Kirby Richards Obituary (1962 - 2020)

Kirby Richards - Born June 6, 1962 - Died March 9, 2020 Those that have crossed before him - parents Calvin Richards, Darlene (Cripe) Richards. Those he left behind, his sister Diane (Richards) Hite; Wife Michele (Hutchison) Richards, Daughters - Alisa and Makenzie Richards, Sons - Josh and Evin Richards. Kirby grew up in Goshen, IN, a energetic and happy boy. His family moved to Washington State for a few years before coming back to Middleberry, IN. He found his love of air planes while in Washington as a friend of the family was a pilot. Kirby love to tinker with engines and had many VW bugs starting as a teenager. Kirby finished up his high school career in Bloomington, IN in shop classes. At 18 he worked in HI at Dole Pineapple farms for the summer and enjoyed the adventure, but quite hard work of the harvesting and planting pineapples. At 19 he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in CA. In his lifetime he earned AS degrees in diesel mechanics, truck driving, management & marketing. After learning to become a mechanic he could not find a job, he received training to become a truck driver and has seen 49 of the 50 states, the only one he never saw was Alaska. Kirby enjoyed working on things around the house and in vehicles. With these skills he has helped many people with homes and vehicles giving service with the skills God gave him. In the last years of his life he was a bus driver/classroom/driving instructor for First Student.He always wanted to teach and had practice in years of teaching at church. This gentle giant of a man will be greatly missed, he was kind and helpful whenever he could, his humor came out in playful banter and teasing and was only meant as Good natured. Always service oriented, he would do whatever was asked of him without complaint.