David Blair Richardson

David B. Richardson was born on 10 January 1926 in Seattle, Washington. Much of his childhood was spent on San Juan Island, where his grandfather Ivan Blair, a lawyer in Friday Harbor, had a small farm. After graduating from high school in Seattle, Dave worked as a radio disk jockey, while he studied Russian and other languages ​​at the University of Washington (UW). He fought as infantry soldier during the last months of World War II, after which he remained in Germany to work for a year as host-engineer at the headquarters of the US Military Radio Network in Frankfurt. In 1947, Dave married Myra Jo Durham of Seattle. He graduated from the UW in 1949, and then spent several years in Washington and Germany, where Dave performed linguistic and communication tasks for the CIA. Returning to the Northwest in the 1950s, Dave became a pioneer of television broadcasting, first at Channel 11 in Tacoma and later at Channel 7, Seattle. At one point he headed own popular children's TV program, "Engineer Walt", until polio struck him. In 1959 Dave joined KVOS-TV (Channel 12) in Bellingham, working mostly at the transmitter located on Mount Constitution. He and Myra Jo lived on Orcas Island at that time. Dave was also a writer, contributing to many periodicals in the northwestern United States. He wrote several books, including two on the San Juan archipelago: Magic Islands and Pig War Islands. He also wrote Puget Sounds, an illustrated history of radio and television in the Northwest, as well as an excellent textbook, Esperanto: Learning and Using the International Language. He was a lifelong supporter of Esperanto. His last publications were Shamrocks on the Tanana, a biography about Richard H. Geoghegan, who lived on Orcas Island in the late 19th century, and who, like Dave, was a linguist and enthusiastic Esperantist, and a translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam according to the fifth edition of the English version of Edward Fitzgerald. Dave was a longtime member of Community Church of Island Orcas, where he taught an adult Sunday School class, served as an elder, and sometimes preached. He was considered the church's resident historian: he filmed the construction of the current building in the sixties, and created a short historical film for the 125th anniversary of the church in 2009. He was a member of the Pioneer Broadcasters of the Northwest, and of the Esperanto League for North America. Dave was an avid reader, writer, and an eternal student, always ready to find a new field of interest to explore. He was known for his humor, and he was an excellent husband, father and grandfather. Dave died on 10 December, 2012, due to complications following an aortic aneurysm. He left behind his beloved wife of 65 years, Myra Jo; son Blair; daughter Shiela McIntire; in-law Steve; grandchildren Shannon and Brennan, and several nephews, nieces and cousins. A memorial service was held at the Community Church of Orcas Island on Saturday, December 29th.

...translated from an online obituary in Esperanto