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Richard Weeks

| June 9, 2011 10:47 AM

Richard Weeks was born in Chicago on Jan. 13, 1947. He passed away at the Libby Care Center on 3, 2011, after a brief battle with cancer.

In his young life, he and his brother Norman were taken care of for four years at a Catholic orphanage and then were able to reunite with their mother. Richard had fond memories of their home in Chicago on a dead end street where life bloomed for him and a life-long friendship began for Richard and his best friend of 57 years, Larry Knapp.

Anyone who had the opportunity to visit with Richard came away from it with something to chew on. A man of vision and deep faith, he was generous and kind and always thought-provoking.

Richard enjoyed variety in the work that he took on. Never concerned about amassing more than he needed, he worked an incredible sampling of jobs: apartment manager, gas meter reader, main street magic shop merchant at Disney World, draftsman, armed guard on a payroll truck, citrus tree inspector, director of a county humane society, mail truck driver — to name a few.

 His favorite job was working for a family-owned Greek deli in Chicago

He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967 and served one year in Vietnam.  He married Patricia in 1972.  They divorced in 1984, but from that union came his daughter Dawn, who has been his joy.  Richard and Patricia remained friends.

Richard came to Libby in 1993 to visit Randy Knapp and Linda Knapp Decker. He never left. Even those who didn’t know Richard will remember his red, white and blue 1973 GMC van parked by the Venture and Richard on top of it waving a pole with white ribbons on it. What was that all about? Richard chose white for peace and for the purity of Christ. He got our attention.

Some judged Richard as a kook, “real deal” — a man of faith but man of peace.

He is survived by a daughter, Dawn (Steve) Harvey of Florida and grandchildren, Logan and Emmerson of Chicago; his ex-wife Patricia Weeks of Florida, his best friend Larry Knapp and his brother Randy Knapp of Chicago and the Lelm family of Libby who became his family, too. 

A special thank you to Linda Decker and Susie Rice who helped Richard in his final weeks. 

At Richard’s request there will be no services, Larry will be taking Richard back to Chicago where they played as children.

Arrangements are by Schnackenberg & Nelson Funeral Home & Crematory in Libby.