In Memory

Richard A "Dick" Sands - Class Of 1952

Richard A Dick Sands

Richard A. Sands, 63, of Sonoma, died October 15, 1997, at his home in Sonoma with his family, of complications related to Alzheimer's disease.

Dick Sands was born October 9, 1934, in Long Beach, California. He spent his early years in Long Beach, Santa Paula and San Marino, California, and graduated from South Pasadena-San Marino High School in 1952.

He was a graduate of Stanford University and a naval aviator serving in Corpus Christi, Texas, San Diego and aboard the USS Shangri-La in the Far East. He maintained a life long interest in aviation, and after leaving the Navy, qualified in single-engine, multi-engine as well as single-engine jet aircraft, and held a commercial pilot's license with instrument rating.

His advertising career spanned three decades in San Francisco. Until 1986, he was partner and vice president of Scott, Marshall, Sands & McGinley, and more recently, was Pacific Region advertising manager for Nation's Business Magazine.

With Richard Sands Productions, he produced video programs for the Sail America Foundation, featuring Stars & Stripes, winner of the America's Cup in 1987.

Dick Sands will long be remembered by his many friends and fellow members of the Bohemian Club as an actor, writer and director. He donated his time to Canine Companions for Independence and the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Florida. He was an avid runner who ran in the Boston Marathon in 1979.

He had been a Sonoma resident since 1972.

Mr. Sands is survived by his wife, Sally, of Sonoma; daughter, Gretchen of Phoenix, Arizona, son, Kirk of Santa Cruz, Calif.; son Eric, daughter-in-law Tracy, granddaughters Megan and Kelsey of Fairfax, Calif.; sister, Barbara of Monterey, Calif. He is also mourned by his mother-in-law, Roberta Tuller of Sonoma; brother-in-law, Robert Tuller of San Francisco and several nieces and nephews.

Sonoma-Index Tribune, October 17, 1997