laughlin, Nevada, where he worked at the cooperative-owned Mohave Generating Station, a coal burning power plant. Over the next 15 years, he assumed roles including lead, plant, and senior engineer. As overhaul manager in 1990, he was responsible for 1,500 resident, contract, and division employees.

The desert opened new hobbyist possibilities. In a former mining town, prospecting was the obvious top of the list. Rick would fly or drive out to remote parts of the desert and collect promising samples. He built a sluice in the backyard and processed his samples, which resulted in a collection of gold flake he kept in empty baby food jars, with enough water to make the gold look almost substantial. The baby food jars were plentiful after the birth of the family’s only desert child, Alex Matthew, in 1987.

Rick took early retirement in 1996. He leaned into his interests, including welding, lapidary, gemstone faceting, and silversmithing. He packed up his panning supplies and prospected in Nome, Alaska, one summer. Airshows and car races were a constant. There was also the box kite era, the ultralight aircraft phase, time spent at the racetrack and a parallel project of outfitting an old Chevy Nova with a roll cage he designed and welded. He helped Alex with Pinewood Derby and Soapbox Derby submissions, dabbled in genealogy, shot pool, and read an endless stack of thrillers, mostly military and espionage.

In 1999, he secured his Arizona state teaching certificate and served as adjunct faculty in mathematics at Mohave Community College. In 2006, he retired a second time in order to fully inhabit his grumpy old man persona, always with a dog at his side. He and Jean bought a travel trailer and welcomed four grandchildren. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary three weeks before his death.

Rick was a lifetime member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Soaring Society of America, and the Gold Prospectors/Lost Dutchman Association of America; a member of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association for almost 60 years; and a member of the National Rifle Association and the American Legion.

He is survived by his wife, Jean, two daughters, two sons, a son-in-law and four grandchildren: Bryan (former wife Kirsten and children Jacob and Sarah), Andrea, Elizabeth (husband Seth and children Otto and Ivah), and Alex. He is also survived by brothers Carl (Sharon) and David (Barbara) and sisters Dianne (Bill) and Karen, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. Rick was preceded in death by a son, Michael James Warren, and his parents Viola Mae (Nichols) Warren and Carl William Warren.

A funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, September 6, 2025, at St. Cyril’s Church (4725 E. Pima Street) in Tucson, with a luncheon to follow. He will be buried in a family plot at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Clinton, Iowa.