Richard "Dick" Nevins

1926 - 2024

Richard "Dick" Nevins, formerly of Los Angeles, and later of Mammoth Lakes, California, died on October 20, 2024 in Escondido, California, age 98. Dick was born and raised in the Los Angeles area and loved spending his summers at the beach. He graduated from the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, California in 1947 and became a navigator on merchant ships out of San Francisco.
Dick was introduced to his wife, Ilene, in San Francisco by a mutual friend and they married in December 1951 and settled in the San Fernando Valley where they started a family. Dick served in the Navy during the Korean War and participated in "Operation Passage to Freedom" in 1954. After working as an executive in sales for Avnet, the airline electronics firm, the Nevins family moved to Mammoth in 1970 and Dick took a position as a realtor with Arnold and Ruth Fryling of Inyo-Mono Realty.
The Nevins family had been visiting Mammoth since 1964 and eventually bought a vacation condo at Mammoth Estates where they lived until they built a new home in 1972 in Mammoth Slopes. Dick flourished at Inyo-Mono Realty and became a broker and assumed the real estate office after the Frylings retired.
Dick, by heart, was an entrepreneur and started many business adventures in town including the construction of the building that housed the first Sears catalog store in Mammoth alongside radio station KMMT and Mammoth Hardware. The family run Sears store was then sold so Richard could start a new enterprise and he and Ilene purchased the Lake Crowley Store. He then started the Pioneer Ice Company which made and delivered ice in the summer to the various stores throughout the county. Later he built Pioneer Market & Liquor, alongside his real estate office, renamed Pioneer Realty, on Minaret Road in the current location of the Gondola building in the Village. Dick and Ilene, in association with business partners, grew Pioneer Market by adding a bakery, deli and one of the largest selection of beers in the county.
Dick was also actively involved in the local Rotary Club and in 1983, he and Ilene purchased a recreational vehicle and traveled with the Rotary RV Fellowship. In 1997, Dick sold their share of Pioneer Market and a year later retired to Tucson, Arizona with his wife where they built a home north of the city after living nomadically in their RV for almost a year. They continued to spend their summers traveling in the RV and winters in their home in Tucson. In 2022, Dick and Ilene moved to a beautiful retirement village in Escondido to be closer to their son, Alan.
Dick will be deeply missed by family and friends who will remember him as kindhearted, ready to talk with anyone in line on Mammoth Mountain and his fondness of the ocean and the mountains. Richard Eugene Nevins, born on July 28, 1926, is survived by his wife Ilene A. Nevins, his daughter Donna L. Gochenaur of Colorado and his son Alan R. Nevins of Los Angeles, California. A memorial service will not be held at Dick's request but his ashes are to be spread over the Pacific Ocean by family and friends. Remembrances can be sent to Ilene via Alan at alanhome@renaissancemgmt.net.