Richard Charles “Dick” Anderson 85, passed away peacefully on the evening of Friday, September 1, 2017. Dick was born in Chicago, Illinois on Dec. 4, 1931 to Lillian and Clarence Anderson. Dick and his wife Lorraine Muir Anderson met as college students on a blind date, while Lorrie was attending Northwestern University. Married on November 26, 1955, they shared 62 years together. Over the years they called Champaign, IL, Schenectady NY, Chagrin Falls, OH, and eventually Missoula, MT home.
Dick graduated from Proviso High School, near Chicago, in 1949. An ROTC scholarship enabled him to become the first person in his family to attend college, and he received an engineering degree from the University of Illinois in 1955. Dick served in the United States Navy as a navigator in Airborne Early Warning Squadron 11, flying missions from Newfoundland to the Azores. In 1958, Dick was one of a handful of graduates in the U.S. to receive a Ph.D. in the then-uncommon field of ceramic engineering, from the University of Illinois. He worked as a scientist at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, NY. While sintering (baking) mixtures of rare earth minerals in a high-temperature kiln, Dick discovered the world’s first transparent ceramic. General Electric patented the material under the name Yttralox in 1966.
Dick relocated the family to Chagrin Falls, OH and worked at General Electric’s Nela Park facility in Cleveland. Dick managed the Miniature Lamp Division, and for many years commuted 40 minutes each way in a green Ford Mustang with a leaky convertible cloth top and marginally functional heater. His parsimony and hard work enabled Dick to retire from GE in his mid-50s and begin an investment consulting service. He enjoyed the stock market and investing - an activity he continued until his final days.
Dick was known as a gracious host, helping entertain guests at Lorraine’s frequent dinner parties in Chagrin Falls, OH. He also enjoyed taking the family on long summer vacations. These involved driving across the U.S. towing a pop-up camper to visit National Parks, family and friends in the Midwest and West Coast each year. Memories of these summer vacations continue to provide a wealth of stories at family gatherings, some of which are even based on actual events. Dick was a man of simple needs and was content with modest creature comforts. He had a special fondness for ice cream, and for entertaining children by walking on his hands. He distrusted authority and believed in freedom, personal integrity and accountability.
A lifelong conservative, Dick was known as friendly, but was often a man of few words. As a self-disciplined scientist, engineer and child of the Depression era, he had little patience for alternative facts. In the decades following retirement his conservatism was nudged aside by wide-ranging inquiry into social, political, and economic systems. He lived an active life of the mind, listening to recorded university lectures and attending Lifelong Learning classes. In 2006, his thoughts were published in a book entitled “Freedom’s Vector: The Path to Prosperity, Opportunity, and Dignity”. His wife Lorrie helped edit the manuscript.
Sitting on the table the morning after he died was a recording from a 60-part lecture series called “Chemistry and the Universe: How it all Works.” True to form, he never stopped learning, and this is perhaps the lesson his children have retained best. Dick enjoyed his last year at Grizzly Peak and was happy to have the community of wonderful people. He was respected and loved and will be greatly missed by all of his friends and family.
Dick is survived by his wife, Lorrie; his brother Martin Anderson, of Portland, Oregon; his three children, Kristin Anderson, of Washington, D.C, and Bruce Anderson and Susan Anderson of Missoula, MT; by grandson Ben Anderson; by nieces Diana Lomelli and Barbara Presutti, and by nephew Bobby Sirovy, of Southern California. A memorial service will be held at Grizzly Peak at a date to be determined.

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