Keith Bruce Richard

Keith was a bright and brilliant individual bringing excellence to every situation he was involved in. Starting at a young age Keith was always looking for those in need and doing something about it. He was the change that people needed. During his childhood he served on many different organizations in school and in the community.
When Keith was in High School, we lost a very special family friend whom my children called Grandpa. My husband had joined the Ranger Battalion after hearing our friends’ stories of the resilience these men carry.

Our son and my husband ran Wear Blue Run to Remember on Saturdays in DuPont, WA. One Saturday we even snapped a photo of the boys at a race. They were holding up a photo of our friend. This is one of our favorite photos to look back on.

Keith was determined to be his own individual and grow as a man with his own ideas of what a young man should be. He had a beautiful son in July 2020, and sadly was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer a few short months later. I supported my son as his full-time care giver during Covid by staying in NC for his treatments. After many months of negotiating, the Army provided a compassionate transfer for family support.

Our son came home in December of 2020. Ten months into many brain surgeries and radiation and chemo treatment our son moved into our home. His wife and son stayed in NC. The end of March our son was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer. Operation Ward 57 donated a room for four nights at Great Wolf Lodge for him and his family and the Lead the Way Fund supported our room to join them. Keith was too ill to go on that trip. He decided he wanted to keep the reservation and asked for all of us family to go and enjoy the time together since it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I hesitated and argued for a bit, but Keith is persistent. We arranged for family to stay with him while my husband, daughter, oldest son and his wife and my oldest grandson, as well as my Keith’s wife and son. It was a big trip, and we were all very excited, but we also had grief knowing Keith couldn’t enjoy the time with us. During those few days Keith’s health deteriorated quickly. We came home after those four days and spent the next 72 hours saying our goodbyes to him. Hospice told us it was hours from happening, the biggest loss we’d ever go through together. Holding the hand of my boy while supporting the other two children, their wives, and babies as well as my husband and Keith’s dad and other family members was difficult, but Keith had arranged so much that there were no questions as to who did what.

Keith always led by example and showed great characteristic. Keith was a loving son, friend, father and husband.