LAKEPORT, Calif. – Richard “Dick” Eugene Hazelton died in Lakeport, Calif., on March 19, 2016.

He was born on Nov. 5, 1926, in Elyria, Ohio, to Ruth and Joesph Hazelton and according to Dick, “At birth, I weighed 8 pound, 8 ounces and I was very cute.”

He grew up on the edge of town in Elyria with his Mom, Dad and brother Bob with no electricity, no running water and no indoor plumbing and a Sears Roebuck catalog in the outhouse. They had goats, chickens, rabbits, pigeons and turkeys.

When he turned 6 years old, the family moved into town. At age 10, Dick contracted rheumatic fever and was bedridden for one year and had to relearn how to walk again.

At 16, Dick quit high school to go to work. He first went to work at a factory and then on the iron ore boat freighters on the Great Lakes when he was 17 years old.

At 18, he joined the U.S. Army were he learned Morse Code and spent two years in communications, ending up in Okinawa in the Pacific then on to Korea near the end of World War II.

He was discharged from the Army as a technical sergeant and went back to Elyria and got on the G.I. Bill to learn how to be an auto body repairman and painter.

He got a job at Harry Brown Motors and there he met Donna Mae Brown, the boss' daughter, who he married one year later.

Dick decided he didn’t want to straighten out cars the rest of his life so he went back to high school as a freshman and always said his 15-year-old classmates didn’t like him!

After high school, he enrolled in the National Radio and Television School in Cleveland, Ohio, to become a broadcast engineer.

Dick and Donna had five children, Beckie, Cyndi, Gary and twins Mark and Clark (five kids in 4 1/2 years!).

Dick built two homes for his family, all by himself from bare land to completion including masonry, carpentry, wiring, plumbing, sheet rock and roofing. He also built an 18-foot wooden boat complete with a cabin, two bunks, toilet and stove.

In 1954 Dick got a job with Honeywell as a field engineer. He started in Cleveland and then was transferred to Los Angeles. After one year he was transferred to San Diego to start a new office.

After 10 years of marriage, Dick and Donna divorced.

In 1962, Dick married Eileen and they lived in the San Francisco and Sacramento area for 30 years.

Dick’s children spent their summers with them. They adopted a 3-year-old orphaned Korean child they named Julie.

Eileen and Dick divorced after 22 years of marriage. Dick retired from Honeywell in 1986 after 32 years and then moved to Lakeport.

It was after retirement that Dick met his soulmate Diane, in Kelseyville, a neighboring town of Lakeport. Throughout their 20-year marriage, Dick and Diane enjoyed traveling all over the United States and Europe until sadly, cancer took her life on Feb. 8, 2007.
 
Dick was a member of the Friends of the Museum of Lakeport, Historical Society, Lakeport Community Players, Lake County Rose Society, American Legion, Lions Club and the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church.

Survivors include his five children, Beckie of Rock Springs, Wyo., Cyndi (Ralph) Westberg of Payson, Utah, Gary (Kris) Hazelton of Estes Park, Colo., Mark (Sirena) Hazelton of Sycamore, Ill., and Clark (Sharon) Hazelton of Roswell, Ga.; as well as many, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Dick said “I have had a long and wonderful life, I was happy to be a father and or friend to all whom may be reading this.”

A memorial service will be held Monday, April 4, at the Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary, 1625 N. High St. Lakeport.

For further information call Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary at 707-263-0357 or 707-994-5611 or visit www.chapelofthelakes.com .