Richard "Fritz" Fritschle

Richard “Fritz” Fritschle of Boise, Idaho, died at home on March 3, 2024. He was 93.

Family and friends from his early years, which lasted from the 1930’s until the 1980’s, mostly knew him as Richard. Those who met him more recently knew him only as Fritz.

Born in Boise on October 11, 1930, his childhood was shaped by the dark days of the Great Depression.  His parents, Ellis and Agnes Fritschle, moved the family often, seeking whatever jobs Ellis could find, most often on farms and ranches where the small family lived in the most primitive of housing. Once their “Christmas tree” was sagebrush decorated with foil from cigarette packs. He attended grade school in Grandview, Idaho, along the Snake River, but often talked of living  with his grandparents on Hill Road in Boise, where he walked over a mile every day to catch a bus to school.

Eventually they purchased a lot on the corner of Overland Road and Eagleson Road in Boise. They built a temporary shelter -- a chicken house -- where they lived until 1954, when they were able to build their family home. Richard helped dig the basement of the house, and to install a sewer system, giving the family indoor plumbing for the first time. During this period he was a bicycle messenger boy, delivering Western Union Telegrams.

Richard attended high school at St. Teresa’s Academy from 1944-1948, an anomaly as it was a Catholic girls’ school. He graduated at the top of his class, then entered Boise College for pre-med studies. A Pepsi Scholarship made it possible to continue pre-med courses at Fordham University in New York City. For “an Idaho farm boy” the big city was endlessly fascinating, to be explored whenever he could. One day he unknowingly walked through the heart of Harlem alone.

After working at an assembly plant and a Jewish bakery in New York, Richard moved back to Boise, and got a job at the Nehi Beverage bottling plant. An entry level position with Mountain Bell Telephone changed his life in two ways. At work he met and married Pauline Clowser, and they transferred with the company to Denver, where he took courses in civil engineering at Colorado University in 1956 and 1957. This was the beginning of the computer era, and when Mountain Bell decided to computerize operations, they tested employees for aptitude. Richard was the high scorer, and helped get the IBM 1401 and Univac 1050 working smoothly. For years, when an out-of-state office like Phoenix or Boise had computer problems, Richard was sent to troubleshoot.

In 1969, Richard and Pauline divorced. Richard met and married Chris Darnell, who had four children from a previous marriage.

Deciding to leave the phone company and strike out on his own, Richard created Programming Services Corporation, first to handle the unlisted phone number billing for Mountain Bell, and over the next nine years branching out to serve other customers.  Working side jobs at the US Air Force Accounting and Finance Center as a COBOL and Assembler coder, he was part of the initial programming team of the Universal Military Pay System.

In 1978, Richard, now more often known as Fritz, took a position with the US Postal Service in Denver, where he met Carolyn. The couple stayed with the post office but transferred to the Seattle distribution center. They married in 1983. When Richard retired in 1992, plans were to travel in their motorhome, spending winters in Arizona and summers camphosting in state parks anywhere that sounded interesting. Instead, after one winter in Tucson, they returned to Boise to care for Richard’s mother, Agnes, who had suffered a stroke. She survived for several years, and by the time she passed, they’d put down roots in the area and decided to stay.

The home they purchased and lived in for the last quarter century is only a block from Boise’s Manitou Park, an off-leash dog park. Fritz had always loved dogs.  Jiggs, a large bulldog, was his first dog. A long and varied procession followed: Poppy, a German shepherd. Cindy, an affectionate wire-haired mix. Joe, a scruffy, scrappy long-haired mongrel. Lady, rescued from starvation in the Pacific rain forest. Gunney, inherited when Carolyn’s parents, George and Betty Gold, died. Sally, a gentle black lab/German shorthair. His last dog, Luke, a German shorthaired pointer, a whirlwind of energy. The Manitou dog owners became a tight-knit community as close as many families. Anyone who came to the park more than a couple times knew Fritz, who was there nearly every day. They even threw birthday parties for him.

He had an amazing memory, and read constantly until his vision failed.  An avid Scrabble player, he made his last 400+ point game just a few weeks before he died. He also had a great sense of humor, which kept life happy, and often took people by surprise. He joked about being a caveman, Ug-mug-Fritchalug, and about being so well known that when he visited the Pope, someone in the crowd asked, “Who’s that little guy in white standing next to Fritz?”      

He loved to garden. With his second wife and children he lived on a farm north of Denver, and his stepdaughter Denise remembers watching him standing there, working in the garden. Later, in a much smaller garden in Boise, he grew the tallest sunflowers he could, always beaming when he showed people plants half again as tall as he was.

Fritz loved the outdoors. His daughter Jennifer remembers frequent picnics with family friends Dale and Velma Williams, trips to ghost towns and the small cabin they owned near Silver Plume, Colorado. He and Dale explored old mines and caves in Idaho, Colorado and even Arizona.

He had several motorcycles, and belonged to the Mountaineers Motor Cycle Club.  He also worked with search and rescue in the Rocky Mountains. Fritz enjoyed greyhound races in Denver, and Thoroughbred racing in Seattle. Although he seldom placed bets, a lifetime working with computers left him fascinated with numbers and probabilities. He filled notebooks with his calculations.

Richard is survived by his wife of forty-one years, Carolyn Fritschle; siblings Martha Payne (Mark) of Lincoln City, Oregon; John Fritschle (Sherry) of Ajo, Arizona and Ogden, Utah; and Wilma Kamphaus (Joe) of Boise.  Also survived by daughter Jennifer Armstrong (Shaun) of Glendale, Arizona; and son Joseph Fritschle (Sandra) of Golden, Colorado; as well as stepson Jeff Darnell of Denver, and stepdaughters Denise Steininger and Sherry Ciancio (Tony), both of Denver. He was predeceased by his parents, Agnes and Ellis Fritschle of Boise; wives Pauline “Polly” Fritschle and Carleen “Chris” Darnell, and stepson Charles “Chuck” Darnell, all from Denver.

Fritz was cremated with no ceremony. His ashes will be scattered at various places he loved along the way.

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