Richard Gillespie

Richard Curtis Gillespie

Celebration of Life

Richard Curtis Gillespie died peacefully in his home on October 9, 2023. Dick was born at the family farm homestead during a snowstorm on March 4th, 1932, in Eldred, Minnesota. His parents were Lorraine and Clifford Gillespie. He was the second of six children (Norma, Gerald, Leone, Dale and Ruth)  At nine years old his parents parted ways and he began finding odd jobs to help support his family. In 1946, he began to study for the Lutheran Ministry attending Concordia High School in St. Paul, MN. He returned to Crookston in 1949 where he graduated from High School.

In 1950, Dick joined the Air Force at the beginning of the Korean Conflict. During his service in Alaska, he married and had two children, Mark Alan and Donyce Lynn. He was honorably discharged in 1954. Subsequently he worked 13 plus years for IBM in manufacturing as a quality engineer and participated in corporate organizational development activities. In 1969, he was the 23rd person hired to start Storage Technology (STC) in Boulder, Colorado handling manufacturing and quality assurance. In 1971, Dick was called to join the Division for College and University Services of the Lutheran church as a Management and Organizational Consultant. He participated in management reviews at most of the various Lutheran colleges, universities, and seminaries. He also did consulting for the Instito de Columbia Administración in Bogota Columbia from 1971-1973.

In 1978, Richard married the love of his life, JoAnn Marie, and moved to the West Coast. He adopted her twins from a previous marriage (Robert Karl and Jennifer Alice). He founded a company called Work/Life Management Systems International. Some of his clients included the U.S. Forest Industry, Golconda Job Core Center, NOAA’s Air and Oceanic Administration, Weyerhaeuser Corporation in the US, and Canada, as well as Red Robin and Salty’s Restaurants, John L Scott Real Estate, Dri Eaz Corporation and B&B Steel Fabricators to name some of his clients. He has published four books: Managing Is Everybody’s Business in 1992, A Practical Approach To Performance Interventions and Analysis: 50 Models in 2012, Mastering The Obvious in 2015 and for his final book in 2020 when he was 88, he teamed up with Ken Jacobs to do a complete rewrite of his first book Managing is Everybody’s Business.

Richard was preceded in death by his son Mark Alan Gillespie (Karen Gillespie) and his daughter Jennifer Alice Gillespie (Neil Morrison). He is survived by his lovely wife JoAnn of forty-five years and his two children: Donyce Lynn Gillespie Ness and Robert Karl Gillespie and six grandchildren (Brenna Joy, Richard, Robert Junior, Mark, Travis, and Michael).

Family gatherings, holidays, travelling, and exercise rounded out his busy days. The most important thing in his life was his faith and he took every opportunity to share it with others. He dearly loved his family and his church.

A Celebration of Life service will be held on October 28th at 1:00 p.m. at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church (9320 Meadow Way, Everett, WA) with a reception to follow. A live stream of Richard’s service can be viewed on pplc.org. Dick loved music and sang at countless weddings, funerals, and special services. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Choir at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.