Growing up, Dick divided his time between the family home on Juliet Street in Los Angeles and the farm in Chino. He attended Los Angeles High School for his freshman and sophomore years. Dick finished his junior and senior years at Chino High School where he was class president and graduated in 1954.

 

After graduation Dick enrolled at Mount San Antonio Junior College, but his heart wasn’t in it. Dick envisioned a life on the road, but his parents insisted that he continue his education. This path was cemented in 1954 by a deathbed promise to his father that he would finish college. In 1955 Dick’s mother sold the farm, making Los Angeles his permanent home. 

 

Dick kept his promise and transferred to UCLA where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Foreign Languages before completing a master’s degree. After graduation, he began teaching Spanish and French at Paramount High School and also served as the school’s Track and Field coach. Dick never gave up his dream of driving a truck. He and his high school friend, Ken Hanson, owned and operated Dunn Hanson Trucking. During summer breaks Dick would operate one of the two Dunn Hanson Trucks. The business eventually closed, but Dick never stopped driving. Driving a truck allowed Dick to wander the country, collecting stories he never could have experienced in Los Angeles. 

 

Dick was a storyteller. He could tell you every place his truck ever broke down. He could recall conversations with other drivers over the CB radio warning him of upcoming hazards. He could describe the sound the road texture made and how the change in sound differed from state to state. He could describe the clothes people wore when he met them at a truck stop, and he could tell you where to eat in just about anywhere. He was so detailed you could tell him the mile marker and he could tell you where you were – and how to get to where you wanted to be. Even in his final months he could still recall the building of the Santa Monica Freeway and the connection made to the Arroyo Seco Parkway to the Harbor Freeway. 

 

In 1971, Richie dragged Dick to her work Christmas Party where he was introduced to Alfreda Soriano Chappelle. They met again at a dinner and began dating. After a short courtship they married on December 28, 1972. In 1974, they welcomed their first daughter, Ashley Elizabeth. She was then joined by Richmond Soriano in 1975, and Sydney Christina in 1977. 

 

Dick left Paramount High School for a job as an assistant principal at Calexico High School in 1977, but it was not a good fit. He felt the students were not given the support to succeed. Calexico was a border town and many of the students the school served came from Mexico to attend school in the U.S. Dick felt that the students were treated like second class citizens. This soured his experience in Calexico.

 

In 1979, Dick left Calexico and returned to Paramount High School as an assistant principal. He returned to Juliet Street to ensure his elderly mother, Myrtle, was cared for. The time away from his wife and children put a strain on his marriage. They divorced in 1983. When Alfreda and the children moved back to Los Angeles, Dick enjoyed spending time with them on the weekends, taking them to the movies and playing miniature golf. On the rides back to Granada Hills he would annoy his children with lectures on driving; like the proper speed to climb the Sepulveda Pass on the 405, or how to not roll your car when hydroplaning. “Turn in to the spin. Turn in to the spin. Turn in to the spin.” These words echoed in Ashley’s head when her car began to spin on the 210 Freeway in heavy rain, saving her life. Dick was quick-witted and prone to dad-jokes, randomly calling his children to share in his joke. His wit and storytelling nature was inherited by his children who also randomly call each other multiple times a day to make each other cackle.

 

Dick retired from Paramount High School in 1993. After retirement he returned to his first love, trucking. He split his time working for Tony Martinez Trucking (TMT), and teaching at a truck driving school in Chino. Eventually, he retired from trucking, but he stayed active by volunteering at the library, teaching ESL, and working out. 

 

In 1995, Dick sold the house on Juliet Street and returned to his beloved Chino. He found a home not far from his old family’s farm on Bunker Hill Place. Dick enjoyed puttering around his house and spending time with his best friend, Russell – a friendship that lasted since childhood. At his home the two would watch the football games and share a beer. As he grew older, he continued to be intellectually curious. He enrolled at Chaffey College to learn Arabic and took the occasional history course. In 2015, his son Richmond had his first of three children. Dick enjoyed visits and frequent FaceTime calls with his grandchildren who live in Arizona. 

 

In June of 2019, Dick suffered a Transient ischemic attack (TIA) which is a self-resolving stroke. He was immediately hospitalized. Doctors impressed upon him that living alone was no longer an option, so he moved in with his sister, Richie, in Agoura Hills. There they carried on much as they did when they were kids, pushing each other’s buttons and getting on each other’s nerves. His daughters Ashley and Sydney visited often, providing Dick with lunch and conversation while watching Gunsmoke reruns – during which he would famously complain that the cowboy actors would never securely tie their horses to the hitching rail, something that bothered him since childhood.

 

He developed dementia in 2019. On November 3, 2020, he was hospitalized due to complications from diabetes. He was hospitalized again, two days after returning home, with an infection developed in the hospital. After 5 days in the hospital, Dick was released to Berkley Valley Convalescent Hospital where he was quarantined for 14 days, before being released to mingle with the regular patients. Two days later Dick was hospitalized for the third time and diagnosed with COVID-19 pneumonia. After a two-week battle with COVID, Dick died December 15, 2020. 

 

Dick is survived by his former wife and friend, Alfreda Soriano Dunn, his children, Ashley, Richmond, and Sydney Dunn, his children’s spouses Nathan Lopez and Micki Dunn, his grandchildren: Asher, Riley, and Sterling Dunn, and his beloved sister, Richmona Dunn Gordon Jones.

 

Services will be held on January 4th, 2021. Due to COVID-19 restrictions the mass will only be attended by his immediate family. The mass can be viewed live at www.richmonddunn.com on January 4th, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. The mass will be officiated by Father Nahum at St. Joseph Church. 

 

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to No Kid Hungry (https://www.nokidhungry.org/) an organization working to eradicate childhood hunger.