"This is what I would like to be known about Dick: He was probably the smartest person I ever knew. He was brilliant. He could write, whether it be prose of a legal brief, like no one I ever knew. I think he really wanted to be a journalist. After Punahou, where he was a National Merit Scholar, he went to the University of Oregon. In those days Hawaii residents did not have to pay out-of-state tuition. Dick probably could have gone to any college he wanted. We were classmates and fraternity brothers at Sigma Nu fraternity. At Oregon Dick was a good student but was famous for his ability to borrow someone's course book the night before the final, stay up all night reading it and then whack an A on the test the next day. His biggest problem was making sure that he did not try to get a nap in before the final and thus sleep through it. I will leave it to your imagination as to what he did with the money his parents sent him to buy the books.
After graduation Dick worked for a short time as a journalist for the Honolulu Advertiser. He and Allie were married and he went to UCLA law school. He worked for one of Portland, Oregon's more prestigious law firms and then moved to Hawaii where he continued to practice law doing mostly real estate transactions. Dick was an avid tennis player. He played at least three times a week at the Diamond Head courts.
He died on January 27, 2003 as a result of a fall at his Hawaii Kai home. Allie his wife of more than 35 years and two sons Greg and Scott, both of whom are lawyers, survive. Dick was a very gentle person. He really cared about his friends. He never had a vicious thought. He was one of those folks that you immediately liked. He was very trusting."
Chris McKenzie
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