Richard Adam Deitrich

Richard (Dick) Adam Deitrich was born in Monte Vista in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. His parents, Robert (Dee) Adam Deitrich and Freda Leona Scott Deitrich, were devoted parents of their only child they called ""Shorts."" Dee farmed and raised sheep outside of Center, Colorado. For over 40 years, Freda worked for the Lewis Hardware Store in Center.

Dick was born in one of the poorest and most beautiful areas of the country during the Great Depression. This instilled in Dick a strong work ethic, a stoic attitude, a devotion to family, and a deep empathy for people facing hardship. Growing up in this mountain valley also fueled his passion for the outdoors and fly fishing.

Dick was inspired by his uncle, who was a pharmacist, to attend pharmacy school at CU Boulder. While attending CU, Dick played as a tackle for the Buffalos. His crowning glory was a 1952 win over Kansas State University, for which he was awarded the game ball. He never let Craton, his brother-in-law and a Colorado State alum, forget the 61-0 win over Colorado State that same year.

After receiving his Bachelor's degree, Dick went on to earn a Master's in pharmacy and a Ph.D. in pharmacology at CU Medical School.

Although Dick and Margaret both grew up near Center, they didn't start dating until college. They married in 1954, when she was 19 and he was 22. Besides the benefits of marrying a brilliant and attractive woman, Dick had the advantage of gaining a brother-in-law, Craton, who became one of his lifelong friends.

Dick and Margaret's first daughter, Gay, was born while Dick was in Basic Training at Fort Ord after being drafted into the Army. He learned of his daughter's birth when he was handed a pass to go home to the Valley to meet her and be with Margaret.

After Basic Training, the family moved to Denver and Dick was assigned research work at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital. There he was assigned (he'd love this) ""crappy"" work analyzing the defecations of soldiers whose food had been irradiated.

Dick and Margaret's second daughter, Leslie, was born while Dick was working toward his Ph.D. Frugality, deer and elk hunting success, and living in the projects in west Denver allowed them to survive on a graduate student's salary with a growing family.

After Dick completed his Ph.D., the family moved to Baltimore. Lori was born there in 1962, where Dick completed a postdoctoral fellowship and worked as an instructor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School in the department of physiological chemistry. In 1963 they moved home to Colorado for Dick to take a job as an assistant professor of pharmacology at the CU School of Medicine.

Moving back to Colorado allowed Dick to renew his hunting and fishing passion. Many adventures ensued with fishing and backpacking pals who were also his graduate students, colleagues and family. He introduced his daughters to fishing and backpacking, instilling his love of the outdoors in them. Some of his most fun times involved teaching his grandsons to fish and spending time with them in the outdoors.

Dick completed a sabbatical in Bern, Switzerland, with Margaret, Leslie and Lori in tow (Gay was in her first year of college). Dick and Margaret loved to travel-from St Petersburg to Sydney to Rio de Janeiro and many places in between. When he wasn't at his laboratory bench, fishing, or preparing a lecture, he was planning his next trip.

Dick loved his work and made a mark on the world with his scientific contributions. He is best known for his work on enzymes and the metabolism of aldehydes. His uncles' and father's struggles with alcoholism led to his career-long effort to discover a genetic basis of the disease. To this end, he enjoyed uninterrupted funding from the National Institutes of Health from 1963 until his retirement in 2004. With the Institute for Behavioral Genetics in Boulder, Dick established one of the longest lasting National Centers for Research on Alcoholism. This Center was an instrumental part of establishing alcoholism as a heritable disease.

Throughout his life, Dick strived to alleviate suffering through scientific discovery and civic involvement. He was committed to encouraging young people from diverse backgrounds to pursue science. During his retirement he was very active politically, and throughout his life he took stands against racism and sexism. Towards the end, he expressed regret that he would not be able to vote in the upcoming elections.

Despite being colorblind Dick had an incredible eye for photography. He also collected art from all over the world, particularly Native American art to add to the collection he inherited from his grandfather, who ran a trading post near the Four Corners.

Another of the passions of Dick's life was making horrible puns. Even on his deathbed, when he was feeling his worst, he continued to enjoy the groans elicited by his jokes.

Dick died on September 5, 2018, at University of Colorado Hospital, in view of the old Fitzsimmons Army Hospital where his career began.

Dick is survived by his wife, Margaret, his daughters, Gay Deitrich-MacLean (Bill), Leslie Shivers (Tom) and Lori Hight, and by five grandsons, Sean, Will, Michael (Courtney), Daniel and Aeron, and by a great-granddaughter, Sophronia Celeste MacLean (6 months), whom he met in May 2018. He is also survived by his brother-in-law Craton Burkholder (Mardell), and his niece, Trevi Bennett (Jeremy), and nephew Trent Burkholder and their children. Dick is also survived by Tiger and Sandy, his last dogs in his lifetime of canine companions.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift in memory of Dick to support the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the CU School of Medicine's Pharmacology Department through the University of Colorado Foundation, PO Box 17126, Denver CO 80217. (Checks payable to CU Foundation, memo line- Dr. Richard Deitrich Memorial Fund and account #0223916). Gifts may also be made online at https://giving.cu.edu/RichardDeitrich.

Whatever you do to honor Dick's life, Dick would want you to vote your convictions and encourage others to do the same in coming elections.

Services will be held at 10:00 AM on December 8th at the First Universalist Church of Denver 4101 E Hampden Ave, Denver, CO 80222. Reception following.

Memorial Service: December 8, 2018 10:00 am

First Universalist Church of Denver
4101 E Hampden Ave
Denver, CO 80222

Reception: December 8, 2018 11:00 am

First Universalist Church of Denver
4101 E Hampden Ave
Denver, CO 80222