Richard Dennison

Richard Dennison passed away on May 10, 2023. Richard was born in 1939 and grew up in Portland, Oregon, the son of a single mother. He left Franklin High School at age 16 to join the Merchant Marines where he was the youngest sailor on all three vessels he shipped on. He later joined the US Army serving in the Army Security Agency being stationed in Chitose, Japan. While in the Army Richard was promoted meritoriously and also obtained his High School General Equivalency Diploma. After returning from the Army Richard attended one year at Portland State College. In the early 60’s he worked as a greeting card salesman for American Greetings and subsequently joined Muller and Phipps, an international manufacturer’s representative company, where he was initially stationed in Okinawa and later transferred to Saigon, Vietnam as the manager of military sales. In July 1966, while in Saigon, he met and married Kim Na Nguet, the love of his life. During the late 60s and until the fall of Vietnam in 1975 Richard was promoted to Managing Director of the Vietnam office of Muller and Phipps in charge of importing commercial products from over 40 American companies as varied as Briggs and Stratton, Nabisco, Timken and Abbot Laboratories. In 1975, as Vietnam fell to the communists, Richard and Kim returned to the USA and settled in Goleta, California where he started his own company, Riden International Corporation, which licensed TV programming and feature films and which remained active until he retired in 2018. Richard and Kim traveled extensively, for both business and pleasure, and in his lifetime visited over 48 countries. In the 80’s he was Executive Producer and copyright owner of the documentary program “John F. Kennedy’s lost Pathway to Peace” which aired on the TBS Network and several PBS Stations. Later in life, while in semi-retirement he authored the novelty golf book “Just Fore Laughs” (Penguin) and had several non- fiction articles published in magazines as he pursued his hobby of writing about subjects that interested him. Richard had a lifelong love of sports, particularly bowling, and a profound love of animals, particularly dogs. Richard is survived by his beloved wife Kim. In lieu of flowers, if you wish, donations may be made to the Santa Barbara Humane Society