John "Steve" Richards
"Let the winds of change blow over my head. I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead." A parrothead until the end, the smell of the sand and the blue sky breeze of Florida was where he was meant to be. Born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1953, to John "JB" and Dorothy "Dot" Richards, Steve was always drawn to the intrigue of Florida life. From the promise of paradise in Jimmy Buffet's lyrics, to the suspense of his John D McDonald books, no matter how many times he left, he always came back. Searching for his own little bit of paradise. After he graduated from Durrett High School in 1971, in Louisville, he spent some time at the University of Kentucky before enlisting in the Navy. The Navy sparked his love of Florida, stationing him in Orlando, not once, but twice. Prior to his second trip, he met his wife Rita in 1976 in San Diego, CA. Their son Jason was born there in 1978. They moved to Orlando a year later, where Julia was born. The Navy is where Steve's love of education began. He taught at the Naval Training Center in Orlando until he left in 1984, shortly after becoming a Chief. His career in education spanned four decades both teaching and in administrati...[more]View Full Online Obituary and Tributes
as Dean at ITT, Corinthian, Brown-Mackey, and more, until he retired in 2013. A die-hard University of Kentucky fan, Steve bled blue. He was a Kentucky Colonel. A self-proclaimed wizard. A hot sauce aficionado. He loved to eat seafood and drink a cold pilsner. To know him was to love him. Steve is survived by his wife Rita; daughter and son-in-law Julia and Daryl Presgraves and grandchildren Riley and Christopher; daughter-in-law Melissa and grandsons John and Liam. He is preceded in death by his son Jason. The family of Steve Richards invites you to upload your memories as photos and messages on the tribute wall. A celebration of life will be scheduled in 2021. In lieu of flowers, Steve's family request that you donate to Save the Manatee Club https://www.savethemanatee.org/ or the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation https://guyharvey.com/pages/ocean-foundation instead. To read the full obituary, please click here: https://www.degusipefuneralhome.com/obituaries/John-Richards-16/
