Funeral services for Richard “Dick” McNeill, 82, of Perry will be 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 5 at the Murdock Funeral Home in Perry. Burial will be Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. at the Friends Cemetery in Richland, Iowa. Visitation will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, with the family receiving friends from 4-6 p.m. Sunday at Murdock Funeral Home.
Dick passed away Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018, at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa.
Richard Lee McNeill was born Oct. 8, 1936, in Crawfordsville, Iowa, the son of John R. and Helen A. (Stewart) McNeill.
He attended schools and graduated with the class of 1956 from Crawfordsville High School. He always said he graduated in the top 10 of his class because there were only 10 kids in his class. Dick received awards as a star 4-H member.
The McNeill family owned and operated a Standard Oil gas station for nearly 100 years.
Dick started working at the station at an early age. When he was 10 years old, he was the first polio patient in Washington County to be diagnosed. He spent eight weeks in an iron lung at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa.
Dick enlisted in the U.S. Army on Nov. 14, 1956, and was Honorably Discharged on Aug. 24, 1959.
On Oct. 12, 1958, Dick married Carolyn Ann Hinshaw at the First United Methodist Church in Washington, Iowa. Two wonderful children, Jim and Marsha, were raised and loved by Dick and Carolyn.
Dick worked for International Harvester Company in Washington, Iowa, Columbia, Mo., and Perry before his retirement. He then worked for Perry Community Schools as a bus driver for 11 years and also at the grade school cafeteria.
He loved kids!
He was an avid Iowa Hawkeye Fan and a member of Crime Stoppers.
Dick would never say a bad word about anyone.
The ones who will miss him so much are his wife, Carolyn McNeill of Perry; son, Jim (Lisa) McNeill of Dallas Center; daughter, Marsha McLaughlin (Don Rusch) of West Des Moines; three grandsons, Ben (Steph) McNeill of Hutchison, Minn., Jake McLaughlin and partner, Gary Bissig, of Ankeny and Andrew McLaughlin and fiance, Molly Cook, of Williamsburg, Iowa; great-grandson, William A. McNeill; and soon-to-be great-granddaughter, Kara McNeill; exchange-student son, Raymundo Sotello Rosas and wife, Wendy, of Mexico; and one sister, JoAnn (Carol) Newquist of California.
