Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Friends and family said goodbye to sport fishing guide Richard Hart Tuesday at a memorial service in the Salvation Army.

Hart, 69, died at home Saturday of throat cancer. His wife said he had been sick for about four years. His last outings were librarian Ellen Borders’ funeral, Easter Sunday church and a trip to the grocery store a few days before he died. "He kept his sense of humor, and knew what was going on right until the end. He fought a hard battle, but he was ready to go," Mary Lou Hart said.

His children remembered Hart as a hard-working, fun-loving family man and outdoorsman. "He was an all around hunting, fishing man," said daughter Brenda Lindstrom.

For the last 20 years, Hart ran a charter fishing business, first on the Fancy Free, later the Foot Loose. "He’d always make sure they had a good time fishing whether they caught a fish or not. He used to say the most important thing is to bring home good memories," Mary Lou Hart said.

"He was a total character, even in the hospital. A nurse did something to him one time and he jumped and pretended to be electrocuted. He kept us all laughing," daughter Tammy Bowers said.

Hart was born in Childress, Texas on July 20, 1940 and raised by foster parents Norma and Ted Hart on a farm in Poulsbo, Wash. They adopted him when he was five.

Hart was a standout in track and wrestling at East High School in Bremerton, where Mary Lou met him. "I fell madly in love with him in the ninth grade," she said. After graduation in 1960, Hart joined the Navy. Mary Lou married him on Oct. 3, 1961 in San Diego, where he was stationed.

The couple had three children in four years. After his discharge, Hart worked in Tacoma, Wash. about a year at a mill making doors before relocating to Port Orchard, Wash.., where he was a welder in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard until 1980. He took a job with the pulp mill in Ketchikan.A year later he came to work for the Schnabel Lumber Co.

When the mill closed, the Harts went back to Ketchikan, but returned to Haines when it was re-opened as Pacific Forest Products. After it closed again, Hart earned his captain’s license and turned a love of the outdoors into a living.

In 2000, Hart’s birth brother found him and his other siblings and the family warmly bonded. It turned out that Hart’s brother had been raised a few miles from him, had attended a competing high school, and that they had known and liked each other, family members said.

Hart was well read and a regular library user, preferring adventure stories, "Anything to do with freezing and hanging off a mountain," Mary Lou said.

He kept hunting hounds when the family lived in Port Orchard, was active in an archery club there, and in Haines hunted moose, deer, and ducks, trapped martin and won praise for the quality of his pelts.

He also did some taxidermy and crafted his own arrows and fishing lures. "His grandkids all thought he was a neat guy, he taught Ted and James [Hart] how to do the trap-line." Mary Lou said. "Richard went to bed looking forward to the next day. He always had something to do."

In addition to his wife of 49 years, Hart is survived by brothers Fred Nagel of Big Lake, Ed Rodgers of Port Orchard, Wash. and Tim Hart of Vietnam; children Ted Hart of Haines, and Tammy Bowers and Brenda Lindstrom of Port Orchard; grandchildren Ted and James Hart, Travis and Mark Lindstrom and Rachel and Garrett Bowers; a great-grandson and numerous nephews and nieces.