Richard Eugene Pickering

January 22, 2022 at age 91. He is survived by one sister, three

children, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Originally from Ohio, Richard joined the Ohio National Guard and was a

Korean War Veteran having proudly served in the U.S. Army Motor Pool

while stationed in Korea.

While in New York, attending Broadcasting School, Richard met and

married Ann, his wife of 57 years (until her passing in 2012). They

lived and raised their family in Illinois for 23 years before moving to

Arizona in 1978, where they spent the remainder of their lives.

Richard’s career and hobbies were varied. He started his career in

Broadcasting working as an engineer at WRRR in Rockford, IL. Later he

worked at IBM in Chicago as an Instructor and Special Product Support

Representative. After moving to Arizona, he took a break from

electronics and did masonry for a short while before ultimately working

once again as an Instructor, this time for ITT Courier/Servcom until his

retirement.

Richard was multi-talented and enjoyed inventing, woodworking, restoring

cars with his sons, HO and N-Gauge model train sets, as well as masonry

that he learned as a trade from his dad. In the 1960s he built several

games, the most notable was his “Electro-Travel” U.S. Map where he won

First Place in a Craftsmen’s Contest from Science & Mechanics. He was

well known for his woodworking having made a vast number and variety of

items ranging from large (floor-to-ceiling bookcases & Murphy Beds) to

small (pen & pencil sets, candlestick holders) and everything in

between. He would meticulously measure vehicles (Semi Trucks,

Caterpillar equipment, and Railroad Trains) so that he could make wooden

replicas of them to scale using differing woods for color shading and

detail work.

After the passing of his wife, Ann, Richard began volunteering each week

at the AZCEND food bank. It became his passion, and he looked forward

to going at every opportunity, helping and seeing all of his fellow

volunteers. Richard also enjoyed and made a number of friends with his

neighbors, volunteers at Neighbors-Who-Care (who helped him out

considerably), fellow church members at First Baptist Church of Chandler

(where he enjoyed participating in the various church activities), and

the Saturday Breakfast group that he and Van had connected with at

Sunbird and became close to.

Richard touched many lives and will be greatly missed by his family and

so many others who came to mean the world to him. In lieu of flowers,

memorials in honor of Richard Pickering may be made to the AZCEND Food

Bank (azcend.org/food-bank)