Richard Freeman, 100

Richard L. Freeman, age 100, passed away Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019, at his home on Klinger Lake in White Pigeon.

Richard was born Feb. 17, 1919, in Detroit, and moved to Sturgis in 1935. On July 12, 1945, Richard married Mildred Quantick, in Chicago.

He is remembered as a loving husband, father, grandfather, World War II veteran, business owner, community leader, gifted photographer and skilled woodworker.

Richard leaves his daughter Jane P. Odom of Angola, daughter Marney L. Stoumbelis (née Susan Freeman) and her husband, Arthur, of Boxborough, Mass., granddaughters Virginia Evans, Stephanie Stoumbelis and Alexis Stoumbelis and her partner, Mackenzie Baris; and great-grandson Angelo Baris Stoumbelis.

His surviving nephews are Paul and Bruce Ballantine, and Tom and Jim Freeman; and great-nephews Trey and Jeff Freeman.

An avid reader and lifelong Republican, Richard served on the St. Joseph County Board of Supervisors representing the city of Sturgis, Glen Oaks Board of Trustees and the board of Citizens State Bank. He was president of Sturgis Board of Education for 10 years, president of Sturgis Area Community Foundation and president of Oakwood Improvement Association. He also served as president of the chamber of commerce and was an active member of Sturgis Rotary Club for many years.

Richard Freeman was CEO of Freeman Manufacturing Company, Leslie Corporation and Frederick Lee Company from 1974 until the companies were sold in 2015-16 after more than 125 years of family leadership. He was involved with his father and brother in the company, starting in 1945. He is remembered with gratitude and affection by the many people he employed over the course of his long, productive and useful life.

He came to Sturgis in 1935 while in the 10th grade, when the family business, Freeman Manufacturing Co., was moved from Detroit. Graduating from Sturgis High School in 1937, Richard attended Michigan Tech School of Mining in Houghton, where he studied mechanical engineering. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the outbreak of World War II in 1941. During his military service, his father’s factory made war materials for the Allied cause. Richard was stationed north of London, for almost four years of the war in Europe.

After a 30-day leave during which he and Mildred married and honeymooned at Klinger Lake, his service ended in August with the cessation of Japanese hostilities, whereupon Richard was honorably discharged from the service on Oct. 7, 1945. He was the recipient of Bronze Stars, the European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and a Good Conduct Medal.

From 1949 until 1950, the Freemans and their young daughter Jane lived in Puerto Rico, where Richard opened a new manufacturing facility related to his family’s business.

Richard’s love of his life was his wife, Mildred. They enjoyed taking periodic trips out West in their Sportscoach motorhome, including a six-week trip to Alaska that covered 11,000 miles. One of the most memorable family trips with daughters Jane and Susan was a 1964 tour of England. The Freeman family began spending summers at Klinger Lake in the 1940s. Richard and Mildred made it their permanent home in 1986 after they spent four years designing and building their dream home.

Along with his children and grandchildren, Richard’s other passions included photography and woodworking. He started taking photos in high school “just playing around,” he recalled. This early photographic venture began a love affair with black-and-white photography that endured all of Richard’s adult life. As Richard’s interest grew, he set up a darkroom in the basement of his father’s factory and made photos for his high school yearbook, The Sturgensian. He eventually had several area photographic shows.

In 1976, a Glen Oaks Community College publication of his photos stated, “Mr. Freeman is a talented and energetic photographer. His keen eye, ordered composition and technical patience are evident in his work. His works blend intelligence and technique in the vivid recreation of images and experience gently, but firmly managed.”

Richard’s woodworking interest began in Detroit. “I was mechanically inclined and enjoyed building and making things,” he recalled. Woodworking would become a life-long hobby and he became a skilled practitioner making cabinets, furniture, tables and decorative bowls. Forever inquisitive and with a keen mechanical aptitude, he summed up his personality when, well into his late 90s, he said, “I’m still interested in the mechanics of how things are made. I’m interested in the engineering marvels of the modern age – the mechanical engineering of all the things we have in this world.”

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Sturgis Area Community Foundation , www.sturgisfoundation.org, or Camp Fort Hill, www.campforthill.org, in Mildred and Richard’s name. It will be deeply appreciated.

A memorial celebration for Richard and Mildred will be held in early summer, when the family will inter their ashes mixed together at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Sturgis. A more detailed announcement will follow.

Hackman Family Funeral Homes of Sturgis is entrusted with arrangements.

His obituary is also at www.hackmanfamilyfuneralhomes.com, where personal messages of support may be left for the family.