Charles M. Rich

Published 1:11 am Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Aug. 29, 1925 – February 10, 2014

Dr. Charles Mark Rich died February 10, 2014, in Bend, Ore., after a difficult and, in the end, unsuccessful recovery from heart surgery. Although his father, the Rev. Mark Rich, had been born in Salem, Ore., and grew up in Orenco, and his mother, Ada Gillett Rich, had been born in Spokane, Wash., Charles was born Aug. 29, 1925, in Cortland, New York, and spent his early life in eastern and Midwestern states. His higher education commenced in Ohio, where in 1946, he earned his first degree, in Philosophy, from Oberlin College, and continued at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, New York, from which he graduated in 1949. In 1962, he earned his PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School. Over the course of these two decades his intellectual focus came to rest on naturalistic theologies, including those of Charles S. Pierce, Henry Nelson Wieman, and Charles Hartshorne. The latter two numbered among his personal influences. Balancing his academic interests in these decades, he developed skills in music — in performance as well as in instrument repair and design. Working initially with traditional pipe organs in the early 1950s, he became active in the still-youthful field of electronic music, working with Haygren Organ Company and later Telematics in designing and building electro-pneumatic pipe organs, electronic organs, and electronic carillons. His 1961 appointment as instructor in philosophy and religion at Colorado Women’s College, in Denver, later Temple Buell College, led to his becoming full professor as well as head of the college’s Fine Arts and then Humanities divisions, later in the decade. Dr. Rich developed a deeper interest in East Asian studies during these Colorado years. In the 1970s, he served as Professor of Philosophy at Ottawa University, Ottawa, Kansas, while developing the College Without Campus program in Kansas City, Missouri, in which he then taught. Dr. Rich later accepted teaching positions at Pacific Lutheran University and Pierce College in Tacoma, Washington. In Tacoma, he also served as pastor of Whitney Memorial United Methodist Church for over a decade, retiring in 2001.Although he continued teaching in retirement-center and church settings, Dr. Rich devoted his own retirement years to preparing his book, The Naturalistic Theism of Henry Nelson Wieman (1884-1975): The Creator of an American Process Theology, which saw publication in 2012. He afterwards devoted himself to completing a second book, focusing on Charles Hartshorne. Charles Rich enjoyed a sustained and sustaining personal family life, which began in Chicago in 1953 with his marriage to Kikue Kikuchi. Their family grew to include four children. In addition to Kikue, three children survive: Kenneth of Rochester, New York, Mark of Cashton, Wisconsin, and Barbara of Bend, Oregon Their first daughter, Elizabeth, of Kansas City, Missouri, died in 2012. His sister, Eleanore Turner, lives in Salem, Oregon. Dr. Rich’s spirit and intelligence won for him, through his many years, the warm appreciation and friendship of countless individuals across the country and scattered even around the globe. As teacher, pastor and musician, and as husband and father, he exerted an influence that has been invisible, by and large. Yet because it had been consistently constructive, humane, and oriented toward truth, it endures. The memorial service will take place 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, at ?First Presbyterian Church of Bend. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to First Presbyterian Church or to St. Charles Hospital.