Rick Dalton

April 26, 1952 - December 22, 2024

Rick passed away peacefully after a brief stay in the hospital. Sadly, his wife June passed a week later.

We moved to South Pasadena in December 1959. Rick was 7 and I was 9. Rick entered the 2nd grade at Oneonta and there he met the first of several life-long friends, C.K. Dyer. The next school year Rick entered El Centro, and he and Jerry Anderson began their friendship. In junior high, Rick's closest friends included Scott Conard, Rick Booth and Paul Cole, among others. 'The Boys' began friendships which have lasted for their entire lives.

During 10th grade Rick decided to try out for the varsity football team. He had never played any organized sports and in his first two seasons, he never started a game. In fact, he only played for about one set of downs once, in the 11th grade. Coach Solari saw something in Rick. Starting at practices the first season he would say to Rick, "Dalton, why don't you quit? You know you hate it!" The summer before his third and final football season, Rick played a lot of basketball, did pullups and ran on the track. He was preparing for the 'Iron Man' challenge which included doing 40 pushups; 12 pullups; and running a distance under a certain time. The reward for completing the challenge was to start in the first game of the season. Rick could do the pushups. But he could not do all the pullups, and his run time was a minute or more too slow to pass the test. By the time he did the 'Iron Man' Rick completed all the requirements, including knocking over a minute off his time. Rick started every game and was a team captain four times. The team went 13 and 0 winning the CIF championship.

After graduation Rick went to the California Maritime Academy. Prior to graduation Rick made some mistakes and he was dismissed from school. He was told he could not come back. With hard work and persistence, one year later, Rick was indeed back and even though he was on probation, he completed the next two years and graduated as a 3rd Engineer. This was the start of an 11-year career as a Merchant Marine Officer. 

Rick and his wife June met in Hawaii and were married in 1979. Rick left the Merchant Marine as a lst Engineer. After shipping, Rick landed 'a beach job'. He had a 30-year career managing power plants. He started in the Imperial Valley running three geothermal plants. He spent almost five years in the Philippines managing the buildout and operations of several geothermal power plants. He finished his career as an operations manager, having run large gas turbine plants in Illinois, Texas, Georgia, and Iowa. Rick and June retired and lived near Des Moines, Iowa.

Many times over the years Rick and I have been asked how we were raised. Our answer has always been the same:  Rick would say, "I was raised by a 9-year-old and Den was raised by a 7-year-old"... Rest well Rick, you have earned it!

Dennis Dalton ' 68, brother