Richard "Dick" Horstmann

Richard “Dick” Alvin Horstmann was born August 12, 1926 in St Louis, the firstborn of Alvin and Esther.  He had one younger sister, Joan.  Richard grew up in North St Louis and attended Markus Lutheran Church.  During his childhood, he spent his summers with his cousin on his grandparents’ farm in the Columbia Bottoms.  He graduated from Beaumont High School and soon was drafted into the Army where he served in the European theater of World War II.  He famously arrived in Europe the day that Nazi Germany surrendered.  He continued to serve during the post war period, first learning to drive after volunteering for the motor pool.  When he returned to St. Louis following his years of service, he enrolled at St. Louis University under the GI bill.  He graduated with a degree in Business. 

After graduating from SLU, he attended the Walther League Lutheran weekend youth group camp where he met his future wife Lois Margaret Kunz.  He intentionally got off at the wrong bus stop just so he could ask her out for a date later that week.  She told him she was busy that day and offered a date with her cousin instead.  Dick replied, “I don’t want to go out with her, I want to go out with you.”  Impressed, Lois rearranged her schedule for a date and they later married December 30, 1950. 

Dick and Lois were blessed with two daughters Kathleen and Judy.  They raised their family in North County.  They owned two boxers, Penny and Tawnee.  Dick made a career in the furniture business, working first for Scruggs, Vandervorts and Barney, and later for Midwest Furniture. 

Dick was very active at Grace Chapel, serving on the board of elders, the school board, Men’s Club and Married Couple’s club.  He and his wife took their young family to Lutheran family camp each summer.  Dick was the manager and first baseman for the Grace Chapel softball team as well as  Lorenzo’s Bar and Grill.  He was an accomplished bowler and poker player.  An avid golfer, he twice achieved a hole in one!  He was a devoted follower of the St Louis Browns and later the Billikens, Cardinals and Blues.  A lover of music, Dick sang in multiple church choirs as well as the KFUO choir.  He continually sang to himself, most often about the mundane activities of daily life.  Dick assiduously tended to his home and garden.  He was often to be found picking up sticks from his yard and adjusting the rugs in his house.  While Dick rarely ever cooked and never barbequed, he was famous for his avocado dip and his love for his wife’s cooking.  He was a voracious reader, frequently checking out novels from the library and receiving two newspapers a day.

Dick and Lois’s daughter Kathi married James Branahl and their daughter Judy married Bob Johnson.  Between his two daughters, he had eight grandchildren, Aaron (Tricia), Jared (Amy), LeAnne (Joe), Ryan (Kristen), Seth, Zachary (Cori), Nathan (Hana) and Julia (Hannah).  Dick was a tremendous grandfather: patient, jovial and kind.  He was closely invested in the lives of his beloved grandkids, always generous with his time and attention.  His grandkids fondly remember summer vacations, innumerable ice cream parlor trips, pick-up football games, Christmas parties, golf outings, pencil dive competitions, story time, horsey rides, sloppy kisses, bridge games and “dead dog.”  In addition to his grandchildren, he is survived by twelve great-grandchildren.

Asleep in Jesus, Richard is preceded in death by his wife, Lois, sister, Joan and son-in-law, Bob.