Richard Lee Latterell (“Dad”) was born on April 3, 1943 in Willmar, Minnesota, the youngest of three children of William and Ida (Rykken) Latterell. At age 16, Dad accepted an after-school job at the Willmar Air Service. By his senior year in high school, Dad had earned his private pilot’s license there. Dad’s love of flying was clear even then: His classmates signed his 1961 high school graduation yearbook with well wishes about Dad flying a Piper Cub airplane.
After high school, Dad enrolled at St. Cloud State University, where he put himself through college working as a flight instructor for the local airport and the campus aeronautical club, called The Flying Saints. He saved for tuition by living with his married sister Faye and her husband Harlan. It was through the aeronautical club that Mom and Dad met. In fact, Dad was actually Mom’s flight instructor. Dad said that Mom asked more questions than any student he had ever experienced, but the two still really hit it off.
After college, the Mom and Dad continued dating. Mom had moved to Minneapolis, and Dad would fly back and forth from St. Cloud, where he was still working as a flight instructor. In 1967, the couple married. As luck would have it, they both landed jobs with North Central Airlines: Mom in the central office, and Dad as a co-pilot in a DC-3. A year later, Mom became a stewardess, and the two were lucky enough to work a few flights together.
When Mom and Dad bought their first house in Prior Lake, Minnesota in 1968, Dad discovered he enjoyed being on a snowmobile almost as much as being in the cockpit. The young couple made many close friends with their neighbors, playing card games, grilling steaks and entertaining. During this time, Becky and Rick were born, and Dad also served in the Army National Guard under his brother, Col. Gerald Latterell.
After eight years in the suburbs, Dad wanted to try life in the country, so he and Mom bought forty acres in Jordan, Minnesota, where they designed and built their own house. Dad also tried his hand at hobby farming, growing and selling sod, and even buying a nearby farm to try a little cropland. The couple’s youngest child, Cheryl, was born on the Jordan hobby farm. When Cheryl got into competitive horse showing in high school, Dad expanded his skill set to include driving a horse trailer to weekend horseshows.
When Dad retired in 2001, he bought 52 acres and a hunting cabin up north, near Frazee, Minnesota. In 2002, Dad bought a condo on Big Pine Lake in Perham, Minnesota. There are many pictures of his children and grandchildren boating, swimming and having fun on that lake.
Dad once estimated that he had logged about 35,000 hours in the air on commercial and private aircraft. He was licensed to fly commercial models such as the DC – 9, DC-10 and Boeing 757, as well as over two-dozen small planes. Throughout all of his adventures, Dad also kept his original love of small airplanes. He built a hangar at Airlake Airport, close to many of his other pilot friends, where he always owned one or more private planes. Two planes that stand out in our memory are the antique open-cockpit Stearman and his last plane, marked for his initials and birthdate. He gave plane rides to all three of his kids at the AirLake Airport, as well as many of his friends.
Dad’s example of making a living at something you love remains an inspiration to us, his children, as does his example of unwavering support and love. Left to honor Dad’s life and mourn his death is his wife of 47 years, Eileen Suzannne; children, Rebecca (Steven) Bowerman, Richard Allan Latterell, Cheryl (Christa) Latterell Johnson; granddaughters, Nichole and Elizabeth Bowerman; sister, Faye (Harlan) Childers; and his other loving relatives and devoted friends. Richard was welcomed in heaven by his parents, William and Ida Latterell and brother, Gerald (Barbara) Latterell.
