Richard Dean DeFreeuw

Feb. 1, 1933 - Aug. 28, 2023

Richard D. (Dick) DeFreeuw, a resident of Flossmoor for over 50 years, passed away at Northwestern Medicine Home Health & Hospice on August 28, 2023. He was 90. Richard was the only child of Charles and Adeline DeFreeuw, both deceased, of South Bend, Indiana.

After graduating in 1949 as the valedictorian of South Bend Central High School, Richard went on to earn both a BS in accounting (with Highest Distinction) and an MBA from Indiana University. Richard was an active member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and a two-time rider in the university’s Little 500 bicycle race (later made world-famous by the movie Breaking Away), including the inaugural event in 1951.

He served in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps and, after a rare Branch transfer, as a first lieutenant in the Finance Corps in Fontainebleau, France.

Richard was a retired V.P. of Accounting at UAL, Inc., then the world’s largest travel conglomerate comprising United Airlines, Westin Hotels and Hertz Rent-A-Car. Previously, he was Corporate Accounting Manager for FMC Corporation (then a Fortune 100 company), preceded by a 17-year career as CPA at Price Waterhouse.

In his retirement, Richard actively pursued many interests, including tennis, gardening, photography, movies, traveling, birdwatching, and following his favorite teams: the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bears, and the football and basketball teams of Indiana and Notre Dame. At least once per season, Richard would “give up” on and then later reunite with his team.

Despite never having a tennis lesson after taking up the sport at age 42, he achieved rankings at the National, Midwest Section, and Chicago District levels for many years. Richard was also a certified USTA Tennis Official, having worked on many tournaments at all levels, including the Men’s ATP Pro events at Indianapolis, Key Biscayne (Florida), and Cincinnati. Richard loved recounting the time he umpired a John McEnroe match. A ball landed squarely on a side line, McEnroe tried desperately - but unsuccessfully - to reach it, and Richard called it “IN,” resulting in a lost game for McEnroe, who immediately charged to an eyeball-to-eyeball position with Richard and said, amazingly, “GOOD call- EXCELLENT call!”

Though he never owned a cell phone, Richard was ahead of his time in other ways – composting and recycling in the 1970’s before it was trendy and even before curbside pickup!  Mowing his own lawn into his late 80’s, he loved nothing more than to give you a tour of his garden (naming all the plants) and always had a rainbow of tomatoes on the kitchen counter in various stages of ripeness.

Richard captured countless remarkable scenes with his cameras, but the one he was most proud of was a photograph of the Chicago Bulls celebrating one of its world championships, a picture that became a 3/4 -page spread in Sports Illustrated.

He and his wife of 54 years, Patricia DeFreeuw, were fanatical moviegoers, having viewed thousands of movies in their time together. In addition, a source of enormous pride for Richard was his work in retirement as a movie extra. After first stumbling onto a film set on the streets of Paris where the director asked him to join the action, Richard went on to work as an extra in over 50 feature films in the Chicago area, including most prominently in the movies Road to Perdition (in a scene with Tom Hanks), The Babe, The Package, A League of Their Own, Home Alone, and Gladiator.

Besides his wife Patricia, Richard is also survived by daughter Jennifer DeFreeuw (Allen Walker), grandchildren Erick Vandergaw and Tara Vandergaw, a large extended family, and many friends. He was preceded in death by son Patrick DeFreeuw.

Richard will be remembered as someone whose competitive spirit and quiet nature belied a witty, thoughtful person who cared deeply about the Earth and was always working behind the scenes to benefit others. While others gabbed, he was planning their vacations, untangling Christmas lights, tending his in-laws’ garden, handling any and all administration, carving the roast beast, and convincing league officials to allow his daughter (then nine) to join a boys’ baseball team midseason. He will be missed.

Visitation Tuesday Sept 5, 2023, from 10am until the time of Service at 11am at the Tews-Ryan Funeral Home 18230 Dixie Highway in Homewood. Interment and Military Honors to follow at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, IL at 1pm. For additional information contact tews-ryanfh.com or call 708-798-5300.

https://www.tews-ryanfh.com/obituary/richard-d-defreeuw-8665852

09/12/2023 DEC