Death of a Classmate - Richard Perry Yantis - 14th Co.

Born Richard Perry Yantis on July 1, 1932, in Columbus, Ohio, Dick was a proud graduate of Westerville High School, Class of 1949, and the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, where he graduated with distinction in 1954. Commissioned into the United States Air Force, Dick started a life of service to his family and country. During a distinguished 20-year military career that included flying Bob Hope on his 1958 USO Christmas Tour to Europe and North Africa, flying combat reconnaissance over Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and earning both a Masters Degree from the University of North Carolina and a PhD from The Ohio State University, Dick also started a career in higher education. He taught at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was Chief of the Advanced Branch of the Mathematics Department, and co-authored two college mathematics textbooks; and at the post-graduate level at the Air Force Institute of Technology. Retiring from the United States Air Force as a Lt. Colonel in 1974, Dick returned to his family and lifelong friends in Westerville. He continued his career in higher education as a Professor of Mathematics at Otterbein College in the company of what he described as "wonderful and extremely competent faculty comrades" until his retirement in 1996. He was preceded in death by his parents, Samuel Perry Yantis, of Westerville, Ohio and Mabel Martha Snook, of McArthur, Ohio. 

Jane and Dick met on a double date, not with each other, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1958. They married a year later on October 10, 1959 at which time Dick says he received the "gift of a loving and hard-working lifetime partner". They shared a love of family, the Westerville and Otterbein University communities and their country. They cherished spending time with their sons, daughters-in- law and granddaughters; visiting with family and friends; and traveling in the United States and Europe. Members of multiple historical societies, they also shared a 40-year passion for genealogy; sleuthing through untold cemeteries and libraries researching the families of over 100,000 people in both Ohio and Maryland. They had long and rewarding lives, but were always more interested in learning about others than talking about themselves or their accomplishments. 

Both are survived by son, John Perry "JP" (Diane) Yantis of Westerville, Ohio; son, Jim (Kari) Yantis and granddaughters Emalyn Perry Yantis and Anne Marie Yantis of Atlanta, Georgia; Dicks brother Don (Donna) Yantis of Ocoee, Florida; Janes sister-in- law Helen (Cordrey) McAllister of Eldorado, Maryland, and maternal cousins including Barbara Froggatt of Southampton, Pennsylvania, and Lois (Dick) Gingrich of Virginia Beach, Virginia; and several nieces and nephews.

The family will greet friends on Monday, April 2, 2018 3:30-7:00 PM at Moreland Funeral Home Westerville, Ohio. A private interment will be held at Otterbein Cemetery at a future date. If desired, contributions may be made in their memory to the Otterbein Thrift Shop, the Yantis Family Scholarship at Otterbein University, the First Presbyterian Church of Westerville, Ohio where both were members, or to your local historical society.