News

By Steven J. Smith

    BOCA RATON — When Richard W. Dudley and his wife, Elizabeth, moved to Boca Raton from Mountainside, N.J., 22 years ago, they sought a tranquil life in the Florida sunshine.
    “We led a quiet life when we moved here,” Elizabeth Dudley remembered. “Richard loved to cook. He made the most marvelous meals, with a master’s eye for presentation. Everything he cooked had a very unique and wonderful taste,” she said.
    “We also spent a lot of time exploring Florida,” she said. “We took car trips and really enjoyed going to out-of-the-way places such as St. Augustine, the Keys, Tampa and Florida’s west coast islands. We had a time share in St. Thomas, where we went several times a year and we loved to explore islands in the Caribbean.”
    Those times are good memories for Mrs. Dudley now. Richard W. Dudley died of heart failure July 30. He was 78.
    Besides his wife of 52 years, Mr. Dudley is survived by a sister in New Jersey, a sister in Massachusetts and six nieces and nephews.
    Mr. Dudley attended Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and graduated from the New Jersey Institute of Technology before pursuing a career with Carpenter Technology, a large stainless steel company.
    “Richard was in the tube division, making stainless steel tubing used for pipes in nuclear power reactors,” his widow  said.
    Mr. Dudley’s love for the water was so profound that as a tribute to him, an arrangement was made with the Neptune Society in which his cremated remains will become part of the Neptune Memorial Reef, an artificial reef just off Key Biscayne in Miami.
    The structure is designed to produce marine habitat and promote the growth of coral and marine organisms. The site attracts scuba divers, marine biologists, students, researchers and ecologists from all over the world.
    “They’re creating an underwater city he’ll be a part of, which will help the ecology and the world,” Mrs. Dudley said.
    “Richard will be most remembered for his kindness and his thoughtfulness,” his wife said. “He was extremely supportive of me, with my passion for ballet. The Boca Ballet is a regional company and dance studio that was formed by mothers that wanted opportunities for their children to experience ballet. Richard helped with the development of the ballet. It started with eight students and now there are over 300.”
    Remembrances are asked in Mr. Dudley’s name for the Boca Ballet Theatre (BocaBallet.org; 7630 NW Sixth Ave., Boca Raton 33487).