Celebrating the Life of

by Martha Schealer Smith, Daughter



Dad,

You were always the invincible hero I KNEW there would be another of to marry (ahh... you + Mom!  I wonder how many other husbands called their wives every lunch time without fail?).

I confess in the past the thought of you dying scared me.  I was afraid that I would lose control.  But no...  You let God teach well through you; living as you did in the Spirit's possessive control because of your humble trust at all times in God.  My grief is now joy.  Your whole life has brought me in to a very personal relationship with  Christ and what HE did on the cross.

Thank you for the BEST and ONLY gift a parent should give a child.

I love you, Daddy.

________________________________

Obituary by Martha Schealer Smith

Richard Burns Schealer took his Lord’s hand and followed Him into Paradise for all eternity.

            Born September 22, 1924 to Franklin and Sallie Burns Schealer in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, Dick was the youngest of nine living children.  Involved with Boy Scouts all his life, he earned his Eagle Scout Badge then helped begin a High Adventure – SCUBA Diving Post as a leader. 

The true meaning of BSA was vastly important to our father, but a poor second to the husband of his 63 year marriage to his true soul mate, H. Nancy McNey.  They were married May 13, 1950.

Dick served in Guamand on Saipan and invented several products, from an improved wooden hinge to a tool used to remove broken spark plugs from aircraft in WW II, but his creating didn’t end there.  In the South Pacific he designed and built a wind powered washing machine and devised a self contained underwater breathing apparatus to provide his fellow Navy servicemen with fresh fish. 

After the war he attended Penn State, receiving his mechanical engineering degree while Nancy worked as a Registered Nurse from the University of Pennsylvania.

Richard’s integrity, honesty and leadership-encouragement led him and his family across our country working first for the Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, then travelling to Idaho and Kansas before a final stop in Cocoa, Florida, where he and Nancy decided to stay.  NASA made good use of his diverse talents to the extent that he and his love spent 2 ½ years in Lompoc, CA training the USAF to launch the Space Shuttle from the west coast of the USA.

While in Kansas, their family of five daughters became rounded off with a son.  During every move Dick and Nancy shared God’s wondrous creations with their family through a two week camping and national parks tour to their next destination.  Their children were raised in the best of worlds.

Dick “retired” in 1988, but that was just from NASA.  He never stopped designing and building on their Cocoa home.  What began as a 3 bedroom single bath house in 1964 is now a 3 story home with 4 bedrooms and 3 ½ baths plus a huge shop area.

Raised as very close to God and each other, Dad’s 6 children, their spouses, 19 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren miss our father/grandfather (and Mother will miss her True Love), but we won’t grieve as most of the world grieves.  We will all be together soon.

Richard Schealer “did justice, loved kindness and walked humbly with his God.” (Micah 6:8)

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