On Sunday, October 24, 2021, Richard (Dick) Earl Hess, loving husband, father, and grandfather passed away at the age of 83.
Richard was born on March 31, 1938 in Spry, Pennsylvania to Earl and Gladys Hess. After graduating from Gettysburg College, he continued his studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, and was ordained as a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. On August 20, 1960 he married Mary Barbara Eck. They raised two children together, a son Tom and a daughter Sue.
Upon ordination, he was called as the Pastor at Salem Lutheran Church in Reamstown Pennsylvania. Here, as a young pastor, he spearheaded the construction of a new building for the congregation. After Reamstown, he served parishes in Media Pennsylvania and Morrisville Pennsylvania. He also served as interim pastor at several congregations in Philadelphia as well as Quakertown Pennsylvania. As a pastor, he found personal counseling to be particularly meaningful, and was instrumental in the founding of the Samaritan Counseling Center.
He had a passion for detail, enjoyed model railroading, building extremely detailed building models for various model HO layouts over the years. He also enjoyed home projects, always seeming to be working on one home remodeling or improvement project. In his later years, he applied his model building skills to bird houses, crafting numerous bird houses with exquisite details.
He was preceded in death by his mother Gladys, father Earl, and brother David. He is survived by his wife Barbara, his daughter Sue and her husband Ed, his son Tom and husband Jim, grandchildren Sean and Ryan, sisters Shirley and husband Bill, Jocelyn and husband Bruce, and Gloria and husband Leon, as well as several nieces and nephews.
A funeral service will be held on Monday, November 1, 2021 at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, 2220 Pennington Road, Ewing NJ 08638 at 11:00 am.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to
Penn Medicine Liver Cancer Research Fund
Penn Medicine Development and Alumni Relations
3535 Market Street
Suite 750
Philadelphia PA 19104
https://giving.aws.cloud.upenn.edu/fund?program=MED&fund=601422
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