Richard Davidson Celebration of Life

Richard Burroughs Davidson passed peacefully from this earthly world and began his Heavenly life on November 7, 2020. He was 88 years old. Richard was born in Jacksonville, Florida, raised in Moultrie, Georgia, and graduated an aeronautical engineer from Georgia Tech University. While in college he worked in the co-op program for General Dynamics in Fort Worth on the wing design group for the B36 bomber. After graduation he stayed on,
working on the B58 Hustler supersonic bomber. He then met the love of his life, Betty Jeanne Ratcliff, and they were married in 1956 in Fort Worth. Richard then began his military service at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, and
graduated the Guided Missile School in Red Stone Arsenal, Alabama. He served on the secret project Hardtack to launch and detonate an atomic warhead on a Redstone missile from Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean – a success. The Davidsons moved to Huntsville, Alabama in 1959 where he joined Brown
Engineering and continued to design Army missile systems, and their first daughter Mary Elizabeth was born.

Richard joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1962. He was one of the first employees at Houston’s Johnson Space Center working on all NASA spacecraft including the Space Shuttle and the Space Station Freedom until his retirement in 1987. While in Pasadena/Houston, daughters Sarahjane and Julia Ann joined the family. After retiring from the government, Richard moved to the private sector and continued working on the Space Station Freedom until 1992 with McDonnell Douglas.
Richard was an expert sailor, winning many races in his Lido and other larger sailboats on and around Clear Lake, up and down the U.S. coast, and into Mexico. He was a highly rated Life Master bridge player, and played tournaments throughout the U.S. and Canada. Richard was a member of both the Pasadena and Southeast Fort Worth Lions Clubs in his retirement years.

Richard has reunited with his darling wife Betty who predeceased him in 2010. He was also predeceased by his parents Mary Bernard Burroughs Davidson and Arthor Benjamin Davidson, as well as two brothers, George de Saussure Davidson and Charles Benjamin Davidson. He is survived by his three
daughters and their husbands, Liz and Benton Jennings, Sarahjane “SJ” and William D. Swanson, and
Julia and E. Todd Reynolds, as well as his beloved grandsons Richard A. Reynolds and William A. Reynolds.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memoriams to the Wounded Warrior Project or a charity of your
choice.