Diane Ruth Leflar

Diane Ruth Leflar
Date Of Birth: 09/10/1937
Date of Death: 02/27/2024
Diane Leflar was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 10, 1937 to James Randolph Richards and Ruth Mae Richards. She was the oldest child of three children: brother Jim Richards and sister Judy Richards. Her early years were in Moorestown, NJ. She has fond memories of visiting her paternal grandparents in Stony Point, New York on the Hudson River. Her grandmother would take her on the train from Stony Point to New York City to see the Rockettes and other shows. During high school she lived in Reading Pennsylvania and attended Muhlenberg Township High School in Laureldale, Pennsylvania. In high school she was involved in many extracurricular activities; orchestra, choruses, highway patrol, traffic court, Observer class newspaper, color guard, honor society, debate and student council. She was also class salutatorian and the only cellist in the orchestra. She majored in Home Economics at Drexel University in Philadelphia. In college, her glee club went to Europe, via steamship, to sing for various groups in Europe.
Following college she married John Ray and they had a daughter, Deborah Suzane. Diane began working as a computer programmer in 1965 for Sun Life Insurance Company in Philadelphia. In 1969, she moved to California with Debbie and lived in Marin county city of San Rafael.
In 1970, she began working in San Francisco for Consolidated Marine Inc. that supported computer systems for American President Lines, Pacific Far East Lines, etc. The offices overlooked Market Street in San Francisco. In 1972, another computer programmer, Jack Leflar, joined the company. Not knowing each other very well other than in meetings Jack had to walk past Diane's office, she shared with Dmitri. Jack admired this beautiful person. She was real class; wore the best clothes from Peck and Peck, the nicest smile and, best of all, common sense. While at a company picnic Jack and Diane–thank you John Mellencamp–happened to run into each other and began chatting. After that picnic they would talk occasionally in the hallways and at lunch with others. One evening there was a Chinese New Years parade on Market Street outside the offices and several workers including Jack and Diane went out on the large fire escape to watch it from the second floor. Eventually all the people, except Jack and Diane, went back into the offices. That began a beautiful romantic relationship.
On December 29, 1973, Jack and Diane were married in Carson City, Nevada. They settled in a San Francisco Victorian flat on Fulton Street across from Golden Gate Park. After three years they were able to raise the money for a down payment for a house in San Francisco on the east side of Mount Davidson with a view of the bay (how they were able to find the house is another story). She loved skiing at Lake Tahoe, where a bunch of friends would lease a large condo for the ski season, and camp at Big Sur.
In 1980, they decided to move to Portland, Oregon to be nearer Jacks mother and father who were getting up in age. They settled in Beaverton and joined the St Matthew Lutheran Church in 1981. She volunteered for several committees and sang alto in the church choir. She enjoyed music and played the piano and cello. She was a SMART reader at William Walker Elementary School for many years.
Diane loved to travel and even camp. She and Jack have many wonderful memories of traveling to Great Britain, Spain, Paris, South America, Italy, Danube/Rhine rivers, Egypt, Greece, Panama Canal, Mexico, Hawaii, etc. It wasn't until 30 years of marriage that Jack finally wised up to Diane's bucket list. Miss Willis, her high school history teacher, began the class with "pack your bags, we are going to travel" and took the class, virtually, to Rome, Egypt and Greece. So in 2004 they spent almost a month in Italy, 2008 two weeks in Egypt with a week on the Nile and in 2012 two weeks on a cruise through Greece and western Turkey. Interspersed with world travel were many camping trips. Early camping was with a pickup truck with a canopy then graduated to a tent trailer and in 2000 a 32 ft fifth wheel trailer. She was able to see most of the western United States on these trips. In 2020, she suggested to Jack that the fifth wheel trailer was becoming a challenge for both of them to handle and she suggested donating the trailer, which they did by donating it to woman and daughter that lost their Mill City home in the Santiam fires.
Beginning in 2023 Diane began showing signs of many chronic conditions; congested heart failure, anemia, heart murmur, high blood pressure, etc. During the summer and fall she had many episodes of health conditions that landed her in the hospital resulting in weakness. Home health nurses and therapists worked tirelessly to overcome this weakness. Finally in February 2024 these chronic conditions became severe. On February 27th at 8 pm the Lord prevailed and took her to be with Jesus.
Diane is survived by her husband, Jackson (Jack) Leflar, her daughter Debbie Castellano and two grandsons – Kristian Robert Castellano and Alex James Castellano.
Purple is Diane's favorite color.