“Quiet dignity” – Richard Crist – U. S. State Department
Richard Crist Eulogy
· 5 January 2015 ·
Richard “Dick” Crist son of Kenna Olsen Stanley and grandson of Adolph and Pearl Olsen Eulogy – Missoula, Montana I November 12, 1999 We have suffered a grievous loss. Our gentle and kind friend, father, brother, Dick Crist, has been taken from us. I am honored to say a few words about this noble person: in terms of who he was, his foreign service, his love of life, and the love of his life, his son, Christopher. Dick always told us he was from Lone Pine, Montana, and that name impressed and distressed people around the world. We did not know his family but Dick always talked about them and he loved them very much. He started working early in life and worked hard for all that he achieved the rest of his life. Early life was not easy, money was not plentiful and his father was mostly absent, but he was sustained by the love of his mother and brothers and sisters. He worked his way through the university. He served his country as a Marine and was always proud of this. He gained entrance to the most prestigious Business School in the country, Harvard. He became a slave to study in order to gain his MBA. But then with degree in hand he eschewed the lucrative business careers that were open to him to choose instead the uncertain path of foreign service for his country in helping people in foreign lands gain economic betterment. Dick always marched to his own drum beat. I said earlier that Dick was noble. By that I mean he stood for what was right without calculating personal gain or cost; that he had a quiet dignity which fellow workers sometimes mistakenly took for aloofness; that his inner convictions of what life is about were rock solid. He lived the life of his convictions, and that is no easy task, especially within a bureaucracy of competing interests. Courage was his natural suit of clothes, which he wore casually. His quietness fooled many who thought Dick was a pushover – were they surprised 1 He stood his ground. But his life, was not just office battles. During the fighting in Laos he was isolated in his house for several days with gunfire all around, and later as he sought safety a 30 caliber sprayed the dirt in front of him and barely missed him. On a rice investigation trip to the Vietnamese Delta his small plane dropped him off on a lonely rural road at dusk and the pickup car never came. Dusk, alone in Viet Cong infested territory, and who knows what! Dick, sangfroid as usual, talked a passing motorcyclist into taking him to the nearest town. And later he survived the Tet offensive in Viet Nam. Dick served in many lands, Laos twice, Viet Nam in a high position during the worst fighting there, India, Kenya and Nepal, rising from journeyman level to top administrative levels. He made a dramatic change in Aid policy in Nepal to save money for both our countries; he pioneered in helping design a tough new import and aid policy for Laos that saved our government tens of millions of dollars; and in Viet Nam he helped devise a complex aid program to quell inflation during wartime conditions. In Viet Nam he was long suffering and ingenious as he shepherded the unending line of big wigs from Eugene Black to Senator Ted Kennedy on tours of economic aid projects around the country. His tough intellectual training and rigorous mind served him well in difficult assignments to devise excellent and innovative aid programs. Those who knew Dick knew that he did not suffer fools easily or perhaps at all. This caused Dick some grief because fools there are so many. Dick had a wry sense of humor, and few days passed that the flow of events, sometimes bizarre, did not bring out a chuckle in him, or some ironic and subtle comment. He was amused by the daily parade of human foibles. Dick also knew deep sorrow in his life, especially the death of his sister, and his eyes and soul were touched with a depth no one knew. Dick was fun! His love of life defined his life; his love of Christopher, his family and friends, tennis, and all things Asian — people, art and climate. Art was very important to him, both though creating his own paintings and his love of beauty and form, his love of nature and the sculptural depictions of Asian myth and religion. Tennis was his boon. Wherever he went he was an avid, excellent and I competitive tennis player, even under the intense heat of a tropical noon sun. Never was he happier than when playing tennis or critiquing a top player on TV. He also was an accomplished cook and gardener. But I will always remember Dick in terms of his natural and remarkable ability to make deep friendships with people of other cultures friendships which continued throughout his life, His fluency in Lao, Thai and French and probably Nepalese is a testament to his commitment to understand and know other people in depth. His ease and delight in moving into other cultures had to be seen to be believed. He was truly a child of the 20th Century seeing all people as his brothers and sisters. And I mean all; Dick never saw a person he thought was lowly or beneath him, whether street vendor, rice farmer or a pedicab cyclist. Dick was a deeply religious person who was