Editor’s Note: This obituary was written by Dick’s family.

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Born in 1936 in Hampstead, England, he moved to Budleigh Salterton, Devon in 1939 where his father was the head gardener of an estate. He started an apprenticeship with Rolls Royce Ltd in London in 1952 then joined the Royal Air Force as Aircrew and became Sergeant Signaller in 1955.

He married Ann (Anna Barton) in 1958 and was commissioned in the RAF in 1959. He lived in various places during his 20 years service, moving to Cornwall in 1965 with his wife and four children.

Whilst living in Cornwall he was joined by his father to set up a small landscaping business. They also turned over half of their garden to grow vegetables and fruit to sustain the family. In his spare time he became Secretary of the local Village Hall which was the hub of the local community. As Director of the local performing arts society he organised local pantomimes with a cast of over 100. He was an accomplished potter and adept in other crafts such as jewellery and candle making, macrame, crochet, sewing and knitting. He wrote wonderful poetry, was a proficient artist and musician (sang and played guitar) and an avid DIY’er. If there was a skill to be learned he was up for it.

During a work assignment to RAF Kinloss he was invited to the Foundation, as an exercise in local community relations. He took the family from the south of England to the Foundation in the north of Scotland for a few holidays to help explain to them why he had fallen in love with the place, as he had made the momentous decision to move there.

He retired in 1974 as a Flight Lieutenant, latterly as a controller of a full mission simulator training school based at St Mawgan Air Force Base in Cornwall.

He was offered the position of General Secretary in the Foundation, responsible for all administration and for setting up all the systems used to monitor and control the Foundation’s expansion and daily life, and moved the whole family, including his parents, to the Foundation for a very different life to the one they had left.

He later took a one year sabbatical to study horticulture and created a two acre garden at Findhorn before becoming the Director of the Garden School at Cullerne in 1979, setting it up with his father, Fred, who had also moved to the Foundation in 1974. The project became a training ground in organic horticulture allied to the Foundation’s purpose as a spiritual and educational charity and upholding its philosophical principles. The school attracted students from all over the world. Dick also became a Community Councillor of Kinloss and Findhorn in 1981 and a member of Grampian Crime Prevention Panel in 1983.

Following his divorce, he left Findhorn in 1984 and set up a small horticultural and craft business from home in Brixworth, Northhamptonshire with his partner Marny and her two children. He totally transformed the garden and orchard into a peaceful sanctuary with a very productive polytunnel of fruit and vegetables. He married Marny in 1989 and pursued his other love of computer studies to become a lecturer at the local college in Northampton until his retirement. Both he and Marny became members of the local Baha’i group and spent wonderful years as part of that supportive, spiritual community.

Dick sadly died in 2019 from cancer which took him before his time. He was a very practical yet deeply spiritual man who lived his life fully, positively and with purpose and his legacy lives on.