NORMAN — Richard S. “Dick” McKinney Sr., a longtime Norman, Hot Springs Village, Ark., and most recently Colorado Springs, Colo., resident, passed away Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, following a brief illness.
Services will be 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Liberty Heights Retirement Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
He was a loving and generous man, but most of all he was a great husband, father and humanitarian.
A WWII veteran serving in the Army Air Corps in the South Pacific as a B-25 radio gunner, Dick was awarded the Purple Heart and two Air Medals and was proud to be listed on the Cleveland County Veterans Memorial with his sons Pat and Mike.
His career passion was education. After earning a master’s degree and serving as student body president at University of Wisconsin-Stout, he devoted many years to teaching industrial arts in high school and college. He also taught rocket propulsion for NASA in the early space program and instructor training at the Federal Aviation Agency in Oklahoma City. Internationally, he spent four years in Vietnam developing secondary schools, one of which is now a university, and two years in Greece advancing the state university curriculum. He then returned to retire from the FAA in 1979.
Dick was an avid Kiwanis Club member in Arkansas, receiving the Distinguished Service Award, and was instrumental in raising $15,000 toward the Kiwanis effort to eradicate Iodine Deficiency Disease worldwide. He also worked tirelessly for the recycling program, Teen Challenge, Meals on Wheels and Reading is Fundamental.
His hobbies included woodworking, hunting, boating, fishing and bocce ball. He also enjoyed golf with his son, Rick, and scored two holes-in-one.
He is survived by his wife, Marian, of 65 years; their four children, Pat and wife Laura of Colorado Springs, Colo., Mike and wife Nancy of Sedona , Ariz., Rick and wife Sharon of Norman and Mary Tyson and husband Ed of Austin, Texas; and seven wonderful grandchildren.
Memorials may be sent to the Norman Kiwanis Club in support of their local programs, P.O. Box 913, Norman, OK, 73070.
Norman Transcript, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012
