Richard "Dick" Blizzard died of cancer in the early morning hours of August 4th, 2021 at the age of eighty-seven.

He was born and raised by his mother and father, Beulah (aka Cuz) and Spencer in the small coal mining town of Jenkins, Kentucky.

Dick was proud of his working class upbringing.  Growing up he had a brother and a sister, Uncle David and Aunt Margaret to me.  His brother David is the last survivor of the three siblings.  He sat with me next to my dad on the last day of his life.

After his childhood in Jenkins, Dick joined the Navy and became a pilot.  He flew aircraft off of aircraft carriers and made Lieutenant.  He also married my mother, Joann, who is also from Jenkins.  Their marriage lasted over fifty years, has the unique distinction of ending in what was perhaps the most amicable divorce in human history.

Together, they had four children all of whom go by their middle names.  In the order or our births we are Jane, Farley, David and Jill.

I'm David, if you're wondering.  We're all still enjoying wonderful lives and Jill was even kind enough to bless my father with his only grandchild, Ella Jane Hoffmaster.  On the last day he could speak, Dick made a point to use some of the final words to express his profound love for Ella Jane.

After the Navy, Dick went to work for Delta Airlines.  He was a member of the Airline Pilots Association.  He retired as a captain and at the end of his career he was flying from the west coast to Tokyo, Seoul, and Bangkok.

In the early seventies, one of Dick's flights was hijacked to Havana by a man carrying nitroglycerin.  As captain, Dick handled the situation flawlessly and thanks to his excellent decisions not one person was hurt and the hijacker was apprehended by the Cuban authorities after they carefully disarmed him of the explosive.

After retiring from Delta, Dick and Joann travelled together a great deal on their yacht.  They went up and down the west coast together from Alaska to Mexico.

Ultimately, Dick returned to his beloved hometown of Jenkins where he bought a nice house and spent the final years of his life.