Richard David Maness

Richard Maness, (Rick), 77, of Palm Springs, CA died June 11, 2025. He loved great design and architecture, art, animals, Broadway musicals, classical music, and most of all his daughter Lesley. Throughout his life, he considered Lesley one of his very best friends, speaking with her by phone several times each week and enjoying many vacations together over many years, both in the U.S. and Europe.
Born August 11, 1947, in Milwaukee, Rick was adopted soon after birth by Carl and Jean Maness. Due to the laws of that time, his teenage, biological parents weren't allowed to marry and keep the child they loved because Rick had been conceived out of wedlock. Adopted in his earliest months, Rick deeply loved his homemaker mother Jean and pharmacist father Carl, who owned a drug store. Rick remembered a very happy childhood growing up as an only child for many years until Carl and Jean adopted a second son named Donald, who became his younger brother. Rick had many happy summers at Camp North Star, which formed his respect for the great outdoors and physical activity, which later included weightlifting and bodybuilding. Rick had his bar mitzvah at age 13 in 1960, and attended Nicolet High School, where he was proud to be named "Most Valuable" on his swim team.
While in high school, Rick met and began dating Susie Berkowitz, who later joined him in upper state New York where he attended Syracuse University and received a degree in Architecture. Marrying in 1971, Rick and Susie settled in Milwaukee and welcomed Lesley to their family in 1973. Although still loving his wife and daughter, Rick was beginning to accept himself as a gay man. He later recognized that his story was just one of countless others at a time when "alternative lifestyles" were shamed, rather than readily accepted as a part of the full spectrum of human experience. He and Susie determined that their best, mutual choice was to divorce.
Rick moved to Los Angeles, CA where he had fun doing some movie-extra work, including as one of the judges on the panel for Rodney Dangerfield's diving exhibition in "Back to School." Professionally, he admitted some struggle in the early years in his new hometown as he established Richard Maness Architects & Associates. "Eventually I found my way and had the great fortune to work with a number of affluent clients on both new home builds and significant renovations that made me very proud. But even more important in finding my way was my dear friend Erv Munro, who helped me learn to be a person who could be happy and confident in living a completely authentic life." Rick worked with Erv in volunteering for the then-fledgling AIDS Project Los Angeles, which would go on to become a model for any variety of other nonprofit organizations in the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic.
Rick also credits his discovery of the philosophy of Alan Watts in helping him formulate his spiritual beliefs around the interconnectedness of all things, and in informing his own greater self-knowledge. "Maybe what resonated most for me about Alan Watts was the importance he placed on social ethics and our responsibility to each other and the natural world. He helped me understand both the fleeting nature of all our lives and the importance of living as best we could every day, both for ourselves and for others. I came to understand that none of this needed to relate to any particular religion, as long as we were each living according to an accepting moral code that saw the value in every other living thing."
Rick moved back to Milwaukee to be closer to family. As a young adult, he had connected with his biological family and began to grow closer to them. They included not only his biological parents, Victor and Mary Ann Jones who owned the Milwaukee landmark Victors nightclub and restaurant, but also his six younger siblings. "Although loving and missing my deceased parents, I now felt especially lucky to have 'my other family' and became particularly close with Jimmy, John, and Vic ("Hurricane"), my three biological brothers. I even had the fun of working with them, my dad, and my sisters at Victors for a while. That experience helped me become a part of the family in a new way as well." During his return to Milwaukee where he expected to live the rest of his life, Rick reconnected with Barry Dayton whom he had met in 1997 in Los Angeles. A former acquaintance blossomed into love and Rick moved to Palm Springs in 2015 where he and Barry later married.
Preceded in death by his adoptive parents and younger brother, as well as his biological parents, Rick is survived by his daughter Lesley who lives in Westwood, CA, and his six siblings (Jimmy, Karen, John, Suzy, Victor, and Mary Ann) who all live in the Milwaukee area. Rick is also survived by his life partner and husband Barry Dayton and their beloved fur baby, Max, a purebred Yorkshire Terrier. They are forever grateful to Retrievers & Friends of Southern California for rescuing Max from a puppy mill before they wisely featured his adorable face on their website, so Rick and Barry could fall in love with him. After rescuing his first dog, Kit, when living in Pasadena, Rick wholeheartedly embraced the coffee mug wisdom that posed a question for any animal lover: "Who rescued who?"
Rick was happy with the new family of friends that he and Barry had in Palm Springs and wishes them and everyone else, known to him or not the best of life. "I want everyone to remember that life is worth living in the best way you know how and hope that you will all be good to one another."
At Rick's request, there will be no formal memorial and his remains have been cremated. Anyone wishing to remember Rick is asked to donate to his favorite nonprofit, Retrievers and Friends of Southern California, which rescued Max and made him part of Rick and Barry's family.