Richard “Dick” Roy Mau of Gloucester, left this world on Saturday, June 8, 2024, at the age of 93. He was born on May 8, 1931, in Perry, Iowa, to Otto Henning Mau and Goldie Paisley Mau. He was the older brother to Tom Mau of La Jolla, California. He and his wife, Shirley Ann Patrick, eloped and were married in Nebraska in 1952. They were married for 68 years until Shirley passed in 2020. They lived in Iowa City, Iowa; Schenectady, N.Y.; Chicago, Illinois; Richmond, Virginia; Louisville, Kentucky; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Yardley, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; Los Angeles and San Diego, California, and Gloucester, Virginia. Additionally, they traveled the world together.
Dick loved and was committed to his family in good times and through difficult times. He attended many football and soccer games across the years with his children. In an effort to keep the family close, Dick brought his boys to the hospital parking lot each morning before school for nearly six months to wave to their sister, who had been badly burned and was immunocompromised. He was present at the birth of his first grandchild and first great-grandchild. He also attended the funeral of his youngest son in 1996 and hiked up Bear Mountain with friends to disperse the ashes. Dick was an avid runner and ran in the very first New York City Marathon and many others afterward. He also loved golfing and University of Iowa sports.
Dick was able to climb the corporate ladder much higher than he ever imagined. He began life in Perry, Iowa, a small farming town, where he enjoyed playing pickup basketball games, worked cleaning spittoons in the Elks Club, cleaned his father’s pharmacy, and worked as a journalist covering sports for the local papers. In college, he served in the Naval Reserve and worked as a stringer covering regional college sports for the Chicago Tribune. He graduated from the University of Iowa and ultimately determined he would like to work in the corporate world in the field of communications. His final position was Senior Executive Vice President of Communications for Rockwell International in San Diego. He was honored to be the recipient of the Arthur W. Page Society’s Hall of Fame Award (1999). Page is the premier global professional association for senior strategic communication professionals.
Dick leaves three children: Kenton Richard Mau, Douglas Henning Mau, and Mary Mau Runnells, to carry on; and we are certain he was met by his son, Christopher David Mau, to hold his hand as he left this world. He also leaves behind five grandchildren: Laurel Ann Daggers, MacKenzie Richard Mau, Maighdlin Gardner Mau, Ian Scott Runnells, and Torrey Christopher Mau, and two great-grandchildren: Riley Christopher Mosher and Penelope Noelle Brett.
Services will be held at graveside in Iowa at a later date. Services under the direction of Hogg Funeral Home & Crematory.