Lester Alan Richey

Lester Alan Richey, Wenatchee, WA On Monday, May 4, 2020, at 78 years of age, Lester Alan Richey finished his life's work and relinquished his passions, for family, employer, and Church...in his final exhale of breath as his wife, Karine Kathleen Goehring, sat by his side reading an excerpt from his grandfather's journal dated the same day. He was indeed part of and from that Great Generation that fought for freedom and emerged from that last "Great War," a product of the Baby Boomer era that helped propel our jet-set age into our current streams of technological wonder and social-interactive ingenuity. He was a brilliant "dinosaur" computer programmer prior to any Microsoft or Apple upstart. Up to the end, he would even school the caretakers at his Wenatchee Senior Living facility on the history and significance of Boeing Enterprises, having worked proudly on software engineering for the famed 727 and on the rest of the Boeing fleet. Although a Quaker and pacifist by birth, Lester supported our United States military and even helped to develop aerospace defense systems while at Boeing. A quiet and unassuming man, one of his most notable characteristics was his sense of humor, which at the slightest fancy, would blurt out any whimsical verse of song or joke to entertain his family- -his two children, seven grandchildren, and at least one of his nine great-grandchildren, on any occasion. That lineage was one of his greatest successes in life, as he put it recently, tohave four generations living simultaneously. Lester always gave thanks in prayer and witness to Christ, to whom he devoted his life and industry at an early age. He supported one of his children through seminary and doctoral studies on into Christian ministry, and always gave charitably to organizations like the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, The Navigators, as well as the many diverse congregations he served as an elder and teacher of the Bible. In the end, he is survived by his wife of 58 and a half years; two children in their 50's; and all those great and grandchildren and a vivid assortment of memories he created for us along the way. It's all there in digital format for future Richey's and West's to recall with so great a myriad of lines of photographic code he required to produce the sum of his life. We are grateful to be able to pass it on to the next generation. Visitation will take place on Monday, May 18, 2020, at the funeral home, 302 Ninth St., Wenatchee, WA, from 11:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m., with the Funeral Service immediately following. Arrangements are by Chapel of the Valley, Wenatchee, WA.

Lester Alan Richey

July 26, 1941 - May 4, 2020