Richard C. "Rick" Heine

1949 - 2023

Delavan, WI - Richard Craig Heine, 73, of Delavan, passed away peacefully on Monday, January 30, 2023, at Vintage on the Ponds, Delavan. His friends and family will miss his neverending humor, joyful personality, witty writing, numerous funny faces, random off-key singing and his "papa belly."

Richard was born in New London, Wisconsin, son of the late Elmer and Rocelia Heine. He was the fifth of six siblings and raised primarily in Milwaukee.

Richard - "Rick" as most everyone knew him - attended and graduated from Milwaukee Lutheran High School in 1967, and he was later drafted into the U.S. Army. He attained the rank of Sergeant E5 and served in Seoul, South Korea, as a driver of "deuce-and-a-half" trucks and the platoon captain's Jeep.

After his time in the service he attended Milwaukee Area Technical College and later the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he earned a degree in communications. He met his future wife, Karen, at Addressograph-Multigraph-Varityper Corporation in Milwaukee. The two married in 1975 and started a family with the birth of daughter Katharine. Rick became a small-town newspaper reporter/photographer for a short while and, after earning only 40-cents per column inch, jumped into the field of corporate communications at Rexnord Corporation.

In 1980, the family welcomed son Michael, and Rick later moved on to an employee communications and promotions career at the Milwaukee Journal, where he played on the company softball team. The family moved to Delavan in 1989 when Rick took a job at Sta-Rite as a corporate communications director. It was in Delavan where he dove into community service. He joined the Delavan Lions Club, holding officer positions and raising funds to benefit many organizations and individuals in the community, state and beyond. He also served on the Delavan-Darien High School parent advisory committee, the Turtle Creek Elementary School construction planning committee, and the Delavan-Darien Board of Education. Additionally, he was a fundraising co-chair for the United Way of Walworth County and captained numerous teams for the Walworth County Relay for Life. After Sta-Rite was sold, Rick ended his career helping people hone their employability skills at the Walworth County Job Center, retiring in 2016.

He spent his free time fishing with his son Mike and supporting Kate and Karen at countless horse shows. Many memories were made at numerous camping trips with the "Mac Pack," "pump meeting" poker nights with friends from Sta-Rite and with the thousands of pounds of corned beef served and ears of corn shucked at annual Lions Club fundraisers. He also adored being a silly "papa" to his grandchildren while spoiling them silly with Grandma Karen.

Rick's wit, humor and fun-loving demeanor were taken earlier than his many friends and family hoped, having succumbed peacefully to Parkinson's with Lewy Body Dementia and metastatic prostate cancer. He was preceded in death by his parents; his two brothers, Fred and Jerry Heine, and two sisters, Karen Hromadka and Lori Grothjan; mother-in-law Charlotte Kuehn; brother-in-law Greg Grothjan; and stillborn granddaughter Addison Heine. He is survived by his wife Karen of 47 years; daughter Kate (Corey) Hendrickson; son Mike (Gina) Heine; grandchildren Garrett and Taylor Hendrickson and Macy and Evan Heine; sister Shirley (Gerald) Freckmann; sisters-in-law Jacky Heine and Gloria Heine; brothers-in-law Mark (Jean) Kuehn and Bob Hromadka; father-in-law Willard Kuehn; and many nieces, nephews and extended family members.

Visitation will be held at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Delavan at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, with funeral services starting at 11 a.m., and a luncheon to follow. A private burial will be held at Spring Grove Cemetery in Delavan.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Delavan Lions Club or the Delavan-Darien School District Foundation. Rick's family would like to thank the many talented and supportive doctors, nurses and staff members at Aurora Lakeland Hospital in Elkhorn, St. Elizabeth Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Janesville, Vintage on the Ponds in Delavan, and St. Croix Hospice in Delavan for their care and compassion for Rick in his final months.

Lazarczyk Family Funeral Homes of Delavan is proudly serving the family.