Oct. 8, 1938 – Oct. 28, 2014
Richard Donald (Dick) Taylor died at his home in Basin, Wyoming, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014. He was born to Donald Paul Taylor and Helen Maurine Webster in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 8, 1938.
Family was most important to Dick. He married Wendy Taylor (Black) in 1989 and the two of them moved from Issaquah back to Basin, Wyoming, where Wendy grew up, when he retired. The two of them would have celebrated 25 years together on Nov. 18. They were very good for each other, and he will be in Wendy’s heart forever.
He cherished his time with Wendy’s parents, Tom and Del Black, also of Basin. He was very proud of his daughter Chrissy and his granddaughters Tanna and Jamie. He also had so much love for his brothers Jack and Pat and their families.
Dick enjoyed working, and he spent nearly 45 years engaged in operating businesses in the Northwest. Upon his high school graduation, he entered the U.S. Marine Corps in 1956 and served his country until 1962. After receiving an honorable discharge from the Marines, he managed Lucky grocery stores for several years before starting his own business, the Gas Lamp Bar and Grill in Issaquah, which he owned and operated for 27 years.
Dick had a great love for softball. He is in the Softball (USSSA) Hall of Fame for his contribution to the sport, including years of play and sponsorship. In his spare time, Dick restrung baseball gloves for recreational players across the Northwest. He was also very proud to have repaired gloves for two prominent professional baseball players, David Ledbetter and Omar Visquel.
He was active in martial arts and trained with Dojo Takin Makaimura. Always a sportsman, he spent the last 15 years having a love/hate relationship with the game of golf. He and Wendy’s father Tom Black played together often.
Dick was preceded in death by his parents and is survived by his wife Wendy Taylor, of Basin, Wyoming; his daughter Christine Hitchcock and granddaughters, Tanna and Jamie Hitchcock, all of Issaquah; his son Phillip Taylor, also of Issaquah; his brothers and their wives, Jack and Julie Grimm, of Ridgefield, and Patrick and Carol Grimm, of Vancouver, Washington.
Atwood Family Funeral Directors Inc. assisted the family with arrangements.