Richard J. Ash, a tribute

Richard J. Ash (A Tribute)

June 11, 1931-August 16, 2001

My Dad was born on June 11, 1931 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He lived on 37th and Vliet Sts with his mom (Myrtle) and his Dad (Robert) and one older Brother (Russ). His father owned and tended a tavern. He lived in the back and upstairs of the tavern. He said he used to spend some of his leisure time shooting rats in the storeroom with his BB gun! As I recall, his Dad was always busy with the tavern and seldom had time to play with him. Russ was 8 years older and usually busy with other things. Here is a photo of the tavern:

It is the middle one. The neighborhood is really bad now, unfortunately. Update May 2007: These buildings are now gone. They have been replaced by an ugly convenience store.

He spent a lot of time fishing on the several lakes around Milwaukee with either friends or men in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, his Dad died in 1945 of a stroke and it was very hard on him. After this, they moved to a house on 51st and Lloyd streets. I am not exactly sure where.


Dad's father is second from the left. On the far right is my Aunt Rita's father. Aunt Rita was Russ's wife.	Here is the house on 51st when Dad lived there.

He went to Steuben Junior High on 51st and North Ave, and Washington High (Sherman and Wright).


This is Steuben Jr. High from the back.	This is Washington High.

Two individuals who became famous who also attended high school with him are Tom Laughlin (of Billy Jack fame) and Gene Wilder (born Jerry Silberman). He graduated from high school in 1949.


Tom's Laughlin's high school graduation picture. I am not sure how close they were in high school, but you can see from the photo to the right that they were friends.	Laughlin's entry into Dad's last high school yearbook. Several of the entries from his fellow students note Dad's abilities as a photographer. Some assorted photos are shown below.	Gene Wilder is exactly two years younger than Dad, having been born June 11, 1933. Here is his picture from Dad's last high school yearbook. Wilder is in the middle row, second from the right. To read more about Wilder, see http://www.genewilder.org/


Dad played the trumpet while in high school.	I think this is a high school picture because he looks younger than in the picture to the right. It looks like he was living on 51st and Lloyd by this time because of the house style in the background. He lived there until he married my Mom in 1953.	Dad at a graduation. I had thought previously that this was a high school picture, but I think he was older. The picture to the right is definitely high school because I found it with his high school commencement brochure.	Dad, his high school graduation photo. His last high school yearbook has quite a number of entries from young ladies who were lamenting that he "got away from them." Most of the entries noted that he was a great photographer, great in math, and quite a salesman.

Here are a few pictures that Dad took.


A ball game.	I am not sure whose car this is, but it looks like it was parked in front of the house on 51st.	Jim Stummeier winning the race.

He earned a Batchelor of Science degree from Marquette in 1953. He used to tell me about how the Jesuit priest , who had taken vows of poverty, were always bumming cigarettes off of him!


A photo of Dad's bachelor's degree. Should be 1953. Dad set a pattern of seeking higher education that his children have followed. All told, his children have earned one PhD, two Master's degrees, and four Bachelor's degrees.	A copy of Dad's Law degree earned in 1956.

Both of Dad's Certificates of Admission to the Bar of the State of Wisconsin.

While working on his batchelor's degree, he worked at an A & P on Farwell and North. On one occasion he accidently stepped on a long nail, which pierced his shoe, then his foot and then the shoe again at the top. Ouch.

While at Marquette, he met and married his wife, Dorothy Faber, my mother. They were married on April 18, 1953 at Jesu church on the campus of Marquette University. My mom grew up Roman Catholic, while Dad did not attend church, his father having had some sort of falling out with the Catholics. Dad had to be baptized as an adult in order to marry my Mom.

I recently asked my Mom what made her fall in love with Dad. She answered, "He was nice." They had been married over 48 years at the time of his passing.

He graduated from Marquette Law School and was in the Wisconsin Bar Association almost his entire adult life. While at Marquette, he edited the Marquette Law Journal.

While married, they lived at 46th and Wisconsin Ave and eventually they moved in with his mother at 65th and Garfield in Wauwatosa. It was in this house that he lived the rest of his life. There, he fathered 5 children (Mike, Paul [me], Jim, Bob, and Susie).


Here are two pictures of the house at 46th and Wisconsin Ave. This is close to Miller Park where the Milwaukee Brewers play.

This is a photo of one of the buildings in which Dad practiced law. It is located at about 85th and Capitol Drive in Milwaukee. Dad moved in when it had just been built in the early 60s. Interestingly, my wife and I lived about a half mile from this building for 4 years.

This is the house on 65th and Garfield in Wauwatosa where Dad lived. All of us grew up here. Notice on the roof is the remnants of a CB antenna. Dad had been involved in ham radio during the 50s and early 60s. Also, notice the small satellite dish on the side of the house. This was one of Dad's last "acquisitions." There is a large dish in the backyard. Update May 2007: the large dish is gone, as is the apple tree that we grew up with. The apple tree was dying and had to be cut down.

Dad seemed to be much happier in the earlier pictures with the kids. In fact, my older cousin Linda described him as "jovial" and used to refer to him as "Uncle Dicky Dock"!


Dad with Mike and Mom. Notice how happy he looks.	Dad with Mike. April 1957.


Dad with me (left) and Mike (right). Around 1962. I was a cute kid. I wonder what happened?	1971 or so. Dad with Bob (far left), Jim (left) and Susie (right). He's still smiling! That is a good sign. The pants on the boys are really a sign of the times.

