Richard Rhodes Sooley

Richard Rhodes Sooley, age 88, of Waleska, Georgia passed away on Sunday, December 14, 2014 after a brief illness. Mr. Sooley was born in Milford, Massachusetts and was the son of John and Eleanor Sooley. During World War II, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and served overseas in the Marshall Islands. He was recalled by the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War and was a Morse Code radio operator on a B-36 Bomber. Mr. Sooley received his Bachelor’s Degree from Boston University and his MBA in 1960 from Northeastern University, also in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1948, he met Miriam Wiggins for Sunapee, New Hampshire and they were married in 1950. While employed by the United States government, Mr. Sooley served overseas in Saudi Arabia. He liked to say that he spent a January in the sub-Arctic in Labrador and a few summers in the Arabian Desert, as well as travelling to the Middle East to the Far East and from the tropical lands of the Caribbean to the atolls of the Pacific. Richard was a pioneer in the field of computer programming and retired from his work as a systems analyst in 1991. He and Miriam moved to Florida and while there, he taught computer skills on a part-time basis. In 1999, he and Miriam moved to Georgia, where he was employed as an Adjunct Professor at Reinhardt University. In 2006, Mr. Sooley accepted his favorite job, which was teaching elementary school children how to play chess. He spent his later years writing, and he published his political science novel “It’s All Straw” in 2013. Mr. Sooley was preceded in death, by his wife, Miriam, after 62 years of marriage. He is survived by his four children. He had three daughters: Barbara and her husband, Shigeji; Victoria: and Mary-Ellen and her husband, Donald. He also had one son, John, and his wife, Heather. He also has seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are being made by Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home, 180 Church Street, Marietta, Georgia. A Funeral Mass will be held on December 19, 2014 at 2:30 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 87 Lacy Street, also in Marietta. Visitation will be at the church at 1:30 p.m. just prior to the Mass. Donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee or to the Disabled American Veterans. www.mayeswarddobbins.com 770-428-1511

Richard Rhodes Sooley

July 16, 1926 - December 14, 2014