Richard E. Cloward

Richard Elmer Cloward Obituary

Richard Elmer Cloward was born November 23, 1925 in Payson, Utah, the son of Elmer and Verna (Daniels) Cloward. His parents ran the V and E Motel at the corner of First West Second South in Provo, Utah and from this base of operations he made friends with all the kids on his block. They called themselves the Second South Gang, but they were more Little Rascals than Al Capone. Their greatest crime involved breaking out a few panes of glass in the roof of an abandoned greenhouse.

Richard grew to love the outdoors. He especially loved going pheasant hunting with his pet beagle, Snooks, and became a very good shot with a rifle. He and his buddies also enjoyed skiing. One Sunday in December 1941, they were driving home from Alta when they heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the radio. The majority of the Second South Gang immediately went off to enlist, but Richard, being one of the youngest, had to wait until he was seventeen to join the Navy. After training in Quileute, Washington, Richard was sent to the South Pacific to be a top turret gunner on TBM Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers. When the fighting ended, his mission shifted to doing maintenance on the huge C-24 cargo planes that carried supplies to Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Midway from their base in Guam. He ended his Navy career as an Aviation Machinist Mate Second Class.

After his military service, he attended Brigham Young University on the GI Bill, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Entomology as well as the heart of a young New Mexico girl named Kathleen Maxwell Thomas. He and Kathleen were married on August 14th, 1951 and moved to California after one of Richard's old Provo buddies got him a job at Hughes Aircraft.
He worked for Hughes for 30 years, acting as flight mechanic on one of the company planes, taking many trips with high ranking company officials and their celebrity friends. He would often return home from a trip with stories about how tall Clint Eastwood really was or how Ava Gardner had helped him pass out refreshments to the other passengers. He doted on his plane, a blue and white Convair nicknamed Twiggy, and had a picture of it hanging in his room until the day he died.

One night he was having a hard time getting a certain part that the plane needed to be airworthy. A surly clerk and a mountain of paperwork was preventing him from having the part right when he needed it. He was trying to make do with what he had, complaining out loud about the missing piece. A mustached man he had never seen before stepped up beside him and asked "What's wrong, son?"

"If I can't get his part, this plane is not leaving the ground."

The man nodded. "I'll see what I can do for you."
The stranger disappeared for a bit and returned with the part in hand. "Here you go. Keep up the good work."

It wasn't until the next day that he found out his benefactor had been Howard Hughes himself.
He and Kathleen had two daughters, Robin and Cindy, and were married for 48 years until Kathleen's untimely passing in 1999.

Richard had a series of medical setbacks in his later years, first parotid cancer that almost killed him in 2001, then a broken hip in 2007. Yet he kept a happy outlook while going to endless doctor's appointments, always looking forward to visiting with the people in the office, making sure to bring a lollipop for everyone.

He passed away quietly at the age of 89 on what would have been Kathleen's 86th birthday, leaving his two daughters, eight grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren.


Funeral Home:
Green Hills Mortuary and Memorial Chapel
27501 S.Western Ave.
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
US 90275