Richard N. Getty

Family and friends of Richard N. Getty, 84, Lawrence, are invited to an informal celebration of life gathering from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Lawrence Presbyterian Manor Chapel. Masonic rites and military honors will be at 2:15 p.m. Private family inurnment will be at a later date in Phillipsburg.
Mr. Getty died Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009, at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor. He had lived in Lawrence since 1982.
He was born Feb. 19, 1925, in Downs, the son of Richard William and Sarah Viola Asper Getty. He graduated from Downs High School in 1943.
Mr. Getty served in the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force from 1943 to 1946. He graduated from Kansas University with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1949 and a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1955.
He worked at Raney Drug Store in Colby from 1955 to 1957 and at Hibbard’s Rexall Drug Store from 1957 to 1958. He owned and operated Getty’s Pharmacy in St. Francis from 1958 to 1980. He worked as a relief pharmacist and consultant until 1999.
Prior to his pharmacy work, Mr. Getty was a teacher and coach at Holyrood High School.
He was a life member of the Kansas University Alumni Association and Jayhawk Society, a life member and past master of St. Francis Lodge No. 404 A.F.&A.M., life member of Scottish Rites of Free Masonry 32nd degree in Lawrence, Shriner’s International, ISIS Temple in Salina, member and past president of St. Francis Rotary Club, member of Elks Lodge No. 1528 in Goodland, American Legion Post 137 in St. Francis and a member of the United Methodist church in St. Francis. He was a volunteer for Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s Escort Service.
He married Betty Lou Cummings on May 1, 1948, in Almena. She died April 3, 2007.
Survivors include two daughters, Suzanne K. Dillon, Lawrence, and Sarah Lynne Thomas and husband Frank, Richmond, Va.; and three grandchildren, James Richard Dillon, Shealyn L. Gale and Brent Getty Thomas.
The family suggests memorials to Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s Oncology Department and Cheyenne County Hospital in St. Francis, sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary.
Online condolences may be sent at warrenmcelwain .com, subject: Getty.