Rick Harold Sapp

1947 - 2025

San Raphael, CA - Rick Harold Sapp

April 25, 1947 to June 26, 2025

Rick Harold Sapp was the first child born to Alma Fender Sapp and Verne Jackson Sapp in Sedro-Woolley, Washington on April 25, 1947. Rick lived and worked on the diversified small family dairy farm in the Skiyou area east of town. Rick graduated from Sedro-Woolley High School in 1965.

As a successful high school student and a recognized athlete in football, basketball, and track, Rick earned the opportunity to attend Stanford University. At Stanford, Rick played football and graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science. Following college, Rick served in the Peace Corps where he assisted indigenous Mapuche farmers in the foothills of the Chilean Andes Mountains by building cooperative systems to improve animal husbandry, purchasing, and marketing programs. In Chile, Rick rode a horse throughout the agricultural community to meet with the farmers. He left Chile during the revolution that felled President Allende.

After leaving the Peace Corps, Rick obtained a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Oregon in Eugene. The following year, he lived in Paris learning French and culinary arts. Returning to the San Francisco Bay Area, Rick was drawn to aiding challenged individuals by supervising and living with residents in a group home. This experience led to what became his enduring career in mental health services, advanced by a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. Rick provided clinical mental health services to clients of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Rafael, California for 27 years, during much of which he was Chief Psychologist.



Rick married Cynthia Gottlieb on May 15, 1999. In their home in San Raphael, they joined in a love of intensive backyard vegetable production, including a prize crop of tomatoes that will succeed him.

Rick retained a strong interest throughout his life in the original family farm in the Sedro-Woolley area where his younger brother, Terry, continues to farm. Rick was raised in the United Methodist Church in Sedro-Woolley. He enlivened Methodist congregations in San Raphael. Rick's Christian practices guided his gentle, loving, and humble spirit of service.

Rick succumbed to a rapidly advancing cancer and died peacefully at home in San Rafael with Cindy beside him. Rick is predeceased by his parents and a beloved aunt and uncle, Margaret Fender Weed and Harold Weed of Malaga, Washington. He is survived by his wife Cindy, his brother Terry Fender Sapp (Jean Eagleston), his niece Karly Sapp Palzkill (Matt), nephew Chandler Rick Sapp, and a great-nephew Charles Palzkill.

Donations in Rick's memory may be made to Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland in Skagit County, Washington. Send messages with thoughts or memories of Rick to Terry (tfsapp@gmail.com) which will be shared with family and friends.