Dr. Douglas Perry Richards of Johnson City passed away Tuesday, February 17, 2015, at the age of 80, after a remarkable two-year battle with lung cancer.
He was born on May 13, 1934, in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, to the late C. Perry & Helen Hornby Richards. He was preceded in death by his sister, Audrey and brother-in-law Everett Henderson of Nanaimo, BC, Canada and his sister-in-law, Virginia Patton, and brother-in-law, Houston Campbell, of Jonesborough, TN.
Dr. Richards is survived by his loving wife, Shirley Patton Richards, formerly of Telford, TN, for nearly 47 years, along with two caring nieces: Jill Henderson (Robert Goodlad) of Vernon, BC, Canada and Janet Bowers (Gavin and children Celine and Katelyn) of Victoria, BC.
He was educated in the public school system and graduated in 1952 from Kam High. In 1957, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of British Columbia. After working several years with the BC Forest Service, Prince Rupert, BC, he entered as a graduate research assistant at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. At this institution, he received both a Master of Forestry (1963) and a Ph.D. of Forestry-agriculture Economics and Statistics (1971) from Oregon State University. He was a member of the Canadian Institute of Forestry and the Society of American Foresters, which he joined in 1960. Douglas served in progressively more challenging positions after graduating from Oregon State University until his retirement in 2005. These included Northwestern Pulp and Paper in Hinton, Alberta, Canada; Crown Zellerbach Corp. in Portland, Oregon; Forest Economics Government Institute in Ottawa, Canada; Instructor of Forestry Economics at Virginia Tech; Canadian Forestry Service in Ottawa, Canada; Head of the Forestry Department at the Mississippi State University and also Associate Director of the Forest and Wildlife Research Center at M.S. U. He retired in July 2005 and in September of that year moved to Jonesborough, TN.
