Richard “Dick” Henry O’Riley, born 12/14/1927 in Milwaukee, WI, died 12/11/2020 in Scottsdale, AZ, of natural causes. He was three days short of his 93rd birthday. Dick was the son of Richard “Irish” Stanley O’Riley and Gertrude Marion (nee Schlacks) O’Riley, and had two siblings, Patricia O’Riley Fitzgerald (living in Lake Forest, IL) and Michael O’Riley (deceased). He married Mary Mastick (nee Cone) O’Riley in Chicago in 1958, a woman he adored and with whom he is now racing to reunite. Richard moved his family to Phoenix from Chicago in 1969.
Dick and Mary had five children: Fairfax Cone, Rowan Teresa, Henry Mastick, Gertrude “Trudie” Mary, and James Kennedy, all of whom survive him.
Dick graduated from Dartmouth and served in the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division during the Korean Conflict. Dick entered the Dominican Seminary but elected later to raise a family as a life-long Catholic. He worked as an editor at the Chicago Tribune during the 1960’s, and after moving to Arizona, owned and operated Southwest Trees, a commercial nursery in the Phoenix area. Dick was interested in many faiths and was an ardent advocate of AA. Later in life, Dick and Mary earned their graduate degrees in theology from the University of San Francisco in 1998.
He was loving husband and father who often had a twinkle in his eye.
Condolences may be expressed at www.whitneymurphyfuneralhome.com.
Steve Goldston
Dick was a enthusiastic member of Phoenix Rotary 100, participating in many of our activities and enjoying our Friday luncheon meetings. I remember asking Dick and Mary to be our liaison with the Rotary International president on his visit to Phoenix to help us celebrate our 75th anniversary. They did an outstanding job making the president and his wife feel comfortable.
On behalf our our club and us “old-timers”, I wish you our condolences on Dick’s passing. May his memory be a continuing blessing for us all.
Steve Goldston
Art Smith
I have missed seeing Dick’s smiling face ever since he moved to the Beatitudes. For a while I could pick him up and take him to the Lunch Bunch Meeting at Crossroads. Later that was not something he was interested in doing. Dick and I always enjoyed talking about many different subjects and I always found him to be engaging and interesting. The members of the Lunch Bunch that knew him well were all very sorry to hear of his passing.
My condolences to the entire family. Corinne and I enjoyed both Dick and Mry a great deal and considered them to be good friends.
Jim soudriette
Your Dad was one I met first at the nursery
He too was a Rotarian
He moved in here at the Beatitudes
All I can say is you were lucky to hae been born into his family
Ed Muhlenfeld
Dick and I shared Ivy League degrees (he at Dartmouth, me at Princeton) and Army service (he in Korea, me in Vietnam) and was one of the friendliest. smiling faces in Rotary. He had great stories to tell and often shared them at lunch much to the delight of younger Rotarians to whom the 101st Airborne was only a name in history books. A piece of history, long to be remembered.