Obituary for Richard N. Creswell
Mr. Richard N. Creswell, age 95, passed away peacefully on December 9, 2024, in
Florida.
He was born June 20th
, 1929, in Washington, D.C. to George and Gertrude
Creswell. He graduated from George Washinton University in 1953 with a B.A. Degree in
Psychology. He married Shirley Brown in 1953 and spent the next 3 years in the U.S.
Navy as the Gunnery Officer aboard a destroyer escort operating out of San Francisco
on the West Coast. After discharge in 1956, he and Shirley returned to the D.C. area and
resided in Silver Spring, Maryland.
For the next 30 years, Mr. Creswell was employed by The Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory located in Howard Country, Maryland., where he
was a member of the Principal Professional Staff and served as Supervisor of the
Administrative Services Department. During this time, he and Shirley and their two
daughters, Kathleen and Janis, spent many enjoyable vacations and weekends on the
ocean at their summer beach cottage in Middlesex Beach, Delaware. Mr. Creswell was
known for his award-winning sandcastles and July 4th rockets.
After retiring from Johns Hopkins in 1986, Mr. Creswell earned his private pilot
license and built his own airplane in the basement of his home in Silver Spring. He was
an active member of the Experimental Aircraft Association and the Aircraft Owners and
Pilots Association. In 1999, Mr. Creswell moved to Eagles Landing, an aviation
community in Winter Haven, Florida. He spent the next 25 years dividing his time
between lolling on the beach during the summers in Delaware and flying his RV-4
airplane during the sunny winters in Florida. He was an active member of the Winter
Haven’s Pilots Association and thoroughly enjoyed numerous fly-out lunches to airports
all over Florida.
Mr. Creswell was preceded in death by his sister, Maryland in 1996, by his
beloved wife Shirley in 1996, his daughter Janis (who was also a pilot) in 2007, and his
brother Robert in 2018. He is survived by his daughter Kathleen and her husband Glen
Grundhoefer, and two grandsons, Shane and Jeffrey Grundhoefer, all of Winter Springs,
Florida. He is also survived by his brother in Maryland, George Creswell, as well as
many nephews, nieces, and great-grandchild.
Services will be held in Bethany Beach, Delaware, at Melson’s Funeral Home,
Monday, December 16, 2024, at 10:00am. Burial will be at Mariners Bethel Methodist Church following the service.
To plant a tree in memory of Richard N. Creswell, visit the Tribute Store.
Loading...