Richard B. Mueller

Richard B. Mueller, age 90, died peacefully on December 23, 2021. His family will remember him as a devoted husband, and a proud and loving father, grandfather, and great grandfather. And they will miss his ability to remember and tell jokes to everyone he met.

Dick was born on May 21, 1931, in Oak Park, Illinois to Frank and Alice Mueller (Wilson). A second son, his brother William, arrived four years later, but when Richard was seven years old his parents divorced. And the boys were raised by their mother. She worked two jobs to support them and she made sure that they were always surrounded by loving relatives on both sides of the family. Dick attended church regularly and was active in the congregation’s basketball and softball teams. Through school, he joined the local scout troop and achieved the coveted Eagle Scout badge. Money was always tight and early on Dick realized that if he wanted to buy anything he would have to work to get the money for it. At a young age, he sold magazine subscriptions and stationery, even apples from a tree in a nearby park. He also delivered papers Through the ensuing years, his jobs included ushering at a nearby theater, caddying on the golf course, and setting pins at the bowling alley. He also started his lifelong love of cards by carefully watching his mother and her friends play bridge. A milestone in his young life was being awarded first prize, a bicycle from the neighborhood drugstore, after getting all his relatives and friends to purchase items there.

After high school, he was accepted at DePauw University, Greencastle Indiana, where his great-great-grandfather Bishop Bowman was once the President. Shortly after the beginning of his junior year, he became so ill that he needed to drop out and return to Oak Park to recover at home. While he was still regaining his health, he was drafted into the army, where he served two years, mainly while stationed in Verdun France. Returning to DePauw to again begin his junior year he financed his education with the GI bill, running a dry clean service, and playing cards. A little older than most of the other students, he began to seriously think about a future that included marriage and children. In Sociology class, he began to notice Marjorie Hall who, unbeknown to him, had her eyes on him for quite a while. They soon dated each other exclusively, graduating together in 1956 with Liberal arts degrees and marrying on September 1st. They settled in Chicago, where he obtained his Master’s degree in Group Work Administration at George Williams College (now a part of Aurora University). While working part-time in the credit department of Sears Roebuck, he was noticed by one of the bosses who encouraged him to apply for full-time employment after graduation. That resulted in a satisfying thirty-year career as a credit sales manager, at times taking on the added responsibilities of personnel manager, catalog manager, and supervisor of the cashiers. (Upon retirement he was rehired to represent Sears in the Bankruptcy Courts of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky for ten years.) Numerous assignments necessitated relocating to various places in the mid-west, where the first order of business was to find a house, a good school, and a neighborhood church. Both Dick and Marjorie loved children, and when they eventually had five, they worked hard to give them unconditional love. They also taught them by example to treat everyone they met with dignity and compassion, regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Their home openly welcomed a wide range of guests, some of whom became part of their extended family. Their youngest son Joseph (Judy) predeceased Dick. Surviving to honor his memory are his wife Marjorie of 65 years, daughters Catherine Johnson (Scott), Vicki Mazza (Jim), Polly Thompson (Cal, deceased), his son Robert Mueller (Toni), and beloved extended family members Rick Olson, and Steve Stahl. There are twenty grandchildren and nineteen great­ grandchildren. Visitation will be held Wednesday, December 29, 2021, from 3pm to 5pm at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Lakeside Park, KY with funeral services to immediately follow at the church. The service will be live-streamed at https://youtu.be/ZyikpOYFKSw. Burial will be held at Highland Cemetery in Ft Mitchell. Memorial contributions can be made to the Northern Kentucky Salvation Army 1806 Scott Street, Covington KY, 41014 or the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ELCA Gift Processing Center P.O. Box 1809 Merrifield, VA 22116-8009 c/o ELCA World Hunger. Online condolences can be made at www.linnemannfuneralhomes.com