Richard Thomas Neeson, Iii

Born in Louisville, Kentucky to Dick and Mary Lou Neeson, he relocated to Seattle as a teenager and graduated from ODea High School in 1955. After serving in the U.S. Army National Guard, he worked for the Boeing Company until the crash of 1970-71. He then developed a highly successful business, Neeson Electrical Specialty, which he operated until 2004. Dicks passion was inboard hydroplane racing, a sport that he engaged in as an owner, driver and race official from 1966-2000. He was the proud owner of the How Bout That, Running Bare (2 boats of that name), Crews Delight/Short Circuit, Ole Blue/Madam Blue, and Blue Mirage. His proudest achievements were two world records achieved by the Madam Blue, driven by Mike Hanson, in 1983 and 1985, and winning the American Power Boat Association (APBA) national high point award in 1984, again with Mike Hanson driving Madam Blue. He was a lifetime member of the Seattle Inboard Racing Association (SIRA). He served in many leadership positions within SIRA over the years, including that of Vice Commodore and often assisted with the annual Seafair unlimited hydroplane race. He officiated at many inboard and unlimited light class hydroplane races over the years. Having lost his 4-year-old son, David, to leukemia in 1969, Dick regularly donated platelets at Puget Sound Blood Center for the rest of his life. He enjoyed fine wines and wine tasting and took multiple wine-tasting trips with friends and family around Washington, Oregon and California. He was a tropical fish hobbyist for more than 40 years. While he could not read music, he played the piano and accordion beautifully, having been taught by his father, who was an organist and music teacher. Always ready to make a friend, he kept those friendships well and committed himself to being present for friends in need. In heaven he rejoins his parents, brother, John Neeson, and son, David Neeson. He is survived by his wife, Kaye Neeson, daughter Beth Schoenmakers, daughter Paulette Deckers, her husband, Tom, and grandchildren, Alora, Emma and Casey Deckers; and by his sisters, Mary Ford (Larry), Jo Samuelian (Gil), and brother, Paul Neeson (Karen). The family is grateful for the excellent care Dick received at Harbour Point Assisted Living, Providence Regional Medical Center, Providence Hospice, and Bethany at Pacific Rehabilitation Center. EulogyYou know, when youre a kid, you think of your parents as heroes and you draw them larger than life. You brag to other kids about your parents accomplishments, and so on. When I think of superheroes, I think of all the hype and sensationalism Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, being able to fly or having x-ray vision or leaping tall buildings in a single bound and all that, and possessing cool gadgets and equipment like the Batmobile. My dad was not a superhero. He was not about hype or sensationalism. He had more substance than that. Dad was born during the great depression, the oldest of five children. His family moved to Seattle when he was a teenager. He graduated from ODea High School in 1955 and started working for Boeing in an entry level job shortly after that, and he worked his way up from there. Dad faced a number of major challenges in his lifetime, and its how he met each one that demonstrates the kind of man he was. He married Edie in 1962 and within three years had a daughter, Beth, and son, David. He and Edie had good jobs and a house in West Seattle and things looked pretty good. In 1968, at the age of three, David was diagnosed with leukemia. Back then, no one survived leukemia. It was 100% fatal. Dad decided not to tell family and friends about Davids illness, saying that he didnt want people to treat David any differently. I think that he did not want other people to treat him differently either, and that he preferred to face this in his own private way. In November 1969, David died at the age of four. His death was devastating to the family, its effects still felt today. Something went out of my Dad when David died, that never quite made it back. Still, Dad met the challenge, and kept going. He still had a job and a family to support. The Boeing crash started in 1970, and Dad was one of the thousands of workers in Seattle who lost his job. Another devastating event in his life. What I remember about that time is Dad working at a number of different jobs, doing anything he could to continue earning money, including sales, appliance repair, and from appliance repair to electronics repair, etc. He worked hard to insure that the loss of his former job did not create hardship for his family. He was big on making sure that we still celebrated Christmas and birthdays with gifts, so that we did not feel deprived. He started Neeson Electrical Specialty with a used white van, working out of his basement. He did not have previous formal experience as an electrician, but he was smart and resourceful, and he had always excelled at tinkering with things. Even as a teenager, he had assembled his own workshop in the basement of the family home, which he called DuKant Labs. Du Kant is German for you cant. As a high school student, my aunt told us that he used to fix the school jukebox when it was on the fritz. He learned to fix his own cars and taught his younger brothers and brothers-in-law, to do the same. He was also highly organized and meticulous a real detail-oriented