Richard Byrd Wise's Obituary
RICHARD BYRD WISE, 94, of Leesburg, Virginia, died on April 1, 2024, at Ashleigh at Lansdowne.
Born March 10, 1930, in Wayne, Michigan, he was the son of Benjamin Wise and Matilda Seabolt Wise. He served in the United States Coast Guard, achieving the rank of commander before retiring in 1975 as the captain of the USCGC Duane in Portland, Maine.
Richard grew up in Detroit during the Great Depression and World War II in a military family that was always on the move. One of his favorite stories from childhood was about an arduous long-distance journey to a new home with his five siblings and his mother, who was tasked with driving the whole crew over several states in a broken-down old car. She had planned on leaving their beloved dog, Buster, behind, but Richard, a loyal and fierce advocate for his family even as a child, was adamant: “If the dog isn’t coming, I’m not coming.” The dog went.
Richard attended the Coast Guard Academy, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1954. He also took night courses at New York University toward his masters. During his distinguished career, Richard was involved in search-and-rescue missions in the North Atlantic, Caribbean, and New York and Portland Harbors, where he helped develop new protocols for locating the missing. These protocols calculated the movement of the ocean’s currents and other factors not previously considered. He was also the first executive officer of the USCGC Morgenthau and responsible for putting her into service. Richard was stationed in Argentia, Newfoundland; Palm Bay, Florida; New York City; Puerto Rico; and finally, Portland, Maine, where he settled with his family and lived in the same house for fifty years. He continued to work after retiring from the service in various professions, including teaching Physics at Thornton Academy.
Richard was known around Pineloch Drive and Heather Road as the go-to person for removing dangerous tree branches from high above the rooftops, all in exchange for firewood. Because he was accustomed to climbing a ship’s rigging as a young sailor, it was nothing for him to hoist himself to the tops of the tallest trees, simultaneously dazzling and terrifying his family and neighbors below.
Richard was a champion for what he thought was right. He was an enthusiastic writer of letters to the Portland Press Herald and responded to new injustices in changing times. He made it his mission to ensure that his daughter would play Little League baseball when girls were not allowed, and she in fact became the first girl in the league. Decades later, he became a dedicated volunteer for marriage equality in Maine, earning Equality Maine’s Out Front Volunteer Leadership Award. He was an outspoken member of and volunteer for the Democratic Party, seeking always to make the world hospitable for his children and equal for all.
With his wife, Amelia, Richard lived an engaged life in Portland, especially in retirement. He was the treasurer of the Maine Mayflower Society, volunteered at the polls every election day, logged many miles as a member of the American Volkssport Association, and took his grandchildren sailing in Casco Bay. Together over the years Richard and Amelia enjoyed traveling to Coast Guard Academy reunions and visiting family that had spread out across the country as far as California and Alaska. He always ensured that his grandkids had ice cream and when dining out would never let anyone else pay the bill.
Richard and Amelia were an inseparable team for sixty-one years of marriage. To say that they completed each other would not be an overstatement. So devoted was Richard that when Amelia’s eyesight began to fail, he would read the novels assigned by her book club so that she could still participate, even though he strongly preferred nonfiction. He motivated her through bouts of recovery from short illnesses and impressed their caregivers with his meticulous system of tracking her medications. At family gatherings, he would call to mind the night they met at an officers club party in the early sixties and was was known to say (and say often), “I sure am glad I went to that dance.”
Richard leaves many to cherish his memory, including his wife, Amelia Pittinger Wise; Richard Dean Wise and Robert Alan Wise, sons he shared with the late Veronica Ford Tomberlin; son William Martin Wise (Dianne); daughters Gail Elizabeth Wise (Lynne Kirste) and Laura Dawn Wise (Joseph Fodor); sister Dawn Wise Edens; and eight grandchildren.
Richard was predeceased by his granddaughter, Caitlyn Shea Wise.
A Celebration of Life has been POSTPONED INDEFINITELY.
In lieu of flowers please consider making a donation in Richard’s honor to a cause that you believe in.
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