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- Duxbury Clipper
Richard W. Breck
Died: Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Age: 83
Richard W. Breck, Jr., of Duxbury, died peacefully in his home with family members at his side, on March 9, after a long illness. He was 83.
Mr. Breck was the husband of the late Sylvia Thorington Breck, who died recently. He leaves a son, David Breck of Duxbury; a daughter, Mary Breck of Randolph; a grandson, Richard W. Breck, III of Duxbury; a granddaughter, Andrea Lantz of Plymouth; a great-granddaughter, Ashley Anne and a great-grandson, Christopher. He also leaves two sisters, Nancy Huy of Ohio, and Priscilla Mosley of Georgia. He was the son of the late Richard W. Breck, Sr., of Wellesley and the late Mary Greenough of Medfield.
Mr. Breck attended Brooks Academy in North Andover. He excelled in music, world history, and languages, and in sports, notably baseball, football, tennis, and squash. Mr. Breck started at Harvard in 1941 and left due to WWII.
He joined the Army Aug. 4, 1942 and became a demolitions expert while training at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Virginia. He was sent to Washington, D.C. and attached to the O.S.S. and had further elite training in Washington D.C. at O.S.S. H.Q. and Shangri-La (now known as Camp David), in the Virginian Mountains. He was a courier for President Roosevelt. While in Washington, he met his future wife, Sylvia at an O.S.S. dance. He was shipped to North Africa to O.S.S. H.Q., and lived with and trained Germans as spies for the U.S. He operated in Greece, Italy, and Yugoslavia. He participated in three major battle campaigns: Rome Arno, Northern Appennines, and Po Valley, at least three operations behind enemy lines, some of which were to rescue downed air-men. He returned in 1945. While waiting for his discharge, he pitched for the O.S.S. baseball team.
After his discharge in 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Breck moved to Massachusetts where he signed with the Boston Braves organization, the "Pawtucket Slaters," and was given the nickname "BOBO Breck." After leaving baseball, he went into sales and also became the civil defense director of Medfield, Mass. He worked for the Little Co. during the development of the hydrogen bomb. In 1956 he joined Raytheon Co. as production manager and procurement manager during the development of radar systems and the hawk and sparrow missiles. He transferred to corporate headquarters and five years later, to Quincy. While at Raytheon he took courses at M.I.T. and B.C. in business management.
Mr. Breck retired from Raytheon in 1987 after 30 years, to take up golf, boating and gardening.
A funeral service will be held on Friday, March 18, at 11 a.m. in the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church on Tremont Street, Rt. 3A, followed by burial in the Mayflower Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers and in honor of his many years of dedicated service, donations may be sent to the Sylvia T. Breck Eddy Homestead Memorial Fund, in care of Richard Cormier, Treasurer, 75 Taber St., New Bedford, MA, 02740.
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1921 - 2005 (83 years)
