Deceased April 23, 2017
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In Memory
Dick Denison died in April 23, 2017, after a short illness. He was my friend.
After Amherst Dick went through Coast Guard OCS. He was assigned to a ship in San Diego, rising to become a skipper. In 1952, Dick married Katherine Redmon, the charming love of his life. In San Diego for Dick’s last year of service, they began their 61-year marriage: a “magical time,” Dick told me.
In 1953 Dick began a successful career in finance in Chicago. He started in a securities firm. He had senior positions at Quaker Oats and at Hines Lumber Co. Later Dick became an investment banker, as a partner of First San Francisco Corp. He did deals into his 70s. Along the way, early in his career, he earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Dick was an active volunteer. He tutored children in the Holy Family School in a distressed part of Chicago and served on local boards and for the Boy Scouts. A religious man, Dick was an active member for 35 years of the Kenilworth Union Church.
Dick was devoted to Amherst and to the idea of the liberal arts. He was a regular at 1951 reunions and at the annual 1951 class dinners in New York.
Dick and Kathy spent vacations with family at their second home at White Lake in Michigan. Dick sailed with skill and played routine golf. Recently, Dick and Kathy rebuilt their Michigan home so their heirs could enjoy it.
In 2013 Kathy died from a fast-moving cancer. Dick took care of her, largely alone, in their Winnetka home. After Kathy’s death, Dick moved to a nearby retirement home.
He left behind four children, Tom, Charlie, Steve and Molly; 12 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Phil Alexander ’51