YODER – Richard Chester Preston, 87, died Monday, Aug. 21, 2017.
Memorial services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 28, at the First Wyoming United Presbyterian Church in Torrington with Reverend Vicky Kintzel and Associate Pastor Kate Morrison officiating. Family burial will take place at a later date. Cremation has taken place.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Colyer Funeral Home and friends may send their condolences to the family at www.colyerfuneralhome.com .
Dick was born March 6, 1930, in Gillette, the son of John Thomas and Bertha (Kluttz) Preston. The family lived six years on the Belle Fourche River before moving to Arizona. The Preston’s moved to Rozet, where Dick attended grade school and graduated in 1948. Following graduation, he spent four years in the Navy during the Korean Conflict. He went on to receive a BS from Arizona State University in Ranch Management and a MS from New Mexico State University in Animal Production. He worked at White Sand Proving Grounds and for the Bureau of Land Management in Farmington, N.M. After receiving his teaching certification, he taught in Chandler, Ariz., and in Chugwater, Casper and Rock River.
Memorials may be made to the Southeast Goshen County High School science department in Dick’s name. Before he took up ranching full time, Dick taught Chemistry and Physics classes in rural high school for many years in Arizona, Kansas and Wyoming. Dick believed those science programs were consistently under funded. Although he never taught there himself, Dick cared deeply about the quality of education for Goshen County kids.
Dick married Ellen Lou Likins at Yoder in 1961. The couple was married 55 years.
He was a 4-H leader, DeMolay Dad and Elder at South Goshen Presbyterian Church.
Survivors include his wife Ellen; sons Eric and Theodore (Kristi); daughter Victoria; grandson Thomas Preston; granddaughters Sofia Preston and Aubrey Atkinson and his sister Norma Bales.
Preceding him in death were his parents; brothers Jack and Lewis; sister Shirley Sutton and his son Richard William Preston.
