Richard Ellis Covert

Dick was born in Kansas City, Kansas, on November 18, 1938, to Joy Schmutz and Lester Covert. The family moved to Ottumwa, Iowa, when Dick was three years old. He attended Iowa State University, where he majored in physics, but changed his major to mechanical engineering because, as he said, “I didn’t want a job washing test tubes.”

After graduation, he moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he worked for Allison Engine Company, a division of General Motors, and developed a love for car racing and the Indy 500. In 1965, he left Allison and earned a master’s degree in engineering at Stanford University. He loved to tell people that he was one of the few students who paid their own tuition. It was there that he met his future wife, Margaret “Peggy” Bartz.

They were married on January 22, 1967. After honeymooning in San Francisco, they made their home in Santa Barbara, where Dick worked as an engineer for Delta Electronics. One of his favorite projects at Delta was working on the Lunar Rover.

In 1971, Kristin Ann was born, and, shortly afterwards, they moved to Del Mar, California, where he worked for several engineering companies, including a fusion research project funded by Robert Guccione. In 1984, he was hired by Teledyne Ryan, his first aerospace position and then moved on to McDonnell Douglas, soon to be The Boeing Company. That meant a move to Fountain Hills, Arizona. Dick fell in love with the desert and its 50-mile views and built his and Peggy’s dream home with the help of an architect friend who he’d meet at Iowa State. He loved his life in Arizona. He spent time off-roading with friends, visiting the Heard Museum, and eating at Malee’s on Main, which, he claimed, had the best Thai food in Arizona.

He and Peggy traveled the world with friends he’d made at General Atomics. They visited Italy, Spain and cruised down the rivers of Europe and several times to Arkansas. He especially loved his trips to Japan and Australia. He made friends wherever he traveled.

Dick was known as “Poppi” to his grandchildren, Konner (age 11) and Daylin (age 8). Even though he loved the desert, he moved to Portland, Oregon, to be near them and his daughter. His favorite activities in Portland were watching science shows with his grandchildren, having wonderful family gatherings with his daughter and visiting the Japanese garden, his grandchildren’s school, the Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, eating super burgers at his favorite “dive” bar, the Gemini and sipping good rum.

Even though Dick had physical limitations during the last couple years of his life, he was active until the end. He loved doing research on his computer, keeping in touch with his many friends and designing computer cards for special occasions.

His ashes will be returned to the desert he loved so much on April 8th. A celebration of his life will be held in Portland on March 3. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in his name to the Nature Conservancy and that you sip some good rum while thinking of him. He is survived by his wife Peggy, daughter Kristin Covert, and grandchildren Konner and Daylin.