Richmond Harold Oldford

Richmond Harold Oldford of Cape Canaveral and formerly of West Palm Beach, Florida passed away on Friday, March 16, 2018 at Viera Hospital in Viera, Brevard County, Florida at the age of 94. Mr. Oldford was born in Orillia, Ontario, Canada on January 25, 1924 to Walter and Lillian Mina (Corp) Oldford. The Family moved from Canada to Florida when Mr. Oldford was a toddler. The family was well known in West Palm Beach for being very patriotic and for having high Christian standards. Richmond was no exception.

Mr. Oldford had a long military career. As a seventeen-year-old senior at Palm Beach High School, he volunteered to serve in the United States Navy, as did three of his classmates. The principal of his high school awarded all four seniors their high school diplomas in absentia. Mr. Oldford served at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, California and throughout the Pacific aboard the USS Steele. After World War II, Mr. Oldford re-enlisted in the Navy, and later changed services to the United States Air Force and continued working at the pentagon. His military career took him to many locations in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. In the United States, he was stationed in California and Texas. While assigned to Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas, he became a United States citizen.

After 24 years in the military, Mr. Oldford joined the West Palm Beach Police Department as a photographer. He later moved to Cocoa Beach and then Cape Canaveral where he enjoyed working in the security section for the Port of Canaveral.

In the many places Mr. Oldford lived he kept in contact with the Masons. He had been awarded his sixty-year pin from the Harmonia Masonic Lodge #138 in West Palm Beach. He was also a faithful member of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Cocoa Beach. He especially enjoyed the friends he had there. Mr. Oldford also enjoyed associating with friends where he lived and they were very important to him. One of his favorite activities was to have lunch at Rusty’s Seafood and Oyster Bar in Port Canaveral where he became good friends with the owner and waitresses. He was a friendly man who enjoyed his long life, many friends and especially his family.

Mr. Oldford was preceded in death by his parents and his seven siblings: Norman, Walter, Morris, Nelson, Rhoda, Lillian, and Margaret (Oldford) Waddell. As a young man, recently discharged from the Navy after WWII, Mr. Oldford met and married Enis May Curtis (1925-1973) and had two daughters. To his family’s great sorrow, his second wife, Irma Sigrid Pirrong (1939-1989) also preceded him in death. He is survived by his two daughters, Lillian N. Bushnell (Irv) and Sara E. Wallace (Bill); two grandchildren, Jill M. (Wallace) Pfeiffer (Michael) and William A. Wallace III (Becky Van Doren); four great-grandchildren, Mikey Pfeiffer, Angelina Pfeiffer, Alex Wallace and Delora Wallace. All are residents of Brevard County.

Family and friends will be received from 2:00-3:00 PM on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at the Life Center at Florida Memorial Gardens. A service of remembrance will follow at 3:00 PM.