Rick Whittaker

1951 - 2025

Rick Whittaker

August 18, 1951 - August 21, 2025

MUSCATINE, Iowa – Rick Whittaker, 74, passed away on Thursday, August 21, 2025, peacefully at Lutheran Living, with his family at his bedside.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, at Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home. Memorials may be made to the family, in care of Rosemary. Online condolences can be left at www.witthichfuneralhome.com.

Funeral service will be held 11 a.m. Wednesday, August 27, 2025, at the Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home. To celebrate Rick's life and his enthusiasm for sports, the family requests that you wear your favorite sports team attire. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery with a lunch to follow burial.

Rick was born on August 18, 1951, in Muscatine, Iowa, the son of Raymond Whittaker and Delores (McDaniel) Blake. He married his high school sweetheart, Rosemary Curtis on July 31, 1971, in Muscatine.

Rick graduated from Muscatine High School in 1969 and then attended Morrison Institute of Technology where he received his drafting degree. He worked at Stanley Consultants and later Grain Processing where he retired in 2007. After retiring from Grain Processing, he started Heartland Renewable Energy where he helped develop patents to use sugar beets for ethanol. Heartland Renewable Energy connected him with North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D. who then took him on a research trip to Europe where he was able to see places many people only dream to see.

Rick was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2015 which limited the physical activities he loved to do like dancing with his wife, fishing, golf, bowling, and softball in his younger years, but that didn't take away his enthusiasm for life and being around the people he loved. While the activities changed and he learned to love new games like Sequence, Dominos, and he never lost his love playing poker with the guys every other Thursday night for 40 years.

Rick loved spending time with family and friends, watching the St. Louis Cardinals, the Iowa Hawkeyes, Chicago Bears and even developed a tolerance for the Chicago Cubs with his mother-in-law. He had a passion for history and doing research on genealogy, it didn't matter if it was researching his own or helping someone else do the research to discover their roots.

Rick's love of sports was extended to the Muscatine community where he coached Little League Baseball teams in his early adulthood and served as President of the Muscatine Girls Softball Association. He thoroughly enjoyed organizing his class reunions for the last 40 years.

Rick is survived by his wife, Rose of 54 years; his two children, Alicia (Scott) Menster of Bloomfield, Iowa, and Erik (Sara) Whittaker of Iowa City; his grandchildren, Breanna Payne and Emily Payne, Miles (Camille) Cook Menster, Samuel Menster and Ben Menster; a sister, Tracie (Marty) Miller; brothers, Tim (Carol) Whittaker and Dave (Joanne) Whittaker; sister-in-law, Linda Whittaker, Angie (Greg) Hammond; brothers-in-law, James (Trina) Curtis and Steve Curtis; many nieces and nephews; and a very special group of lifelong friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Larry and Jeff; sister, Sally; mother and father-in-law, James and Delores Curtis; and nephews, Brian Curtis and Brian Whittaker.