Richard “Dick” Laverne Gibson, 79, formerly of Danville died Tuesday, May 30, 2023, at Klein Center, West Burlington, from complications of Lewy Body Dementia. His wife of 40 years, Marjorie Beck Gibson, died in 2022.
Born Nov. 11, 1943, in Waterloo, he was the youngest child of Charles Laverne and Melvina Harriet Hoover Gibson. Richard was raised in Waterloo and graduated from East High School in 1961. He attended the University of Northern Iowa and Saint Cloud State School in Minnesota with a focus on Industrial education, before earning his master’s degree in management at Lake Forest School of Management in Ill. in 1979.
His early career was in the field of engineering, working for the companies Sifo, Honeywell, Playskool, and Baxter Travenol Laboratories, where he was the recipient of the Outstanding Engineering Award for his work with the artificial kidney division. He was awarded several corporate patents for cardiovascular devices.
His middle career years were spent largely in industrial management, where he was an operations manager, vice president, and director of research and development for plastic manufacturing companies such as Polyblend and Tenex Corp.
After spending many years in the manufacturing and business world, he felt called to work for the Lord in missionary service. He was executive director for Biblical Literature Fellowship for 10 years, and then spent two years living in Belgium to work with their parent organization, Editeurs de Litterature Biblique. He was the director of international development for the International Christian Centers for the Deaf, where he was instrumental in redesigning the system for building schools for deaf children in developing countries. He was the director of Caleb Resources, a missions mobilization organization. He was on the Board of Directors for seven not-for profit organizations.
Richard’s final career years were spent working in special education, working one on one with students in the Fishers, Ind. school system and the Danville schools.
Richard and Marjorie (Beck), his wife of 40 years, were passionate about traveling, having visited all 50 states, 69 countries, and all 7 continents. They led over 24 personally guided group tours to Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris. Richard was also an unabashed thrill-seeker, spelunking, bungee jumping, white water rafting, rock climbing, sky diving, parasailing, tower diving, and riding as many roller coasters as he could. He personally built and flew one of the first powered ultralight airplanes, and earned a small engine pilot license, which he maintained for many years.
His other lifelong passion was woodworking. He enjoyed many years of sharing his knowledge (and extensive workshop) with his children and friends, eventually starting a program called Cross-Cut, whose goal was to mentor students, share life lessons and core values while teaching them woodworking skills.
He was a member of Faith Baptist Church in Danville.
Survivors include his children from his first marriage David Gibson, Festus, Mo., Amy Frahm, Shakopee, Minn., and Jennifer (Ronald) Lofgren, Arnold, Mo.; granddaughters: Dana Berkshire, Shakopee, Minn., Jacqueline Lofgren, St. Louis, Mo., and Valita Frahm of Shakopee, Minn.; sister Barbara and her husband Gary Scoggin, Dubuque, sister-in-law, Virginia Beck, Danville, brother-in-law, Larry Spencer; numerous nieces and nephews, and grand-nieces and nephews
He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife, Marjorie, who died in 2022, sister, Carol Spencer, brother-in-law, Donald Beck, and sister-in-law, Marleen Beck.
Visitation will be held on Saturday, June 3, from 12 to 1:30 p.m., with services to follow at 1:30 at Lunning Chapel in Burlington. Interment will be private.