Richard Joseph Desjardins

Richard Joseph “Dick” Desjardins went to be with the Lord on August 15, 2024, in Seneca, South Carolina. He was eighty-eight years old. Dick was born in Webster, Massachusetts on January 23, 1936, to the late Genevieve May and David Lionel Desjardins. He was the first of five children, followed by Rosemarie, David, Anne, and James. The family settled in the idyllic little town of North Brookfield, Massachusetts. Dick was energetic, adventurous, and hard working from boyhood. When he wasn’t in school, he worked at the shoe factory where his father was a foreman and at a summer camp and held numerousother jobs during his youth. He enjoyed scouting and achieved the level of Eagle Scout. He also served as an altar boy at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in his hometown. 

 Dick always had a strong sense of adventure and a zest for life. At age seventeen, he joined the Army and gained 20 pounds in boot camp. The Army sent him to Frankfurt Germany as a clerk-typist, where his main job was to inconspicuously courier documents between the bases around the country. Dick loved everything about Germany. He joined a German rugby club team, and he used the line, “I was away in Germany” so often you’d have believed he spent twenty years there. His job as a courier and his thirst for adventure triggered a life-long love of travel. He took every opportunity to travel the world, visiting at least thirty-one countries, and the stories of his adventures and misadventures entertained us (and him) for decades. 

 Dick parlayed his military service and the GI Bill to study languages at the University of Massachusetts. He swam on the university swim team, earning the nickname “Dick the Whale.” He took a job in the cafeteria of a sorority house, where he met the love of his life, Josepha Anne “Dodie” Germanowski. After a whirlwind courtship, Dick and Dodie married on August 29, 1959. They had three children, Richard, Michelle, and Lisa. 

 Dick became a computer programmer when computers the size of refrigerators used punch cards and filled large rooms. He sold computer systems for several large corporations including RCA and Honeywell before starting his own computer consulting company. After several years in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Jersey, the family settled in Greenville County, SC in 1971 where they enjoyed many weekend outings exploring the beauty of the Carolina mountains and coastal areas, four-wheeling in the family station wagon, fishing, hiking, tubing down the Chattooga River, and visiting historical sitesand local attractions such as the RJ Reynolds tobacco factory with its life-size tobacco camel in the lobby and free cigarette samples for everyone. 

 Dick and Dodie were devout Catholics and actively served in their churches, singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school, and serving in many other ways. They enjoyed volunteering and taught English as a Second Language, sponsored a family of Laotian refugees, tutored, worked with Clemson Community Care, and enthusiastically helped where ever they were called to serve. They loved dancing and meeting people from different backgrounds and joined a folk dancing group and the German American club. Dick also loved gardening, fishing, sailing, hiking, camping, good food, mediocre wine, and family vacations at the beach.

 After the children were grown, Dick and Dodie built their dream house on Lake Hartwell and moved to Seneca, SC, where they enjoyed their Golden Years.

 Dick joins Dodie, his beloved wife of sixty-four years, in heaven. He is survived by their children, Richard Joseph Desjardins and his wife Amy (Falter) of Mount Pleasant, SC, Michelle Anne Desjardins and her husband Robert “Bob” Hicks of San Diego, CA, and Lisa Marie Desjardins of Seneca SC; their grandchildren Luke Andrew Desjardins and his wife Emily Simone (Mills), Mary Elizabeth “Mary Beth” Desjardins and her fiancé Chance Muller, Grace Anna Chen Desjardins, and Matthew Joseph Hicks; and their many beloved nieces and nephews and friends. He was predeceased by his wife Dodie, who passed away on March 17, 2023, his parents David L. and Genevieve M. Desjardins, and his sisters Rosemarie D. Larson and Anne B. Mathieu.

 Dick will be missed by the many people who loved him and shared in his adventures. But be at peace knowing his suffering has ended and he is with the Lord and his beloved Dodie in heaven.

 A funeral mass will be held at Saint Andrew Catholic Church, 209 Sloan St., Clemson, SC, at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, August 30, 2024, followed by a reception at the church hall.

 Donations in Dick’s honor may be made to Clemson Community Care, P.O. Box 271, Clemson, SC 29633 or clemsoncommunitycare.org.

Please visit RobinsonFuneralHomes.com or Duckett-Robinson Funeral Home & Crematory, Central-Clemson Commons.