Richard Samuel Warburton, 95, sadly passed away October 9, 2024. He died of old age. He was born in Wallasey, England, at home April 18, 1929 to Rupert and Lillian Warburton. He was the youngest of six, 2 sisters, and 3 brothers, all of whom have predeceased him. He is survived by his wife and love of his life (39 years), Darcey Poole, and his nephews Rob (Chris Heavin) and David Warburton.
Richard spent his first 35 years in England where he obtained his secondary school certificate (A or advanced levels) then went into the Army and spent 2 years on the Rock (Gilbralter) as he called it, and further developed his love of the sun and the sea even though he was a gunner in the Royal Artillery; it was between wars and he was able to read a lot of books and swim in the sea. When he was discharged, he pursued and finished degrees in mechanical engineering, chemistry and physical chemistry while working full-time for Pilkington Glass Manufacturing. He worked on a team that developed the float glass (window glass) process also called the Pilkington Process. While visiting Corning Glass museum many years later, we saw a whole exhibit about this float glass/Pilkington process. When he was not properly compensated for this long and arduous process (working long hours non-stop) he left the company and decided to emigrate to the States following his two older brothers Peter and Stephen. He was always grateful to Peter and his wife Barbara for sponsoring him to come to the U.S. He was part of the famous brain drain from England in 1950’s and 60’s. England did try to recruit him back but by then he was very happy at Kodak. He loved his work there for 28 years working on various development projects to improve the manufacturing of film. He was sent to their factories in Colorado and Tennessee to install processes to improve the film manufacturing there as well as his main work at Kodak Park.
When he retired in 1992, he promptly bought a condo in Florida to get back to that sun and sea he loved so much. At first, he missed his technical work but began to pursue his passion for music teaching himself (using a computer) how to read music, the piano, clarinet, and flute. He would always say he enjoyed the process more than the product but he became quite proficient in all of these.
Obviously, Richard was a talented, accomplished and very bright man but you would never have heard this from him as he was very humble about his abilities. He was also a very kind and generous man and had a wonderful dry sense of humor. He will be greatly missed by all who love him. And he would be the first to say that he had had a wonderful and productive life. He perhaps has one regret and that was that he did not live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris. He kept wanting to fill out the ballot that we had but he did not live long enough. So hopefully you can vote for Kamala in his memory. If you would like to donate in his memory his favorite charities were Doctors Without Borders and Planned Parenthood.