RICHARD ALLEN DILLS, 38, a resident of Burlington, died in a tragic auto accident on Sunday December 19, 2004.
Rich was born on September 5, 1966 in Sedro-Woolley, the only child of Doyle and Virginia Benjamin Dills. He lost his mother when he was three, and his father when he was eleven. He grew up in the home of his aunt and uncle, John & Nancy Dills, who raised him as their own along with their own children, John & Karen.
Rich graduated from Sedro-Woolley High School in 1984. He worked for Beane Hardware, Texaco Refinery, Burton Nursing Home Affiliated Health Services , and most recently at the Life Care Center of Mount Vernon where he was director of maintenance and facilities. Everywhere Rich worked he touched many lives with his sense of humor, his patience, and his amazing skills. He could fix anything and proved it over and over again.
On May 8, 1998 Rich met Kym Swagerty, a co-worker at Affiliated Health Services, United General Campus. They found soul mates in one another, best friends and partners. They were teased unmercifully about their blended family of five children and how just one more would make them the Brady bunch! Not without an Alice they both agreed! Thus the beginning of a new and wonderful life full of soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis and football teams, bands, choirs, youth groups and plays. Austin, Tanner, Savannah, Ryleigh and Sierra were the most important people in the world to Rich. He was so proud of all their accomplishments. He was a quiet spectator, but the biggest fan of them all. He loved pulling the kinds around the lake behind the boat and taking them to the races.
Rich & Kym found themselves alone from tine to time and spent it doing the things they loved to do together. Fishing, crabbing, mushroom hunting, going for long drives and looking at sunsets and stars. They shared a love for one another that bears no measure, and Rich gave Kym more love and adoration than she ever imagined.
He took great care in mastering the BBQ and the smoker. His oysters on the grill will be sorely missed at parties, and his smoked salmon will be remembered by so many he shared with. Rich also enjoyed playing golf, riding bikes, tending to the family aquarium, playing soccer with our dog, Wyatt and lobing on our Kitty, Blister and rabbits, Brownie and Buttercup. Rich’s sense of humor was constant, his antics unpredictable and his laughter a joy.
Richard loved the Lord and his growing family at His Place Church.
Rich is survived by his wife, Kymberli and his children, Savannah and Sierra Dills, Austin, Tanner and Ryleigh Swagerty at the family home in Burlington. His ‘parents’, John & Nancy Dills of Sedro-Woolley. His brother, JohnR. Dills Little John and his wife, Sheri of Burlington. His sister, Karen Ripley and husband David of Sedro-Woolley. Sister-in-law, Kristen Tuttle and husband John of Burlington, sister-in-law, Jamie Jarvill of Seattle, His in-law, Steve & Christy Smiley of Turkey and Michael & Mickie Jarvill of Stanwood and his father-in-law, Doug Raymond of Cresswell, OR. Uncle Richie willb e missed so much by his nieces and nephews, Courtney & Colby Dills, McKenzie & Jantzen Tuttle, Ashley & Kailey Handy and many aunts, uncles and cousins. Also his lifelong and best friend, Lennie Warren of Bellingham and special ‘bonus’ daughter, Karissa Kane.
The first e-mail Rich sent Kym after they met was this, ‘If we fill our hours with regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow, we have no today in which to be thankful.’
It is easy to be thankful every hour of every day for having known and loved Richard Allen Dills. I am forever changed, forever grateful, and forever better for having been his wife, his lover, his partner and his friend. I love you, Richard with all my heart, Kymberli.
A Life Celebration will be held on Thursday December 23, 2004 at 10:00 AM at His Place Church in Burlington.
Memorials are suggested to the Dills family memorial trust c/o any branch of Wells Fargo Bank.
Cremation arrangements under direction of Lemley Chapel, Sedro-Woolley.