Richard J. Ketchum, 83

Richard J. Ketchum died a year ago on Tuesday, May 21, 2024. Richard, who used the nickname Dick, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on May 6, 1941 . When he was four years old he moved to Chicago where his father, a Finance Professor, had taken a teaching position with the 

University of Chicago. Dick enjoyed growing up in Chicago where he spent many days visiting the Museum of Science and Industry. He attended Scott Elementary School and Hyde Park High School.

Summers when he was growing up were spent back east in central New York State where he visited his cousins on their farms. He spent many happy summers there through the years with Uncle Del, Aunt Edna, Ben, Elizabeth (his second mother). Donny, Ronnie and Junior (Ben).

Dick was an avid Chicago sports fan. Growing up on the South side of Chicago, he was a loyal 

White Sox fan. He and his mother would often attend Sunday afternoon games and eat her fried chicken while watching the game from the stands. Also a Chicago Cubs fan, he was extremely happy when they finally won the World Series in 2016. He especially enjoyed the glory days of Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls and continued to be a long suffering fan of the Chicago Bears.

Dick attended Beloit College in Wisconsin, the "Harvard of the Midwest". He loved that liberal arts school. It was there that he met Professor Scott Crom who influenced his choice of philosophy as his field of study. His junior year at Beloit he studied abroad at the University of Freiburg in the Black Forest region of Germany. He traveled to Europe on a freighter, bought a BMW motorcycle when he arrived and toured France, Italy, Greece and Spain the summer before he began his studies in September. Since all his classes were in German he became almost fluent in the language.
After.receiving hls bachelor's degree in Philosophy, he moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania where he earned his doctorate in Philosophy in 1971. He moved to Nashville after being hired by Vanderbilt University as an Assistant Professor. He remained at Vanderbilt for four years before being recruited by Professor Noel Fleming to take a teaching position with the University of California at Santa Barbara. He loved living in Santa Barbara and it was there that one of his graduate students, Bob Johnson, invited him to go bird watching with him. That began Dick's love of "birding". For the rest of his life, wherever he traveled, his plans included birding.
Dick spent seven years teaching in the Philosophy Department in Santa Barbara. It was in Santa Barbara where he met his wife, Jill. He was introduced to Jill by her sister, Joan, and her brother-in-law, Jeff Dodge, one of Dick's students. Dick and Jill were married in 1979 and moved to Miami, Florida, where he had a visiting professorship at Florida International University. Dick and Jill enjoyed living in Miami and took advantage of their close proximity to Everglades National Park to bird.
The next year Dick took a visiting professorship at the University of Texas at Arlington. Living in Texas gave him more birding opportunities and he and Jill traveled often to the state parks in Texas and Oklahoma pursuing new birds. They lived in Texas for a year but when Dick was offered a visiting professorship at the University of Missouri St. Louis they decided to move there.
Dick really enjoyed the St. Louis area and since it was only hours away from Chicago by car it made for many enjoyable weekends visiting his parents. In 1984 Dick took a teaching job at Lindenwood College in the town of St. Charles just a few miles from St. Louis.
Though he and Jill both enjoyed the St. Louis area they were ready for a new adventure when the opportunity came to take a teaching job at NMSU in 1985. Dick taught at NMSU in the Philosophy Department until his retirement in 2002. He was Department Head for the last five years before he retired.
Dick loved living in Las Cruces. He enjoyed birding in the state. He and Jill especially loved that they could have good Mexican food whenever they wanted it. Green Chile cheeseburgers were a favorite love of Dick's.
Dick liked to travel and after he became interested in birding he would always combine the two. Before he and Jill were married, he backpacked for a month in Alaska. Alone. on a small island, he had a memorable encounter with a grizzly bear. He and Jill traveled together most of the time but he took solo birding trips also. A solo trip to Belize was a special adventure for him. He and Jill traveled twice to Thailand where Dick had no trouble driving on the "wrong" side of the road. They took two trips to South Africa where they viewed the animals in their natural habitat. They went to Ecuador twice where Dick would search for birds in the mountains and the jungle.
Dick loved France and taught himself the language so he and Jill could more easily rent a car and travel through the country on their own. He became quite good though he would always say that he knew only hotel and restaurant French. For many years each spring they would go to France. He and Jill took 25 trips to France with each a month long. Going to France would combine three wonderful things for Dick: good food, good wine, and good birding.
After Dick retired, each year he and Jill would travel to California to visit his nephews, Dusty and Paul, and their families and return to favorite places they had known when they lived there. And of course Dick would bird.
After retirement Dick would also take solo trips in the summer to central New York to visit his cousins. That was always a special time for him. He is buried there at East Venice Cemetery in Genoa, New York.
He is much loved and missed by friends and his entire family, especially his wife, Jill, and his cat companions, Ginger and Misty. He will never be forgotten.