Obituary for Richard Thorstenberg

Richard (Dick) Lee Thorstenberg, longtime resident of Ponca City, passed away at his home on Tuesday, April 15. He was 87 years old.

Richard was born on February 20, 1927, in Kansas City, Kansas, the youngest of four sons, to Rudolph Joseph and Margaret Elizabeth (Saunders) Thorstenberg. He came to Ponca City with his parents in 1933, when he was in the first grade.

He attended school in Ponca City, graduating from Ponca City High School in 1944. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he was to become a radar technician, at the end of World War II. Upon being honorably discharged from the Navy, Richard then pursued his college education. He graduated from Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa, and then went on to receive his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma A&M College, now Oklahoma State University, in 1948 and 1949, respectively.

He worked for The Boeing Company in Wichita, Kansas, from 1949-1955. He continued his career with the General Dynamics Corporation in Fort Worth, Texas, as a Senior Propulsion Engineer, working on engine performance and fuel system design for the B-58 bomber.

He married Patricia Joan Ringer on July 7, 1956, at the First Presbyterian Church in Ponca City. Richard and Pat’s marriage was the first one performed at the current church by the late Reverend Dr. Arthur Young.

Richard returned to The Boeing Company in Wichita, Kansas, in 1957, joining the Propulsion Preliminary Design Group. He was involved in the High Energy Fuel Program, Nuclear Powered B-52 Bomber, Zero-Length Launch of the B-52 Bomber and cryogenics (liquification of air, hydrogen, oxygen and hydrogen). He also studied Nuclear Rocket Propulsion at UCLA during this time.

While living in Wichita, Richard and his wife Pat had two children, a daughter, Lisa, and a son, Brien.

In 1962, Richard transferred to Boeing’s Man-to-the-Moon Program, which pertained to the Apollo Space Flight Program, at Huntsville, Alabama. While there, he worked at Marshall Space Flight Center under the guidance of Dr. Werner von Braun, of Germany’s V-2 rocket program, and several German engineers who came to the United States following World War II. Dr. von Braun was instrumental in Germany’s rocket development efforts at Peenemunde during World War II, and in the United States’ mission to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. In October of 1962, Richard and his family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, to continue the detailed design of purge systems for the F-1 rocket engines for the S-1C Stage of the Saturn V manned vehicle.

When design of the S-1C Stage was completed, Richard transferred to Seattle, Washington, where he worked on the Ground Support Systems for the winning proposal for the U.S. Supersonic Airplane. He then worked on Ground Support Equipment for the AGM-69 Air-to-Ground Nuclear Missile at the Kent Space Flight Center, Kent, Washington.

Richard moved back to Ponca City in 1972, where he worked in the Conoco refinery before transferring to the Refinery Process Engineering Group a year later. His responsibilities included working on crude oil monitoring, capital budget projects and environmental activities related to air, water, solid waste and hazardous waste. He retired as Environmental Engineer for Conoco’s Ponca City Refinery in 1992.

Richard was active in several social, service and professional organizations during his working career. He was a Master Mason, 32nd Degree Scottish Right Mason and Shriner. He also served as Secretary of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and President of the Olympic View Elementary School PTA in Federal Way, Washington. Richard and Pat taught Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church they attended in Metairie, Louisiana, and Richard was a Deacon with the First Presbyterian Church of Ponca City. Richard was a past Secretary and President of the Oklahoma Refiners Waste Control Council, Worthey Patron of the Order of the Eastern Star and Watchman of Shepherds of the Artaban Shrine, White Shrine of Jerusalem, and member of the Noon Lions.

Richard enjoyed being with his family, attending Oklahoma State University football games, walking his dogs, working in the yard and putting up multitudes of outside Christmas decorations each year. He loved to travel and was finally able to view some of the work he and his fellow Boeing employees had completed as a part of the Man to the Moon Program in the 1960s when he went to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2009. Richard was a very outgoing man who never met a stranger and was always entertaining his friends and family with his vast repertoire of jokes and stories.

Richard is survived by his daughter, Lisa, of Ponca City; his son, Brien, daughter-in-law, Glenna, and granddaughters, Lauren and Alison, of Bixby; niece Mary Ann Beets and her husband, Dennis, of Ponca City; niece Roberta Cordes of Norman; and nephew, Charles Thorstenberg, of Norman. He is also survived by a number of great-nieces and -nephews.

He was preceded in death by his wife, parents and three brothers, Ralph Albert, Joseph Clarence and Harold Arthur; and one niece, Mary Louise Thorstenberg.

A Celebration of Richard’s Life will take place on Thursday, April 24, at 10:30 a.m. at the Trout Funeral Home Chapel, with the Reverend Dr. Andrew Gifford officiating.

Pallbearers are Mike Grimes, James McDonald, Gail Snakenberg, Diane Anderson, Charles Thorstenberg and Dennis Beets.

Honorary pallbearers are Paul Bates, Syd Thomm, Duane Nichol and Jim Rosenow.

Family members will be on hand to greet visitors at the Trout Funeral Home Chapel on Wednesday, April 23, from 6:30-8 p.m.

Charitable contributions may be made to the Salvation Army of Ponca City, the Ponca City Humane Society or Image Hospice of Ponca City.

Source: Trout Funeral Home