Raymond O. Reichard, Jr., 86, of Oldsmar, FL died peacefully at Brookside Hospice House, Palm Harbor, on October 28, 2012.
Ray was born in Milwaukee, WI, but the world was his home. Family, school, business and the Army took him to many places. He lived on the Fox River in Illinois as a boy, attended Morgan Park Military Academy, and in 1941, joined his family in Hawaii. He later graduated from Morgan Park and enlisted in the Army. He was assigned to the 743rd Tank Battalion in Germany during WWII. He was very proud of his military service and was a self-proclaimed “flag waver.”
After the war he attended the University of Illinois, graduating as a civil engineer. He then joined his parents, Col. Raymond O. Reichard, Sr. and Margaret, and siblings, Jim and Betty, in Japan. This led to a job with Coca-Cola in Okinawa, and then to ownership of a taxi cab company there. He eventually returned to the States, working in California, Colorado, Alabama, and Illinois as a construction estimator, designer, and builder. Travels eventually led him to Florida and marriage to Jackie, who gave him two beautiful daughters. His work took the family to Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. After Jackie’s death, he planted his feet in Oldsmar, where he spent the last 25 years.
Ray was a kind and generous man with a sly sense of humor. He loved Lawrence Welk music, British comedies, crossword puzzles, the Sunday breakfast gang, and Famous Grouse.
Most of all, he loved his girls: daughters, Marley (Mark) Lindley and Rande (Greg) Reichard; granddaughters, Laura, Jacqueline, and Caroline; loving companion, Marjorie Knapp, and his adopted Knapp family. He will be greatly missed, but not forgotten.
A private Celebration of Life will be held. He will then join his fellow comrades at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell on Friday, December 7, 2012 at 2:30 PM where he will be honored by the Marion County Memorial Honor Guard.
We will try to honor some of his last words, “ Peace, Love, and Harmony.”
Please sign the guestbook below.
My prayers and wishes for comfort are with you.
Raymond was my uncle, I am his sisters son, and I wish I had seen him before he passed, we were not that close and now all my family have passed, he was truly a good man from what I knew of him,I will surley think of him often, my memories of him were always good, and he was loved and will be missed.