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Dear MMHS Classmates of 1978,
I have very sad news to report. Rick Schlecht passed away on July 28th, 2018. This one is very emotional for me for a number of reasons and has been for the past week. Rick's family and my family attended the same church when I lived in Longview 12 years ago. Rick was always smiling and always stayed in great shape. It was a pleasure to see him on a weekly basis. When I think about Rick a picture of him smiling with his little grin is the first thing I remember of him in our adult life. It is the same picture I see of Rick when I think back 40 years ago to high school. I look forward to seeing Rick again someday. For now we say "Good Bye" to a really nice friend.
Always,
Darren Talley
Rick Schlecht
Celebration of Life for Rick Schlecht on Saturday August 18th at the Country Club 5:00pm – 9:00pm.
Hosted by his daughter Kayla Marie Schlecht. Link to RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/713715065646671/ .
My dad always told me "if anything happens to me, I want a party, not a funeral. I want friends and family that may not speak often to come together, have a drink, and have a good time", so that's what we're going to do!
Appetizers and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided. There will be a full no-host bar available as well.
Dress is business casual/party attire. Due to the location, no t-shirts are allowed, however jeans are okay :)
Please come join me and help me celebrate the life of a truly incredible man. I look forward to seeing everyone there!
xo, Kayla Marie
**PLEASE RSVP IF YOU CAN TO HELP WITH HEAD COUNT**
The Daily News
Native Longview father and outdoorsman dies in Arizona by Alex Bruell Aug 5, 2018
Rick Schlecht, a former Longview resident and second cousin of Bob’s Sporting Goods founder Bob Schlecht Sr., died on July 28 at the age of 57 at his Goodyear, Arizona, home.
He is survived by his two daughters, Kayla Schlecht, 27, and Malorie Schlecht, 3, his wife Amy Schlecht, and two sisters, Connie Olson and Vickie Brady.
Schlecht was a vibrant and extroverted outdoorsman with a love of cars, boats, motorcycles, snowmobiles, and his other “big boy toys,” his daughter Kayla Schlecht said, and was a devoted father and friend. He was a Mark Morris graduate and had worked for Weyerhaeuser in Longview for close to 30 years.
The one thing she’s sure of, Kayla Schlecht said, is that he loved his daughters absolutely.
“He was just one of the most selfless and generous people that I have ever met,” she said.
She was best friends with her father, who coached her soccer games, visited her frequently while she was at college, and face-timed or Skyped her every day when she first moved to North Carolina in 2017.
“Everything he did was for me or my little sister,” Kayla Schlecht said. “He even face-timed me with her because he wanted to make sure she knew me.”
Rick Schlecht was also an avid slow pitch baseball player, and well-loved among his friends. After he died, his daughter said, those friends reached out to her with dozens of stories of how he’d helped them.
One friend told Kayla Schlecht: “I’ve moved 20 times, and every time your dad helped me. He only asked for a Diet Pepsi each time.”
In May 1999, The Daily News reported on a near-drowning at Willow Grove Park, when a 7-year-old girl was saved by “an act of heroism” after she wandered too far out from shore.
It was Rick Schlecht, then 38, who swam out to save the girl. “She was going down for the last time,” a bystander said. “This guy Rick deserves a pat on the back. He saved her life.”
“It didn’t matter what he was sacrificing,” Kayla Schlect said. “Making sure that people around him were safe and happy was more important to him than anything he needed or wanted.”
Connie Olson, one of Schlecht’s sisters, said Rick Schlect was a loving family man who was “willing to help everybody and anybody that needed it.”
Rick and Amy Schlecht had recently moved from Longview to Arizona last year, after Rick was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
He wasn’t able to work at first, his daughter said, so he spent every moment he could with Malorie, even taking her to his treatments.
Schlecht was “just a really nice, outgoing guy,” said Bob Schlecht Jr.
“We got to know him really in the last month or two,” Schlecht Jr. said. “We weren’t really close with him until recently, unfortunately. He’s one of those relatives that you hate to lose.”
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