greatly influenced by the Asian religions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism. In truth, his God was a deep God of life, too large to be contained by any of the vessels man builds to describe and contain God. All these qualities finally do not describe Dick compared to the one end and abiding love of his life, his son Christopher of whom he was so proud. Christopher gave meaning and direction to his life like nothing else did. Imagine a nervous Dick with Christopher in swaddling clothes boarding a PanAm jet in Bangkok, learning to change diapers and all that goes with raising a child. Dick and Christopher grew together in Kenya, in Washington, Chieng Mai, Thailand and then Missoula and Coronado. Dick chose in retirement to live in Chieng Mai so Christopher could learn Thai and be close to his mother. Christopher himself chose Missoula for his high school education so he could be close to his American family. Dick and Christopher in recent years had the joy of getting to know each other as adults. No one was prouder than Dick when he watched Christopher. blossom into a fine young man, who loved cooking and some day will be a renowned chief When Dick needed him as his health failed, Christopher was there for him, giving Dick love and assistance in a compassionate way over these last many months. Never did Dick’s face light up so wonderfully as when he talked of Christopher and his thankfulness for him and his pride in him. I close with two personal reminiscences that I will always carry in my heart as I think back on Dick, JoAnn & I together arriving in an exotic land and exploring it together. First, of the lovely, hot and red dusty afternoons in Laos when Dick, JoAnn & I would peddle our bikes out to a nearby Lao village, always looking for a new village, never knowing where we were going, always welcomed by laughing Lao children pointing and giggling at the funny Americans. Lazy afternoons sitting in the village, talking in halting and comical Lao to the villagers as the hazy afternoon wiled away. Second, Dick & I on lunch break sitting along the banks of the Mekong watching the mighty river roll by, while we looked with surprise and anxiety far down the river as white parachutes popped out of circling C47s. Phoumi’s troops were coming and ironically, these CIA-backed troops would soon attack “our” town. Dick was the closest friend JoAnn & I ever had. He was like a brother to us and we kept in close touch over the last 3 5 years. We have all been given a great gift and we are ever thankful to God for the joy and wonder of Dick. He was with us and will always be with us. He is so deeply a part of us that though he has left us, he can never leave us. My father once wrote: “For death is not to grieve if birth is joy to us all.” So Dick has departed and Christopher, a wonderful and fine young, man goes forward. We wish him well and will all be with him as he goes.
Roy Wehrle
Below is Richard LaVelle Crist’s obituary appearing in the Missoulian on November 11, 1999:
Richard LaVelle Crist
CORONADO, Calif. – Richard LaVelle Crist, 66, of Coronado, Calif., and Chiang Mai, Thailand, passed away on Saturday, Nov. 6, 1999, at his home in Coronado after a long battle with cancer.
He was born on June 8, 1933, in Lone Pine, near Camus Hot Springs, the son of Kenna Rosalie Olsen and William Rauleigh Crist. He was raised and educated in Missoula and graduated from Missoula County High School in 1951. Dick then attended the University of Montana and graduated with honors in 1955 with a bachelor of science in business administration. After being in the ROTC program at the university for two years, Dick served with the U.S. Marine Corps as a 1st Lieutenant in the Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron as Adjutant at El Toro Marine Corps Air Base near Los Angeles. After his honorable discharge, Dick went on to Harvard Business School and earned his master’s in business administration in 1959. Dick joined the U.S. State Department’s Agency for International Development and served 26 years working on economic development in underdeveloped countries, mostly Asia. His assignments included Laos from 1960-64, Vietnam from 1965-68, Nepal from 1970-71, India from 1971-72, Laos from 1972-75, Kenya from 1979-83 and Washington D.C. from 1983-85. Dick retired on April 3, 1985, and maintained retirement homes in Coronado and Chiang Mai, Thailand. His passions were tennis, traveling, gardening, oriental artifacts and cooking. Dick was proficient in speaking French, Thai, Nepali and Lao.
Dick was preceded in death by his sister and parents.
He is survived by his son, Christopher Kenna Crist of Coronado and Chiang Mai; his son’s mother, Sriprai Khamthip of Chiang Mai; a sister, Darlene Mills; brothers, Billy and Buddy Crist, all of Missoula, and brother, Bob Crist of Anaconda.
Funeral services will be held on Friday, Nov. 12 at 10 a.m. at Garden City Funeral Home with burial to follow at Missoula City Cemetery. There will be a reception following the services.
The family suggests that memorials be made to the Kenna R. Crist Memorial Scholarship Fund at Hellgate High School.
Funeral arrangements are under the care of Garden City Funeral Home and Crematory.