He also had three grandchildren, David, Ben, and Morgan:


Dad with grandson David, September 15, 1993. Dad never really interacted that much with his grandchildren, but from the looks of these pictures, he really enjoyed being with them and seeing them.	Dad with grandson Ben. Judging from the look on his face, Dad was having a really great time that day. He must have really been enjoying seeing Ben's classroom.	Here is the only picture I have with both Dad and Morgan in it. That is her--the little one, along with Ben, Susie, and Bob.

Dad had always been pretty reserved when it came to showing affection either physically or verbally. Toward the end, though, he was making more effort to express his feelings.

In his career, he practiced law independently for a few years, but eventually went to work for Humphrey Enterprises, a conglomerate of several automobile dealerships headed by Glenn Humphrey. After Glenn Humphrey died, the business was gradually liquidated and Dad retired.

He had many interests, including hunting, fishing, electronics, computers, and boating. Dad and I built two TVs together in the 70s. Both Heathkits. We also built several other electronic products: a Multimeter, Oscilloscope, Radio, a couple TVs, and a few others. He really taught me the importance of doing careful work.

Dad (right) and Jim Stummeier at their cabin near Drummond, Wisconsin. The cabin was as rustic as possible. Since deer hunting season always fell during Thanksgiving, Dad was gone and we celebrated Thanksgiving at Dog n Suds, a now defunct fast food place. We loved it because it was usually the only time all year that we went out to eat (my brothers disagree about this)! It was an old style drive up with a waitress who came to the car. The building itself is now long gone, but it was out on Appleton Ave about 104th. Prior to this, we ate at a place called The Barrys on 72nd and North. It is now a dry cleaners.

Dad (right) and Jim Stummeier. I don't remember the deer's name, but he was not happy being strapped to the roof of the car for the 350 mile trek back to Milwaukee. At least, he was not facing the wind. Come to think of it, I think his name was Buck. Or maybe Blitzen.

According to my brother Jim, he was named Clark, because he was a "super" deer!

I would say that this is sometime in the late 60s or early 70s.

This is Dad looking very commanding as the skipper of his first boat. This is May 1970 and Dad's brother Russ is hidden by nephew Tom. This boat was cool because you could sit up front in it. As I recall, it had a 115HP outboard motor (thanks to my brother Jim for this info). Sadly, we put a hole in the side of the boat at the South Shore Yacht Club on Lake Michigan. The waves bashed us into an unprotected corner of a metal pier. Dad was not a happy camper.

By the way, the house to the right was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.


Dad and Mom (back) with brother Russ and their mother. ca. 1980, at, I think, my cousin Connie's wedding. Getting Russ into a tux was a major achievement. Like me, he hates dressing up much. Grandma Ash died on April 17, 1985, a day before Dad's 32nd wedding anniversary. She was 82. Update May 2007: Uncle Russ died in 2004. He also was 82 when he passed away.	Jim's wedding, July 25, 1987. From the left are Bob, Lisa, Jim, Susie, Paul, Dianne, Mom, Dad, and Mike. At the time the church did not have any air conditioning. It was hot. Period. Note: the wedding took place during a short period in which I was beardless. My cheeks looked so fat, I looked like a chipmunk. I regrew the beard.

As a father, he represented and modelled integrity and brought a sense of morals and ethics to the legal world that is often lacking. For his integrity, he paid the price of being squeezed out of a firm that he should have eventually run. I learned a great many skills from him and my first adult career was in electronics. I had a good teacher. He believed in doing everything the best he could and with a great degree of attention to detail. He tried hard not to hurry any task because he always said, "When you hurry, you make mistakes."

He lived with a great deal of pain in his lifetime. As a teenager, he fell into a hole, twisting his knee and having a nail pierce his foot from one end to the other. On July 4, 1962, he was trying to start the lawn mower, pulling on the cord with the old-style ring attachment at the end. The mower backfired and pulled his right ring finger against the lawn mower, smashing it into 27 pieces. It was somewhat deformed for the rest of his life. He developed high blood pressure and diabetes in mid-life, the diabetes eventually creating neuropathy in his legs and resulting in the amputation of part of his foot near the end of his life. He suffered periodically from cluster headaches at a time when no one really knew what cluster headaches were. Thankfully, other medications were effective into eliminating this suffering. In the end, his inability to maintain mobility caused him to become susceptible to infections and these infections eventually cost him his life.

What I find most heartbreaking when I think about Dad is this: At some point in his life, he began to give up. I don't know if it was health problems, fears of dying young like his father, or career set backs, or a combination of all of them, but gradually he began to retreat and give up. He seems to have been so full of energy, fight, and joy as a young man. He was so smart and had so much ability and so much to give. At one point in his life, he was asked to be assistant Dean of the Law School at Marquette University, but he turned them down because he believed his prospects with Humphrey were better. Unfortunately, things did not turn out that way. I wonder how things would have been different if he had taken the job.

Although he was generally very serious, he did have a silly side, including an occasional silly picture (right), and stories that he made up about people such as Foreman Bonehead and Blacky Chevrolet (the opposite of Whitey Ford, the baseball pitcher). At these times, he reminded me somewhat of Jonathan Winters.

He died at St. Lukes Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 16, 2001, attended by his family. He was a great man who taught his children the value of integrity and honesty in every aspect of their lives. He will be missed.
	Dad's Obituary in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on August 20, 2001. He never lived more than 3 miles from the house where he was born.	Here is a photo of Mom with a pegboard of photos of Dad that we had at the funeral service.

Update May 2007: Everyone is plugging along.

Paul Ash