Richard Kenneth MacNealy

Richard “Dick” MacNealy, age 94, departed this world on November 6th, 2017. He was born in Newark, OH July 10th, 1923 and spent his youth in Bethesda and Canton, OH. He grew up during the depression and upon graduation from High School in 1942, he enlisted in the Coast Guard to fight in WWll. As a crew member on Landing Ship, Tank (LST) 166, he was in seven combat campaigns against Japan in the South Pacific involving battles at Saipan, the Solomon Islands, Okinawa, Guadalcanal, Vella la Vella, and Bougainville. He and his ship narrowly escaped destruction during the West Loch disaster in Hawaii, sometimes called the Second Pearl Harbor, a tragedy which was kept top secret until well after the war was over. Soon after his discharge, he attended Northern Michigan University, where he played football and graduated with a degree in Education. He followed this by earning his Master’s degree from the University of Michigan. While at Northern, he met the former Shirley Ann Adams of Pickford, MI whom he married in 1952. He coached and taught school in Bellevue, OH, in Cheboygan, MI from 1953 to 1960 where is two oldest sons were born, and for the Department of Defense School System in Japan where his youngest son was born. In 1962, he accepted a job as a school supply sales representative in Mississippi and moved from Japan to raise his family. He lovingly gave his three sons the childhood he never had. In 1975, he went back into school work as a principal in the Canton Public Schools until he retired in 1989. He moved to Bradenton, FL for the next fifteen years before moving to Brandon, MS in 2005. He and his wife of 65 years, the former Shirley Ann Adams of Pickford, MI, spent many years traveling around the US in their motor home. They enjoyed square and round dancing wherever they travelled and especially enjoyed the summers they spent with Shirley’s sisters and brother-in-law, Betty Lipsett and Marilyn and Chuck Crawford, all of Cedarville. Dick was a 32 degree Scottish Rite Mason, Phi Delta Kappan, former President of the Bear Creek Water Association and of the Villas at the Reservoir Homeowner’s Association and member of Lakeside Presbyterian Church in Brandon, MS. He was preceded in death by his father, Arthur Curtis MacNealy of Newark, his mother Estella Venus (Moore) Bealer of Bethesda and his older brother, Edwin Earle (Bill) MacNealy of Canton. Richard is survived by his wife, Shirley and their three sons, all retired Army pilots and their spouses: Colonel Richard (Rem) MacNealy and Ginger of Huntsville, AL; Colonel Bradly MacNealy and Duncan of Inverness, MS and Brigadier General Kelly MacNealy and Libby of Madison, MS. He is also survived by his grandchildren Sergeant First Class Bradly Jr. and his wife, Leah of Inverness, MS; Brittany and her husband Robert Gonzalez of St John, US Virgin Islands, Rachel Wesson and her husband Taylor, DC of Huntsville, AL; and Nathan of Madison, MS. Richard was also able to enjoy his two great grandchildren before he passed, Haddie Mac Wesson and Robert (RJ) Gonzalez lll. Richard loved his family and enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren operating farm machinery, picking pecans, and watching catfish harvesting operations at Eagle Lake and Lake Dawson Plantation in the Mississippi Delta. Visitation will be at the R. Galer Funeral Home in Pickford on Sunday, December 3rd from 1:30 to 2:00 followed by a memorial service. Mr. MacNealy will be interred together with his wife at Oaklawn Chapel Gardens Cemetery near the farm where she grew up. In lieu of flowers, Richard requested donations be made to Alzheimer’s Mississippi, 855 S. Pear Orchard Road, Suite 501, Ridgeland, MS 39157, in honor of the love of his life Shirley, whom he was devoted to, and cared for, for so many years.

Tributes

Richard Kenneth MacNealy

July 10, 1923 - November 6, 2017