Richard Harold Backderf

Richard H. Backderf, passed away peacefully on July 3, his birthday. He was 84.

Richard was the only child of a B.F. Goodrich plant manager and a career stenographer. He grew up on W. Long St., in the middle-class neighborhood just north of the Firestone plant. His childhood was a happy one and several of his boyhood chums remained lifelong friends. He inherited his mother's brains and his father's drive, and flourished academically at South High School. He graduated in 1945. A boyhood chemistry set still in the family set him on a career path.

He joined the Navy and served aboard the U.S.S. Arkansas in the Pacific during the last months of WWII. "I wasn't much of sailor," he said. But he never forgot his sailor's knots and never missed an "Arky" reunion. After the war, he attended Akron U on the G.I. Bill. He majored in chemistry and quickly stood out as a brilliant student.
In 1948, he met Mary Anne, a pretty South High senior, at a youth group meeting at the Wooster Ave. Methodist Church. They soon became inseparable. Richard always needled her that he saved her from" life as an old maid." He was a notoriously lousy date, thanks to his long hours studying and all-night stints in the lab, and often fell asleep during movies. He even cut short the evening of her high school prom to rush back to study for exams. "He was always doing that to me," said Mary Anne.

Quiet and brainy, Richard was a man of few words, but had a dry wit and loved to tease. Mary Anne, on the other hand, was famously chatty and outgoing. Their mix of brains and personality was a seamless fit. They were the perfect couple.

He was well liked by his classmates and brothers at Phi Delta Theta. He graduated from Akron U in 1950 and he and Mary Anne were engaged. The following year, he went off to grad school at Ohio State University, the only time in their lives the couple would be parted. They were wed at St. John's Lutheran Church in downtown Akron on June 9, 1951. They spent the next four years in Columbus, while Richard studied for a master's and then a doctorate. The subject of his research earned him the nickname "Fatty Acids" Backderf from colleagues. Upon graduation, B.F. Goodrich made him an offer he couldn't refuse and the couple moved back to Akron.

Richard worked at the B.F. Goodrich Research Lab in Brecksville for the next 36 years and attained the rank of senior chemist. He was awarded 10 patents during his career. The couple built a house in small-town Richfield in 1959. Their two sons came along shortly after.

He was a hack golfer and a decent bowler. He loved chopping wood and roaring winter fires. He taught himself German. He was the worst amateur barber ever, as his boys tragic, grade school pictures attest. He built a log cabin by hand, just for fun. He grew giant tomato plants and canned dozens of jars of wild strawberry and raspberry jam every Fall. Card games of all sorts were a favorite pastime. He was an avid bird watcher and no local avian went hungry with Richard's many feeders. He was famously mellow and never showed a hint of temper, although God help the son who misplaced one of his tools. Always a Depression kid, he never threw anything away that could be somehow re-used in one of his many domestic contraptions. He took the family to Florida every Christmas and to a lakeside lodge in Canada every summer. He was a pie fiend and his mother's sour cherry pie was his favorite, a recipe later mastered by his daughter-in-law, much to his delight.

He was a devoted son and a fine father, supporting and prodding his boys all the way to adulthood, even though neither inherited his scientific brain. He could only shake his head when John was forced to drop freshman Chemistry at Ohio State after a disastrous midterm exam.

Richard retired in 1992. He and Mary Anne spent winters on the ocean in Hilton Head. He enjoyed Saturday morning breakfasts with other Richfield dads and catching up on the news at the town barber shop. He and Mary Anne hiked and birded in the parks. In the summer, they resided in the family cottage on the Portage Lakes, where they entertained family and their many friends.

In June, he and Mary Anne celebrated their 60th anniversary.

He is survived by wife Mary Anne, son John Sheryl Harris, grandchildren Max and Chloe and son Eric Diana Orendi.

"Rich" to his boyhood chums, "Dick" to his friends and colleagues, always "Richard" to his beloved wife, and "Dad" and "Grandpa" to those who carry on the Backderf name. He'll be greatly missed.


Services will be held 3 p.m., WEDNESDAY at the Billow FAIRLAWN Chapel, 85 N. Miller Rd. Interment at Fairview Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 1 to 3 pm on Wednesday. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the American Red Cross.