Richard Wise
Richard Keys Wise, 67, of Anchorage died April 19, 2009, in Vilonia, Ark. A service will be at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Anna Street Church of Christ, Amarillo, Texas. He was born April 19, 1942 in Amarillo to Morris and Clara Wise. He married Connie Willingham on Jan. 2, 1960 in Amarillo. He attended Palo Duro High School and received his GED from the U.S. Navy in 1960. He served eight years in the Navy. After his honorable discharge, he worked in communications in Texas and Australia before beginning his 30-year career in the North Slope oilfields. Retiring in 1985 from Arco, Richard and his wife moved to Hawaii to open a television satellite business. In 1990, he returned to Alaska to work for an oilfield service company. Mr. Wise loved to learn and attended Amarillo College and the University of Texas at Arlington. Most recently, he studied bluegrass music and its history at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. He greeted everyone with a handshake or a hug. His wife, children and grandchildren were always first in his life. His hobbies included music, especially bluegrass and his love of old steam engine trains he grew up watching near his home in Amarillo. In August 2004, Mr. Wise realized his dream to live full-time in a motor home attending bluegrass music festivals across the U.S. He loved to perform on stage but his favorite activity was jamming in the festival parking lots. Survivors include his wife, Connie Wise and her mother, Bernice Austin; children, Deral and Yevgeniya Wise, JonAlan and Chrissie Wise and Stacy and Donald Thomas; grandchildren, Lauren and Heath Billingsly, Erika Wise, Alyssa Moneyhun, Bradley Wise, Tessa Wise, Evdokia Wise, Ekaterina Wise, Garrett Thomas, Heather Thomas and Jessica Kiser; great-grandchildren, Kylie Billingsly and Cadence Billingsly; brothers, Jim and Jody Wise, and Raymond and Cathy Wise; sister, Oressa Wise; and many nephews, nieces and great-nieces and -nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; and sister, Doris Wise Leak. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Heart Association
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