- Date Of Birth: February 9, 1937
- Date Of Death: June 6, 2012
- State: Colorado
Darrel Blaine Richardson, of Littleton, Colorado, passed away suddenly, yet peacefully, from a cerebral aneurysm at University of Colorado Hospital June 6, 2012. He was 75.
Darrel was born to Elizabeth and Ralph Richardson in his grandparent’s farmhouse–as his mother noted, because “we couldn’t afford a hospital”–on February 9, 1937, in north central Kansas. Later his parents owned a 200-acre farm just down the road from that farmhouse where they raised Darrel and two younger brothers. He attended a one-room country schoolhouse, and graduated from Belleville High School in 1955. Earning a degree from Kansas State University, he was the first in his family to receive a college education.
Throughout high school and college he served in the Kansas National Guard, and later enlisted in the Air Force and became a radio operator stationed at Clark Air Base on Luzon Island, the Philippines. He was honorably discharged in 1963.
After the military, Darrel worked a number of years in the trucking industry, but eventually became dissatisfied with his career prospects. He took the bold step of changing careers in mid-life to become an insurance agent. Over the next 23 years, working for Famers Insurance in the Denver area, his agency became highly successful, a model for his colleagues and a source of great pride and satisfaction for himself. Yet it wasn’t the selling of insurance that made him happy, it was the relationships that he formed with his clients–the help and guidance he was able to offer and the trust he earned–that gave him his greatest sense of accomplishment. Many of these relationships have persisted even after his retirement from Farmers in 2006.
Darrel married D. Ann Felkner on November 9, 1963, in Waco, Texas, a loving union that spanned 48 years and produced two sons. He taught himself woodworking, and spent many evenings and weekends in his shop crafting tables, chairs, and clocks for his home and family. He loved technology–he couldn’t wait to get the latest iPhone–and always had some gadget at the ready. He was a student of golf, and after his retirement he truly devoted himself to the game, often playing several rounds a week and participating in league events. As much as he loved the game, he loved the many lasting friendships he made along the way.
He was preceded in death by his father, Ralph R. Richardson; his mother, Sarah Elizabeth Williams Richardson; and brother, Donald Richardson.
He is survived by his wife, D. Ann Richardson; two sons, Douglas B. and Brian L. Richardson; two granddaughters Mia P. and Ellie M. Richardson; his brother, James C. Richardson of Lindsborg, Kansas; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.
