Obituary of Richard Condon

Richard Anthony Condon was the beloved firstborn son of Richard and Irene Condon. He was born on February 9, 1934 and named after his father and Saint Anthony. He loved all six of his siblings dearly and spoke proudly of them. His three surviving siblings are Mary (Lou) Breimhurst, Anne (Jim) Magruder and Terry (Karen Toomey). Deceased siblings are Mike, Frank, and Greg. He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Iris (Frank) Condon and aunt Sister Anne Condon O.S.C. Richard carried newspapers for many years starting at age 12, using the bicycle that he bought with earnings from his paper route. Later, he worked at National Tea (a.k.a. Berens) grocery store in Shakopee where he stocked shelves. He was a good son. In a letter shortly after he was married, his father said, "You have been a wonderful son. You are always thoughtful, fair, honest, industrious, loving, and understanding. You were motivated through your love to do many things that made us happy. Remember how you initiated the Christmas funds through the years among your brothers and sisters? You backed them with your earnings to buy gifts for your mother and me. Your loyalty to your family was a shining example." He was an excellent student, graduating as salutatorian from Shakopee High School. He attended St. Thomas College for one year after receiving an All State scholarship. He attended the remainder of his college courses at the University of Minnesota. He received two degrees simultaneously, one in business and one in mechanical engineering, graduating with distinction. He received the John Morse scholarship for each of his last two years at the University. He was named a member of two honorary fraternities, Pi Tau Sigma and Beta Gamma Sigma. Upon graduation, he surprised his mother with a clothes dryer in gratitude for all her support. He fell in love while in college, was married after graduation and moved to Milwaukee to work on nuclear reactors at Allis Chalmers. His first work assignment was for the power plant in Princeton, Minnesota. He was the father of seven children, with six surviving: Rick (Jenny Jefferds), Carol (Craig) Borchard, Kathy, Tim, John, Elizabeth (Richard) Chiasson. His first daughter Suzy lived one day. He was also the grandfather of nine grandchildren, Rebecca, Claire, Craig, Lily, Colleen, Sarah, Rose, Benjamin, Jasmine. He loved all of his children and grandchildren and cared for them in different ways. Later in his career, he completed a Master's degree in Business Administration. He attended a number of post graduate business courses at MIT, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University and others. He also studied computer programming at Minneapolis Technical College. During the course of his forty-seven years of employment, he worked for four of the Fortune 100 companies in the Twin Cities: Control Data, Minnesota Mining, Pillsbury, and Burlington Northern. He traveled for 3M International working in London, Paris and Dé¼sseldorf, Germany. He received a national award for developing a superior poultry feed formulation for Pillsbury. He also worked as a real estate agent to earn extra money for his family. He ended his career working for Ramsey County. He enjoyed art and classical music. In Paris he was able to view paintings by Renoir, Monet and other artists. Some of his favorites were "The Card Players" by Paul Cézanne and "Woman with a Parasol" by Claude Monet. He attended musical concerts in London as well as the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. When he retired, he and a good friend who shared his love of music, travel and bridge toured France and Turkey together. He played in both the Bridge League at Pax Christie and the St. Paul Bridge League. He loved cars and faithfully attended the annual auto show as long as he was able. He was also a member of the Twin Cities Bicycling Club, and participated in many of their events. He promoted family relationships by organizing outings for his siblings and extended family. He hosted a bicycling adventure for family and friends to Red Wing. He offered a backyard barbeque to honor his youngest daughter's graduation with a Master's Degree. He organized a horseback outing for all of the cousins. Richard was a member of St. Mark's Parish in Shakopee in his youth. Richard frequently attended Mass at the Poor Clare Monastery in Bloomington and participated in centering prayer at St. Olaf in Minneapolis in later years. He will be missed. Should friends desire, memorials are preferred to the Poor Clare Sisters of Bloomington, 8650 Russell Ave. S., Bloomington, MN, 55431.