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- Daytona Beach News-Journal, Florida, Feb. 8, 2012
Richard L. Bass
Richard L. Bass, 81, of Ormond Beach, passed away on February 2, 2012. The Funeral Service will be held at 2:00 PM on Saturday, February 11, 2012 in the Chapel of Lohman Funeral Home Ormond. A visitation will be held from 1:00-2:00 PM prior to the service on Saturday at the Funeral Home. Interment will follow the Service in Volusia Memorial Park, Ormond Beach. Richard Bass was born on September 1, 1930 in Savannah, GA to Raymond and Violet Bass. In 1931 they moved to Lake Monroe from his birthplace. He graduated from Seminole High School in Sanford, FL where he excelled in sports and was offered 17 scholarships from around the country. Bobby Dodd the Head football coach for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, a perennial national championship contender at the time, thought that Richard could be the player to assume all kicking duties for his team. In his senior year at Seminole, Richard was awarded the Peter Schaal Trophy, which is an honor given to the squad's most outstanding player. The Peter Schaal Trophy is the most consecutively presented award of it's type in the country dating back 5 years prior to even the Heisman. Instead of accepting any college scholarship, he chose to work alongside his father and uncle and a short time later his brothers in the family business "Bass & Swaggerty." With Richard acting as President, he and his brothers enjoyed much success as a wholesale distributing company in Volusia County. He was a veteran of the US Army serving during the Korean Conflict. Richard was a member of the Quarterback Club and the Florida Gator Booster Club as he was an avid Florida Gator Fan. He was also instrumental in Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's move to Daytona Beach from Miami in April of 1965. Known then as Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute, a group of Volusia County Civic leaders known as the committee of 100 packed the entire school into trucks and completed the move nearly overnight. The mission was named "Operation Bootstrap". Survivors include his beloved wife of 61 years whom he married on June 11, 1950, Joyce; two sons, Barry of Jacksonville, FL and Kyle of Ormond Beach, FL; two daughters, Sylvia Bass of Ormond Beach, FL and Sandra Hickling of Edgewater, FL; brother, Gene Bass of Ormond Beach, FL; and two granddaughters, Samantha Bass of Jacksonville, FL and Dana Jo Hickling of Edgewater, FL. He was preceded in death by his brother, Dennis Bass of Port Orange. Memorial Donations may be made in his memory to The American Diabetes Association. Condolences may be shared with the family at www.lohmanfuneralhomes.com. Arrangements are under the careful direction of Lohman Funeral Home Ormond.
Daytona Beach News-Journal, Florida, Friday, Feburary 3, 2012
Richard Bass ? Fisherman falls of dock, drowns
Every Thursday for the last decade, brothers Richard and Gene Bass launched a boat at the same spot, intent on heading to their favorite fishing holes in either Lake Woodruff or Lake Monroe.
But Thursday morning instead of loading up his 21-foot boat, Gene Bass watched older brother Richard, 80, of Ormond Beach fall into the river and drown.
"It was just a miserable experience," the 73-year-old Gene Bass, also of Ormond Beach, said Thursday. "I was there with him when he drowned."
The case is under investigation by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
The two brothers, who once owned a well-known food-distribution company in the Daytona Beach area, had been going to the Highland Park Fish Camp near DeLand to launch Gene Bass' 21-foot Maverick flats boat from the dock.
Just after 7 a.m. though, as Richard Bass attempted to board his brother's boat, his leg got tangled in the rope that secured the craft to the dock, Gene Bass said. Richard Bass' other leg then got caught in a piling and he fell into the Norris Dead River, a tributary of the St. Johns.
"My brother knew how to swim," Gene Bass said. "But he always had trouble getting in and out of the boat. I think the cold water got to him."
Both Gene Bass and Bryn Rawlins - whose family has owned the fish camp for years - said the river was very shallow Thursday. The water is also coffee-colored so there was zero visibility, said Rawlins, 23.
"My uncle Ron was in the water trying to help," Rawlins said Thursday. "They said Gene had a hold of him (Richard Bass) but then he let go, thinking Richard would be OK.
"He drifted into deeper water. It's kind of a mystery how he died," Rawlins added.
Rawlins said Richard Bass had been a customer of the fish camp for the last 30 years.
"He sold me my first boat," Rawlins said. "He was a great guy. This is a sad day for us."
Gene Bass said his brother is survived by four children and his widow, Joyce Bass. The siblings and their families are from Ormond Beach.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1930 - 2012 (81 years)