Friday 11 April 2008

timber dick's funeral arrangements

tomicah asked that i make sure that this is posted somewhere clearly so that people who would like to attend can. it is a very very sad day.

Funeral services for Timber will be held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located at 610 Coors St. in Lakewood on Tuesday, April 15 at 10 a.m.

(from the denver post)

Timber Dick, a Colorado inventor and the son of Colorado's first female lieutenant governor, Nancy Dick, died late Thursday afternoon.

Dick, 52, was critically injured two weeks ago after the front wheel of his Dodge Caravan locked, and the vehicle slid off Interstate 70 and tumbled down a 240-foot slope. The vehicle erupted in flames, and he was burned on more than 60 percent of his body.

Dick's wife, Annette Lantos Tillemann-Dick, said she was grateful for the time she was able to spend with her husband. "I really felt we shared a lifetime of joy and productivity and service," she said today at a news conference. "I really don't believe in death; I believe in life. I'm looking forward to a new kind of relationship with him"

His eldest son, Tomicah Tillemann-Dick said his father made "incredible contributions" during his lifetime, affecting "thousands of lives."

Dick, who headed recruiting for the University of Denver's School of Engineering and Computer Science, was slated to receive an award from NASA at a ceremony later this month in New York.

Dick was an inventor whose company, Tendix Development, won a transportation-design award earlier this year in a contest sponsored by a NASA publication. The space agency praised him for an engine he designed.

timber and zen

He unsuccessfully ran for Denver City Council in 2003.

His mother, Nancy, served from 1979 to 1986 as lieutenant governor.

Tomicah Tillemann-Dick praised the doctors at the University of Colorado Hospital's burn unit who fought to save his father. "They brought him back from the brink so many times," said Tillemann-Dick.

Dr. Gordon Lindberg, director of the hospital's burn unit, said everyone in the unit felt the loss.

"No matter how many years you spend doing it, we feel each loss every single time," said Lindberg."We knew he had suffered what would be a lethal injury. At best, his survival was put at one percent. It didn't stop us from doing everything we could to take care of him because people who have injuries like him, do go home," he said.


Lindberg said doctors originally believed Timber Dick had not suffered any burns to his lungs, but after the third and fourth day, it became apparent that his lungs had been burned.

"We had trouble getting him to breathe. One by one, his organs began to fail, and there was nothing we could do. Even the most heroic of gestures would not have saved him."

But Annette Lantos Tillemann-Dick said that before her husband died, they spent wonderful moments talking about their lives together.

"We communicated about a lot of things — about all the births of our children. Our first baby was born on the way to the hospital in a car. And Timber delivered him with two dogs in the car, and it was quite dramatic, crazy and wonderful," she said. annette with zen at after the press confernce

"We also talked about his inventions, including a car-seat stroller. It was wonderful. Then we talked about the ultra high-efficiency engine that he has been working on. We talked about the gifts of love and service, the nights that we spent together in helping host in homeless shelters," she said.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 610 Coors St., in Lakewood. In addition to his wife and son, Dick is survived by 10 other children.

news9 story
rocky mountain news
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san mateo daily journal

2 comments:

andi said...

Oh, I am so sorry for all of the Tilleman-Dicks. Life goes by so fast.

k8 said...

this is very sad. thanks for passing along the info.