Richard H Overby

His parents Peder and Inga Overby, raised their family of eight children on a farm just outside of Portland. Peder, a recent immigrant from Norway, spoke only Norwegian thus Norwegian was the language spoken at home. Richard was unable to speak English when he started school. This was not a problem because almost everyone in Portland was Norwegian.

When he was 17, his mother and father moved with him to Mount Vernon, Washington where he graduated from High School. After high school, he joined the National Guard and worked at various jobs until he got on at Libby’s frozen food plant. He met and married Anita Richards, Scott and Shawn were born of this union. In 1968 that union ended.

Because he had already met Ellen Rogan who lived in Selah, Richard moved there after Libby’s closed their plant and went to work for Washington Fruit. In 1970 they were married. In 1972, he was employed at Hansen Fruit where he worked until he retired at age 62.

Richard co-founded and managed the Selah Food bank for twenty five years. Retiring from that activity in 2003, he still continued helping the food bank until he became too ill. A lifelong member of the Knights of Columbus # 8768, he participated in many of their activities. He and Ellen were charter members of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic church and have attended there since.

Always willing to help others and known for his jokes (some off-colored), he was well liked in the community. He will be missed.

He and Ellen got involved with the EF foreign exchange program and subsequently hosted 14 students from Europe, Korea and Australia. After they became coordinators for that program, they were able to travel to yearly meetings help throughout the U.S.. Taking several trips to Europe and one to Australia, they were able to visit the families of their students. They found the program very rewarding.

Richard is survived by his wife, Ellen, his daughter Shawn Schmitz (Craig), sons Mark (Cynthia) and Paul and granddaughters Ashley (David), Natalie and Kylee, and grandson Jaycob (Rina) and three Great granddaughters, Aaralyn, Nova and Juniper.

He was preceded in death by his parents, son Scott, daughters Mary and Elizabeth, five brothers and three sisters, and two sisters-in-law.

Memorial Mass will be held on Tuesday March 1, 2022 at 2:00 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Selah. To leave a memory for the family please visit lepfuneralhome.com.