- Date Of Birth: September 25, 1925
- Date Of Death: April 20, 2014
- State: Idaho
Richard L. Enright, 88, of Cornelius, OR passed away on Sunday April 20, 2014.
He was born Oakridge, OR. on September 25, 1925 to the late Newton Cutis and Ethel May Enright. After starting the tenth grade Oakridge High School, the United States joined WWII. Richard felt a patriotic calling to join the Navy the month before he turned sixteen. While in the Navy, Richard went to engineering school, witnessed two A-bomb tests at Atoll (Bikini), and was six miles away from Hiroshima when the bomb was detonated. He served in six major battles on the USS Fuller and The USS Rockingham (they were transport ships).
While in the Navy, Richard married Eldie Aloha LaDuke from Florence, OR. They had two daughters, Roseann Marie Karlinger from Winston, OR and Teresa Ann Peterson from Boise, ID. They were married twenty-three years. Richard then married Darleen Nora Kessler, from McMinville, OR. They were married for thirty-nine years.
Richard’s hobby was to mechanically enhance old junk-yard wrecks and race them for sport against his friends on the weekends to see who could fix up the best “junker”. Richard was a very skilled mechanic and inventor, and received great enjoyment from this entertainment. He would finance his hobby by pursuing games-of-chance when the opportunity arose.
After leaving the Navy, Richard spent thirty-eight years as a Pile Buck, building bridges in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Upon retirement, he assisted his wife, Nora, by constructing wood cut-outs for her toll-painting classes. Upon Nora’s passing, Richard moved to Boise, ID to live with his daughter Teresa and her husband James Peterson.
