Richard Hale McLaughlin

Richard Hale McLaughlin (Chopper), 75 years, of Pasadena, CA. After a courageous battle with Parkinson’s and Lewy Body Dementia, he peacefully took his last breath at his home in Connecticut surrounded by his family on Tuesday, August 13, 2024. Rick is survived by his children, Hughes McLaughlin (Kelley), Caitlin McNeil (Kyle) and Jamie McLaughlin, three grandchildren, Lillian-Grace Mclaughlin, Elizabeth-May McLaughlin and Hudson Ryder McLaughlin. He is survived by his older brother Ed McLaughlin III (Denise), his younger sister Anne Ruttle (Paul), his caring aunt Janet Moser, and many wonderful nieces, nephews, cousins and very good friends. Rick was predeceased by his wife of 43 years Hope McLaughlin and his parents, Ed McLaughlin II and Bette May McLaughlin.

Rick held great fondness for his education, which began at St. Brendan’s. In 8th grade he went to Ecole Nouvelle Chailly in Lausanne, Switzerland followed by Loyola High School. Rick attended University of Denver graduating with a business degree and then went on to pursue his master’s in architecture at the University of Minnesota.

A true engineer at heart, Rick enjoyed dissecting complicated structures and reconstructing them for today’s modern environment. His architecture career began in 1979 at Langdon & Wilson. In 1984, Rick founded McLaughlin Associate Architects, where he spent over 35 years as the Managing Principal Architect.

Rick loved staying active. He was a steward of many crafts including golf, skiing, tennis, woodworking, ping-pong, foosball, dominos, gin rummy, the BBQ and his Yo-yo (Mr. Yo-yo). He played an active role in his children’s lives teaching them the activities he loved. He coached their teams, instilling the importance of many valuable life lessons: be present, try your best, learn from failure, and above all good sportsmanship. Although he would swear, he was “strictly a meat and potatoes kind of guy", deserts (especially Ice Cream) played a major role in Rick’s happiness. Basically, Rick was a very special guy who was always honest, fun to work with and honorable. He will be greatly missed.

The McLaughlin family will hold a private memorial celebrating Rick's life later. In lieu of flowers, you are invited to make a gift in memory of Rick to support Parkinson's research at the Michael J Fox Foundation Please visit: https://give.michaeljfox.org/give