Born on January 11, 1919, in Ladysmith, BC, Dick died June 10, 2012, in Pacific Palisades, CA, at the age of 93, from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

Dick was born the son of Dr. John and Mrs. Viola Montgomery. Dr. Montgomery died in an outbreak of “black diphtheria” in Ladysmith in 1923 in a valiant attempt to save the lives of children, giving the last doses of antitoxins to others. Dick and his siblings were raised by his mother in Vancouver.

Following Prince of Wales High School and UBC, he enrolled in graduate studies at Dartmouth College, but left Dartmouth for the Canadian National Research Center and eventually the Royal Navy, where he was a pioneer in the area of sonar and served as sonar officer on board a corvette in the North Atlantic.

At UBC Dick met Mary (née Boyd), also a native of Vancouver, and daughter of John and May Boyd. They married in 1944 in Ottawa, and would have celebrated their 68th anniversary this year. Following the war, Dick and Mary moved to California where Dick completed his PhD and Masters at CalTech. Introduced to the aerospace industry, Dick became a naturalized citizen of the US and served in a series of senior industry and government positions. He remained active in a number of organizations and helped establish the American Alumni Association for UBC. Dick loved his native northwest where he spent the summers with his family on Whidbey Island for more than 50 years. He is survived by his wife, his sister, Eleanor (Onie) McBain of Surrey; his six sons, Boyd, George, Bruce, Michael, Robert, and James and their spouses, Patricia, Heidi, Joanne, Nicole, Elaine, and Annabel; as well as his 16 grandchildren, Chris, Andrew, Will, Lauren, Elle, Erin, John, George, Colyn, Michael, Jack, Sarah, Ian, Charles, Skye, and Lachlan. His brothers, Lawrence and Lynn, predeceased him. If desired, memorial gifts can be directed to the Parish of St. Matthews in Pacific Palisades for the establishment of the Richard A. Montgomery Scholarship Fund.