Biography of Richard S. Beedle
Richard (Dick) Beedle was born on March 4, 1928, to Granville Leo Beedle and Carol Enid. (Simpson) Beedle in Hollywood, California. He was the youngest of eight children, six of whom made it to adulthood. His older siblings were Lynn, Carol, Virginia (Gin), Jane and John. During his early life, the family moved frequently, residing in Hollywood, until 1923, then Glendale, California from 1932 to 1937, then north to two different residences in Berkley, California from 1937 to 1940, and then to 29 Renz Road in Mill Valley, California. Dick attended and graduated from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, and later attended the College of Marin.
Dick served in the U.S. Navy as a flight controller at the very end of WWII and during the Korean War, with duty stations at and Barbers Point, Oahu, Hawaii, first and several years later at Moffett Field, California, when he was recalled to active duty.
When on active duty, Dick had this picture of himself and his oldest brother Lynn inside his locker.
Lynn was naval officer and Dick was enlisted. During an inspection, Dick was ordered to remove the
picture because it showed an officer in a subservient position to an enlisted sailor.
Dick married Dorothy Valerie La Berge, daughter of Conrad and Marie Stella Porter on February 24, 1951. My sister, Marilyn (Healy) Rameriz was their flower girl and I, Don Healy, was the ring bearer.
From an early age, Dick became very adept in numerous aspects of the construction industry and handled many projects for family and friends. I remember Dick texturing the living room ceiling at 54 Bayview in Mill Valley in about 1952. For a period, Dick was employed as a salesman for an office supply firm of Standard Register in San Francisco. Apparently, some friction developed between Dick and his manager over Dick’s moonlighting endeavors in construction. The manager apparently thought that it was important for a salesman to have smooth, almost manicured hands, which conflicted with the calloused hands attached to Dick following his weekend construction endeavors. In 1961, Dick was self-employed in the construction field and did a remodel on the house he grew up in at 29 Renz Road and that I then lived in, expanding the living room and adding a shop under the existing house for my dad. his brother-in-law’s watch repair shop. Dick also added a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, hallway and deck to his parent’s house at 25 Renz Road. I was Dick’s helper on some of these projects and learned a great deal from him.
During the time Dick was working on his parent’s house he owned an old beater Chevy coupe, perhaps of 1930’s (?) vintage, that was his work vehicle. One day the muffler fell off, but he kept using the car anyway. Mill Valley is quite small, and you could hear him driving up to the work site long before he got there. After a week or so of this he got pulled over by a Mill Valley police officer who was going to cite him for not having a muffler. Dick said wait a second and opened up the trunk and said, “yes I do, it’s right here!!” Dick had an amazing talent for talking his way out of sticky situations, and it worked in this case.
During his time in Mill Valley, he also served in the volunteer fire service.
Dick then had quite a stint in the grocery business. From 1962 to 1965 he was the manager of the Purity Store in Healdsburg, California, before moving to the same position with Purity Stores in Terra Linda, California in 1965. In 1968 he was the manager of the Albertson’s Store in Napa, California.
Dick and Dorothy had three children: Richard (Rich), Joyce and Marilyn.
Dick and Dorothy were known to take some interesting vacations in which they would load up the car with camping gear and then at the first intersection take get the family consensus on which way to turn and then proceed in a similar fashion.
Dick’s interesting cars. Dick enjoyed many new and different vehicles during his life. A Corvair Monza Spider, a cab-over Dodge pickup truck, an American Motors Pacer, a hardtop Volkswagen convertible that resembled a transformer when raising or lowering the top, and his beloved dune buggy.
In 1968 Dick left the grocery business and went back to construction with his company Remodeling of Marin while living the Terra Linda which he operated until 1975.
In about 1975, Dick and Dorothy and daughter Marilyn moved to La Grande. Here Dick and Dorothy joined Don and Cherlyne Healy in a rental property enterprise, which was soon named H.B. Fulcrum Enterprises and consisted of about 50 rental units. At the same time, Dick started Dorvaldi (named for Dorothy Valerie and Dick) and began building houses in the La Grande area. Through Dorvaldi Dick became acquainted with Orville Miller of Miller’s Cabinet Shop that was one of Dick’s major suppliers. Orville’s grandfather, D. D. Miller had started the company about 50 years earlier. The store had passed from D. D. to Dannis Miller, his son. Orville, D.D.’s grandson and Dannis were the current owners and Orville confided to Dick that the business was struggling. With Dick’s knowledge of the building trades and experience in managing grocery stores. Orville approached Dick with idea of buying into Millers and modernizing the operation. Dick and Dorothy’s available funds were intermeshed with the Healy’s available assets in H.B. Fulcrum Enterprises. Healy was employed as a forester by the Boise Cascade Corporation, but the future of forestry in the U.S. was looking rather grim, so it was decided that both the Beedles and the Healys would join Orville and expand Millers from a paint, hardware and cabinet shop into a small home center. The process involved increasing the area under cover from 6000 sq. ft. to 15,000 sq. ft. with the addition of a 9000 square foot cinder block addition. When completed, the store had 6000 sq. ft. of retail floor space, a full cabinet shop, a full glass shop, an auto glass area and covered storage for softwood and hardwood lumber and plywood, and a new, modernized operational structure. It took a lot of effort during a challenging economic period but the finished product was one all were all proud of. At one point Miller’s employed 23 people. Dick remained with Millers until he sold his interest to Orville in in the early 1990s.
While in La Grande Dick loved running around in his dune buggy and exploring the back country and he and Dorothy went on numerous rafting trips on local rivers. Dick and Dorothy loved RVing and covered most of the United States during their many wanderings.
Dick and Dorothy then moved to Caliente Springs Resort, Desert Hot Springs, California, where Dick soon became a legend in the resort,s water volleyball games. He also played the facilities 9-hole golf course almost daily and earlier in his life had been an ardent ping pong player.
Dick passed away on October 19, 2021, at the age of 93 in Desert Hot Springs, California, with his family at his side.
A recollection from daughter Joyce: While attend college at the University of Arizona, Joyce applied to nursing school which required filling out their application, one of the questions asked being was “did she have a vehicle?” Having a bicycle that could transport her from job to job, Joyce answered yes. Hearing about this, Dick found a used yellow VW Bug and had it refurbished and when Joyce graduated from U of A , Dick and Dorothy presented it to Joyce as a graduation present. What a wonderful Dad and Mom!!!