Owen Richards passed away yesterday afternoon (Wednesday, July 27th) at the Tidewell Hospice in Ellenton. Owen had been experiencing severe health problems these recent past months.
His wife, Lou Richards said that although she has not finalized her plans, she does not plan a funeral service.
She will hold a memorial service for Owen in a few weeks and will let the local club members know when arrangements are made.
Lou thanks us all for the concern and friendship we have shown for Owen. Paul Sequira and I got down to Ellenton to see Owen Tues, and I'm very glad we pushed to go when we did. He wasn't what you would call very responsive, but I thought I could see signs he knew we were there and we passed on the good wishes of his friends as best we could...

If you would like to send a card or something to Owens wife Lou, the address is:

4532 12th Street Ct. E. Ellenton, Fl 34222

Owen loved to build, and would crank out new planes like nobody's business. Owen was a great travel companion, and one of the few people I would travel to a contest with. He loved to compete, and was
always a source of help and encouragement. One thing I always found cool is Owen could look at a score sheet and add it in his head quickly and accurately. He got the appropriate job title of "field marshal" at our club, because he was the one guy that could really keep the flight line moving... very often if you were slacking and it was your turn to fly, you could very likely find your plane moved to the circle for you, with Owen smiling and a ready retort like "hey, ya want me to fly it for ya too?". That always brought a smile and some good natured ribbing.

Here is a couple of pics showing how I like to remember Owen. The first was the day when he showed up with his new GeoxL back in 2001. The second is Owen winning our club WWII Quadrathon trophy presented by Phil Bayly around the same time. (This was a 4 event fox35 profile warbird event) Happier times.

Bye Owen, thanks for the memories buddy.
Eric V.

Godspeed Owen.

Thanks for the note Eric, you are right, Owen was a neat guy and loved to build planes.  I think he had a different plane every time I saw him!  He will be missed.

Sad indeed. Owen entered the first Intermediate at the Nats, as a "returnee" and progressed back to Expert level.
I saw him in January and he told me that he was improving....I believe that he had both a heart attack and a stroke.
I saw Owen again in Bradenton toasted the end of March and he was flying and in good humor.
A great guy and I'll miss him.

Owen will be missed by all of us, A great guy and a wealth of knowledge

Will

Owen and I were long time friends both of us being in the Tampa Bay Line Flyers. That picture above looks like the old Clearwater Mall field. One day Eric and I noticed Owen was flying a lot of different models from ST/60 models down to Fox 35 models all on the same set of lines.We told him he would get better if he dedicated one set of lines and handle for each plane.He got a lot better quick.Great Guy
Ed

Will
That is Phill Bailly from Clearwater
 Added ==I looked at it some more and maybe you are correct
Ed

I am saddened by missing this post, I was in the hospital myself when Owen passed.  He was a great guy whom I wish I had spent more time with.  Godspeed, Owen.

Bill