Files
Download Full Text (47 KB)
Obituary
Dick was born December 8, 1908, in Shakopee, Scott County, Minnesota. By 1930, he moved to Columbia Falls, Montana, working as a laborer in a lumber camp and by October 1940, he was working for the Flathead NF as a Forest Guard. He was one of the seven selected representatives from several forests in Region One, to start the smokejumper program in 1940. Richard was the representative from the Flathead NF. One of the men in the original group did not pass the physical and the other dropped out during training. Dick was 32 years old when he rookied in 1940. In his second year, he was the squadleader for the crew at Big Prairie RS and had 13 jumps when he ended his smokejumping career at the end of the 1941 season. He was the spotter for half of the 34 fire jumps made in 1941. Dick married a lady in Minnesota in March of 1941 and returned there after the 1941 fire season. He died June 22, 1944, at the Glen Lake Sanatorium, Hennepin County, Minnesota. The sanatorium was primarily a treatment center for tuberculosis in 1944.
Identifier
Lynch_Richard-Charles_Missoula_1940
Publication Date
July 2020
Keywords
Smokejumping; Smokejumpers -- United States; National Smokejumper Association; Wildfire fighters; Obituaries
Disciplines
Forest Management
Recommended Citation
National Smokejumper Association, "Smokejumper Obituary: Lynch, Richard Charles (Missoula 1940)" (2020). Smokejumper Obituaries. 465.
https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_bios/465
