Richard "Ric" Paul Jacques

Richard "Ric" Paul Jacques was born on Wednesday August 18, 1948 in Biddeford, Maine. Ric always dreamed of becoming an architect, and although he was never officially trained, he designed beautiful pieces of craftsmanship.

He learned mechanics from his father early on. This helped later on in life as he could never afford a new car. Instead, he would buy one from a junkyard, and 4-5 months later, you had a working car. He used this skill to restore many cars and trucks, and a few motorcycles.

Ric excelled in everything he chose to do. At the time of earning his Eagle Scout, he was the second youngest person in the country to do so. He continued in scouting to earn his Silver Palm, a Silver Beaver, and was inducted into the Order of the Arrow. He later dedicated his time as a Scoutmaster teaching young boys important life skills.

In high school, Ric was very proud to have designed and executed an experiment that measured the speed of light. His experiment used a laser, prisms, and mirrors. He won several awards for this project.

Ric was also very musically inclined. He played organ in his high school band, performing for his high school pep rally, and later he taught himself guitar. Over the years he taught guitar to his wife, two brother-in-laws, his son, and his grandson. Ric also taught his son the clarinet and his daughter the piccolo flute. He picked up the violin to play a duet with his daughter.

After high school, Ric enlisted as a reservist in the Navy. He served on the USS Wasp as a fireman repairing the boilers that desalinated the water for the crew. The USS Wasp traveled in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic, which is where he earned the navy title 'Blue nose'. While touring he earned the National Defense Medal.

Once, while living in New Hampshire, Ric repaired a deep well pump during the dead of winter. A two day fire was kept to soften the ground so that the damaged pump could be pulled up 225ft with his truck, using spare parts to repair it and restore water.

Ric became a carpenter to help put him through college. He helped build a friend's house from the ground up. When he moved into his first house, he built his own table, chairs, couch, bed and stereo cabinet. In the future, he would use this knowledge to build anything imaginable, including intricate jewelry boxes and helping his son design and build a guitar.

In college, Ric earned his BS in Science Education. He was tremendously proud of a telescope he made in college. Many, many years after hand grinding the mirror surface (which took two years) and melting silver in a vacuum to create the mirror, he would wake up his family at odd hours of the night to go outside and see Haley's comet or some meteor shower. He absolutely loved astronomy.

Ric took his first desk job as a high school biology teacher in 1974. He was admired by his students and also coached the high school softball and baseball teams.
Ric switched trade to become an engineer when his friend brought him in as a consult to solve a problem that baffled the engineering company. Once he solved it, he was offered the job without any formal engineer training. Ric later became a production line engineer.

During his career he worked on projects for video conferencing, electron microscopes, digital tape measures, the F-18 black box, sidewinder missiles, and vibration sensors on submarines.

In the middle of Hurricane Irene, he used a jeep and a chainsaw to fell a tree that had slammed into his daughter's house. The entire neighborhood came out to watch.

Ric had a wide array of interests. He was a poet, surfer, skier, hunter, and he played tennis, golf, baseball, basketball, soccer, and billiards. He loved to sail and enjoyed boating, fishing, cooking, and bird-watching. He was good at anything he put his mind to.

Ric remained very spiritual throughout his life and died as an Elder in his faith.

Ric is survived by his wife of 43 years, Jeanne Turnage Jacques of Hanover, MD; three children, Kerry Ann Lavery and her husband, Michael Lavery of Foxboro, MA, Eric Benjamin Jacques and his wife, Jessica Rae Jacques of Eldersburg, MD and Dave Matthew Jacques of Hanover, MD; six grandchildren, Roman, Derek, Emma, Maggie, Brooke and Isabelle and his brother, Donald Lionel Jacques and his wife, Camille Jacques of Jacksonville, FL.

Family and Friends will gather at the Donaldson Funeral Home & Crematory, P.A., 1411 Annapolis Road, Odenton, MD 21113 on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. A Celebration of Ric's Life will follow at 5:00 p.m. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Boy Scouts of America by clicking on the following link https://www.kintera.org/AutoGen/Simple/chooseCard.asp?ievent=156236&en=jkIOI7PTJbKRK8PHKeJ3KlM0InKZJfMRLcITJePTLoLbE

Please use the following contact info if donating to the BSA:
Kerry Lavery
kerrylavery@msn.com
47 Sherman St.
Foxboro, MA 02035

Online condolences may be made at www.donaldsonfuneralhome.com