Richard Husted

May 7, 1936 ~ September 16, 2009

Richard Husted was born May 7, 1936 in Oyster Bay, Nassau County, Long Island, NY. He died September 16, 2009 in St. George, UT.

He was the only son, and second child, of Mildred Campbell and Donald Robertson Husted. His sister, Mary Jane, was seven years his senior.

When he was five days old, he was taken by his parents to China. They were both employed by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to train pilots for the Chinese Air Force.

At the age of three, Richard lost his father and all his life missed that father-son relationship.

His mother continued to live in China to the end of World War II, moving constantly to avoid the approaching Japanese soldiers.

During this moving time, Richard was educated by the nuns in a portable school room that could easily be moved whenever the Japanese got too close.

At the end of the war, they were living in a cold water flat in Harbin, Manchuria.

In early 1946, by virtue of an agreement between Russia, the Soviet Union and the United States, the Russians took all foreigners who were living in Harbin to Vladivostok, Russia, a camp for displaced persons, where they remained until 1948. His experiences there were harsh and sometimes brutal.

In the latter part of 1948, as the Korean war was beginning to develop, the Russians let all the foreigners out of the camp. They were not provided with any transportation or food.

Richard and his mother, along with some 500 displaced persons, made their way down through Northern Korea to the American Embassy in Seoul, Korea, where they were able to prove their American citizenship and were flown back to the states.

In New York, he started his first experience with a genuinely-real school in Roslyn Heights. He also attended the Episcopal Church, where he sang in the choir and was an altar boy.

In was in high school that he became connected with a group of cyclists and toured the Adirodondacks almost every weekend the weather would permit and where he developed a love for camping.

Living on Long Island Sound, he loved sailing. Many times his family would sail out of Bar Harbor, Maine and down to Burmuda and to the Bahamas.

His father worked as a newspaper reporter for a German paper called Der Stern. Richard was thrilled to have the camera his father had used, not only in Germany but Russia as well and thus started his life-long love with photography. Though never receiving any formal training, he did become a gifted artist. His pictures are displayed in many homes through southern Utah and northern Arizona.

He attended the University of Connecticut, the C.W. Post College of Long Island University as well as schools in Seoul, Korea and Provo, UT.

In 1958, he was drafted into the army with basic training in Fort Dix, NJ. Because of his background and some of his schooling, the military sent him to the Army Intelligence Training Center in Fort Halaberg in Baltimore, MD. He spent a year in training there before being sent to Korea working with Army Intelligence called CIC, Counter Intelligence Corp.

Because of his association with the CIC, he was under civilian status and regarded as a civilian. He did not live on a military post, but lived in a private motel in downtown Seoul.

In 1959, he married a young woman who was of Korean and Chinese extraction. They had three children, a little boy and a set of twins, a boy and girl. In 1960, his wife and children were all killed in a bus accident as they were traveling from Seoul back to Pusan, where his wife was living.

While in Korea, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly after, he received word that his mother was dying and he returned to the states.

He loved working with the young LDS missionaries in New York and was invited by Nelson McQueen to visit his family in Utah, which he did. They took him in as a member of their family and he began working with Retail Credit and an insurance investigator.

While at the McQueen’s, he was introduced to their niece, Patti Lyman, whom he married the following year in 1970. About the same time he accepted a challenging position in San Juan County to open a photography store and manage both a flower shop and restaurant there while his wife taught school.

Early that next year, he accepted a position with Redd Motors in Monticello installing mobile homes. It was here that his first son, Wilby Lyman Husted, was born and buried.

During the next nine years they increased their family with the adoption of four children, Dixcee Maxine, Mark Lynn, Cassie Jo and John Richard. In 1980 a son was born to them, Montfort Downing.

The family moved to Kanab in 1981, where Richard took a job as mining safety inspector with Energy Fuels.

Richard and Patti were divorced in 1987. Shortly after, Energy Fuels left Kanab and Richard moved to Centennial Park, where he taught school and worked with the youth of that community.

Suffering several heart attacks in 1995, he had to have bypass surgery then later in 2001 he got a staph infection that almost took his life. Determined that he had a reason to live, he pulled through, although he was never again healthy.

He devoted the rest of his life to his teaching, the youth and his church. He loved animals, cats particularly. He kept a house cat named Smokey, which kept him company until he passed away.

Funeral service are September 24 in Centennial Park, AZ, where he will be buried.

He is preceded in death by his parents, sister and son. He is survived by children Mark, Cassie, Diksie, John (Jana), Mont, eight grandchildren and two great grand daughters.