Born to Ronald Henry McLean and Marguerite Elizabeth Hillman McLean on July 9, 1930 in Manchester, CT and raised in the Roman Catholic faith. He was loving husband to Norma J. (Perantoni) McLean for 64 1/2years. Devoted father to Elizabeth, Melissa and Joseph, doting grandfather to Olivia, Natalia, John-Paul and Marguerite. Richard often said grandchildren were the icing on the cake of life!
He would be known as a "renaissance man" today due to his many cultured interests. His great passions in life were his family, his Roman Catholic faith, Hudson cars, airplanes, photography, music, playing the piano and the guitar, history, reading and travel.
As a child, his first school was in rural Bristol, CT, a 4-room school with 8 grades. As a result of his pre-school lessons from his mother, he was immediately put into the second-grade level at age 6. he often credits his later successes in life to his mother who instilled in him a life-long love of reading and learning. His family moved into their permanent home in Newington, CT in 1941. He loved living in Newington and graduated from Newington High School in 1948.
His hobbies grew into his later career and life long passions. He loved aircraft/aviation, engineering and making model planes. Another of his hobbies as a teen was photography. He always loved cars, Hudsons being his favorite, with Ford being recorded as his "pet peeve" in his high school yearbook!
He attended the University of Connecticut and received an Associate’s Degree in Engineering. Right after this, he joined the CT Civil Air Patrol, then the CT Air National Guard and then the Air Force. He went to the Air Force School of Photography in Colorado. His unit was federalized for the Korean Conflict and served as an aerial photography specialist.
Upon discharge he went to work as an engineering draftsman at the Hamilton Standard Division of United Aircraft Company as a draftsman and later became a sales engineer working on military contracts. During this time, he met his future wife Norma Perantoni. They married in 1955 and shared a wonderful long life together with mutual devotion to each other, family, friends and church. He continued working toward his BS in electrical engineering in evening school and received this degree of a BS EE from the University of Hartford, all while holding a full time job and raising a family. He subsequently was employed by Anderson Laboratories as a sales manager of electronics equipment for government and civilian products and later with Anderson Labs helped get the fledgling ESPN off the ground with equipment!
In a bold career and life move, at age 50 in 1980, he moved his Connecticut Yankee family to Dallas, Texas to join a new start-up electronics firm, RF Monolithics (RFM) for which he established an entirely new market for high frequency communication devices. The family loved and thrived in Texas. Deciding to focus on another lifelong interest, finance, he left the electronics world and rounded out his professional career by becoming a Financial Consultant with the New York Life Insurance Company, where he was very happy and immediately successful making the "Million Dollar Roundtable". He enjoyed his time with NY Life and retired after 20 years of helping others plan for their future/retirement.
Richard was a parishioner of St. Rita Catholic Church since 1982, served in many of the parish's ministries, including as an usher for 20+ years, and was a sponsor for conversions to Roman Catholicism with the church’s RCIA program. He was also a Fourth-Degree member of the Knights of Columbus and enjoyed his time with the Knights helping in their events.
His hobbies included the collection, restoration and driving automobiles of the Hudson Motor Car Co. and was a member of the Hudson, Essex and Terreplane Club for most of his life. Here in TX he was a member of the North Texas Chapter and loved his time at the Club spent with lifelong friends. He enjoyed driving his antique cars to the meets and National Hudson gatherings throughout the US. He owned various Hudsons for most of his life. He was featured in a Hartford Courant article entitled “McLean’s Clean Machine” which showed that his 1954 Hudson had cleaner emissions than most cars on the roads in the 1970’s. One of his prides was his 1932 Major 8 Brougham, which was used by the Lord Mayor of London in the 1930’s. Richard had this car shipped from London in 1972 and he worked on it with his father and professionals restoring it to its former glory. He drove this car to meets all over TX and OK and it was his daughter’s wedding limousine!
Richard appreciated fine music of all kinds, especially classical, played the piano and often put his young children to sleep playing his guitar with lullabies and country music songs.
He is pre-deceased by his parents and 2 younger brothers, the youngest of whom, Peter, was his best friend. He was close to Peter’s 2 sons Jeffrey and David who both live with their wives and families in CT.
He was a wonderful loving father, husband, grandfather. The best father children could ask for! He was an inspiration in his love for his Roman Catholic faith, love of family and country and for his many interests and hobbies. He will be missed so very much by his wife and children. We are comforted in the knowledge that we will meet and embrace again one day in the presence of our Lord and Savior.
Richard’s Funeral Mass will be Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 10am at St. Rita Catholic Church, 12521 Inwood Rd, Dallas, 75244. Burial to follow at Calvary Hill Cemetery.
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