Richard B. Harmon

Richard Harmon, age 82 of Glenwood, died Tuesday, November 5, 2019 at the Glacial Ridge Hospital. A Memorial service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 9, 2019 at the All Saint's Chapel in the Glenwood Retirement Village. Inurnment will be in the Grove Lake Cemetery in Grove Lake. 

Richard Benson Harmon, son of Ian and Pearl (Baker) Harmon, was born on November 10, 1936 at home in Villard, MN. He grew up in Villard where he attended the Methodist Church. Richard also attended school in Villard, graduating from Villard High School with the Class of 1953. He enlisted in the United States Army in December of 1953 and was stationed at Fort Lenard Wood in Missouri. In January of 1956, at Richard’s request, he was honorably discharged from the Army and enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he was first stationed at the Lockheed Martin Corporation Base in San Francisco, CA, before being transferred to March Air Force Base in Riverside, CA, where he served until his honorable discharge on January 9, 1964, having served 11 years total, between his time in both branches of the United States Military.

A favorite memory of Richard’s from his years in the Air Force was the day that the famous filmmaker Walt Disney visited March Air Force Base. Richard was a secretary at the time, working in an office on the base that was involved in film making. Mr. Disney was intrigued by the work the Air Force was doing and Richard got the honor of showing him around. The visit occurred during the time that the Air Force was using U2 planes to film abroad.

Shortly after Richard was stationed at March Air Force Base he met a young lady named Alice Ann Johnston on Balboa Beach in CA. She was sitting with a friend and knitting to pass the time. The two struck up a conversation and dated for a couple of years before they married on March 1, 1958 in San Marino, CA, with Wilford G. Meengs officiating. The couple made their home on the March Air Force Base in Riverside. To their union two daughters were born, Rae Ann and Laurel.

After Richard’s honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1964, he attended Riverside City Junior College where he graduated with a degree in Accounting. During this time he also was employed at Press and Enterprise in Riverside, CA. While on vacation in Sedona, AZ, he registered for studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, with plans to pursue a teaching degree. At that time, the family moved from California to Arizona. With a young family to support, Richard ended up foregoing the teaching diploma and instead took a job as a dispatch operator at Yellow Freight Trucking. In 1976, Richard had the opportunity to purchase his family homestead in Grove Lake, MN. With Alice’s blessing, they moved to his family’s farm where they first purchased and tended 120 goats with hope of selling goat milk. With no local market for goat milk, they eventually switched over to a herd of 36 Jersey dairy cows and sold their milk to Kraft in Melrose, MN. In 2001, Richard and Alice sold the farm and moved to Glenwood, where they have since resided.

Richard served on the Grove Lake town board for 7 years. He played softball for the Grove Lake team for a few years and was a life member of the MLB Insiders Club. He loved watching ANY ballgame on TV. He also belonged to American Legion Post #187 in Glenwood and was an avid coin collector over the years, amassing an extensive collection.

Richard passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, November 5, 2019, at Glacial Ridge Hospital, at the age of 82.

He is survived by Alice, his wife of 61 years; their two daughters, Rae Ann Moe of Owasso, OK, and Laurel Harmon of Moorhead, MN; three grandchildren, Joshua (Charity) Harmon of Peyton, CO, Matthew (Leah) Moe of Tea, SD, and Bekah (Derick) Evenson of Watertown, SD; ten great-grandchildren, Alyssa Lawver, Kaiden, Ashlynn and Kaleb Harmon, Rease and Chelsi Moe, Sidney and Macy Vogt, and Shauna and Jordan Evenson; as well as his sister, Yvonne Britten, of Alexandria, and her children, Robert (Brenda) Britten of Forada, and Kimberly (Rob) Trogdon Schmidt Tryggeseth of Alexandria, MN.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Ian and Pearl (Baker) Harmon.

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