guy. He built Neeson Electrical Specialty up over the years to great success, installing intercom, heating, vacuum, and security systems for many homes of high-end homeowners and local luminaries. Dads business was highly successful, but he still was not one to toot his own horn. He was proud of his work, but not a braggart. He did like to tell stories, however, of the kinds of places and situations he encountered in the course of his work. When the Woodland Park Zoo had crowds lining up to see Hansa, the baby elephant, Dad told people that he got a private showing while he was doing electrical work in the Elephant House there. In 1976, his first marriage ended. He then married Kaye in 1979 and acquired another daughter, Paulette. Paulette became Dads daughter, no less than his first daughter. Paulette was 11 when they married. She has shared with me that Dad was a pillar of strength in the family. They settled in Edmonds and life continued. His business continued to excel. Dads biggest joy was his longtime involvement in inboard hydroplane racing. My uncle Paul told us the story of Dads early love in hydroplane racing when it was the only professional sport in Seattle. At age 10, Paul was thrilled when his teenage brother Dick actually invited him to visit the race site at Lake Washington with him. Dad continued visiting the pits at Lake Washington every Seafair Friday until the end of his life. Dad appreciated a real challenge, and hydroplane racing provided it. What other sport has so many variables in determining success? Besides the skill of the driver, you have the racing hull, engine, propeller rudder, water conditions, wind and temperature conditions, and so on. And, back to the hero thing? MY dad raced hydroplanes . How cool was that? Dad entered the hydroplane racing field in 1966. Starting in the 145-inch class, he found a derelict hull, dropped an engine in, and named it How Bout That, his favorite expression at the time. Unfortunately, the boat lost its sponson in a race not long after. He bought his second boat, the first Running Bare, a boat with a wood deck and yellow cowling, which he later painted red, white, and blue a shade of blue that came to be called Neeson blue amongst family and crew. That particular boat once had to be retrieved from the bottom of Lake Coeur dAlene the Monday after the race by an army DUKW after a collision an unplanned adventure in itself. Later he bought a custom Karelsen hull, painted it the same shades of red, white and blue, and also named it Running Bare. That hull was notorious for the sketch of a naked woman running on the back. I learned later that the name originally referenced that the first hull did not have exhaust system coming out of the top of the engine referred to as bare and was expelled through the bottom of the boat. The crews jackets had the same notorious picture on the back, jackets which got the two sons of one crew member in trouble when worn to their elementary school. The second Running Bare made the transition from 145-inch to 98-inch hydroplane when Dad decided he would help shore up this fledgling class of hydros. He later sold it to Mike Hanson, when Mike was just 17 years old. Next came a Staudacher hull, a 2.5 liter that did not find a name right away Dad and crew bantered about names for weeks, till the boat gained its first name, Crews Delight which later became the Short Circuit. In 1978, Dad was thrown from the boat, spraining his ankle, causing him to miss working his business for a few days. For the sake of his business, he retired from driving hydroplanes. He did not, however, give up hydroplane racing. He bought the Ole Blue and renamed the boat, Madam Blue. First driven by Jeff Richards, and later, Mike Hanson, Madam Blue broke two world records in 1982 and 1983 and won national high point in 1984. These three achievements stand as some of the proudest moments in Dads life. Dads last boat was Blue Mirage, built by Mike Hanson. In the time since Mike had bought the Running Bare from Dad, Mike had become like another son to Dad and Kaye. Dad got to do much of what he might have done with his own son, with Mike, and Mike was just about 3-4 years older than David would have been. He raced the Blue Mirage with Mike Hanson and Debbie Ottwell driving until Dad stopped racing boats for himself in 2000. Dad continued to serve as race official for unlimited light hydroplane races for some time after that. Dad had other passions as well. He loved music and musical theater. He played the piano and accordion beautifully, despite his inability to read music. His father was an organist and music teacher who tried to teach Dad the basics, but as Dad tells it, he did not want to learn to read music, only to play it. At social gatherings where a piano was in the house, you would find Dad playing it with a crowd around him. One of his aims as a musician was to try to use as much of the keyboard as possible. He used some inventive chord progressions when he played. His sister Jo described that he usually played the piano upon arriving home each day, at whatever hour, and his selection of music would reveal what kind of day he had. Both of his sisters tell stories of Dad and his brother John as teenagers, rolling up the carpets in the house and moving the furniture out of the way to host many house parties, filling the house with music and dancing. He and Kaye had season tickets to the 5