William Richard "Rick" Miner

Miner, William Richard 'Rick' 67 Oct. 17, 1945 May 11, 2013 William Richard "Rick" Miner died quietly at home, on May 11, after a brief battle with melanoma. Rick was born in Santa Barbara to Glenn E. and Vinetta M. Miner on Oct. 17, 1945. He married the love of his life, Susan Richardson Miner, on Sept. 18, 1967. Besides his wife, Rick is survived by his two daughters and their families, Jennifer and Richard Kollmer and their children, Olivia and Michael of Deep River, Conn. and Kendra and Thomas Biller and their daughter, Abigail of Portland. He is also survived by his sister and brother-in-law, Catherine and Patrick Shepherd of Prescott, Ariz., his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Kirk and Charlotte Richardson of Portland; as well as his nephews, Sam and Henry Richardson. He was preceded in death by his parents, and he will be greatly missed by his feline "kids," Lucy and Linus. Rick received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University in 1968. He worked at Standard Oil in the San Francisco Bay area from 1968 to 1976 and at ESCO Corporation in Portland from 1976 until his retirement in Oct. 2010. Rick's passions in life included teasing and laughing with his grandchildren, photography, computers, finding online deals, the art of barbecue and mastering his Traeger smoker and supervising his wife's cooking. He treasured his monthly breakfasts with ESCO friends. He loved exploring the Southwestern states and Oregon's well-traveled and less-known spots with his wife and tracked all of his destinations via GPS coordinates. A typical engineer, he recorded absolutely everything in spreadsheet format. Rick harbored a continuing desire to learn about anything and everything and sent online articles to his kids, encouraging them to learn, too. Some of his favorite phrases were, "Skidder Back, Knute!", "goat roping," and "Life's short, eat dessert first." He collected many things including hot sauce, fountain pens, flashlights (only given away to those he really cared about!), bicentennial quarters and $2 bills. He was never caught without an Atomic FireBall in his pocket. In lieu of flowers, his family requests donations be made in his memory to the Oregon Humane Society, PO Box 11364, Portland, OR 97211-0364, or www.oregonhumane.org/donate, or to a charity of the donor's choice. At his request, there will be no service and interment will be private.