Richard L. Willowby
April 8, 1951-November 30, 2025
After a decade of struggling with injuries and illness, Richard Willowby lost his health battle on November 30 at Northview Health and Living. He was born the eighth day of April in the year of 1951 on a snowy Sunday in La Junta, Colorado.
Growing up in La Junta, he enjoyed summers at his Uncle Bruce’s farm and with his Uncle Dwite and Aunt Bertha in Oregon. He moved to Kingman, Arizona, for high school, where he excelled at football and basketball. Upon hearing the campus chorale at the annual Church of God camp meeting in 1966, Richard decided to attend Anderson College. He was proud to be a choral assistant to Dale Bengston and David Coolidge. At Anderson he met his future wife, Cheryl Helvering, who was also working as a dorm resident advisor. After marriage in 1975, the couple moved to Chicago where Richard served as a youth pastor and minister of music. The Church of God in Illinois ordained him, and he eventually returned to Anderson to work and write in the editorial department at Warner Press and attend the School of Theology.
While serving the Church of God was at the heart of his sense of vocation, he was heavily involved in the community with Rotary Club and the YMCA board. He worked at Warner Press (‘78-’96) and served in multiple interim pastorates, including churches in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and Clarksville, Indiana, where he became long-term pastor of Hope Community Church. For the last several years, he promoted Christian unity and racial reconciliation–causes close to his heart–through development of the Vital Words website.
On November 29, 2025, Richard celebrated 50 years of marriage with Cheryl. Through his family, he has passed on a legacy that valued reading, church and faith, extended family, a house that welcomed everyone, and a mission to help all who had a need. His children will remember him as a loving father who coached little leagues, attended sporting, choir, and band events, and continued to support them throughout their lives with moves, marriage, and kids. He also loved his grandkids, making them many gifts, taking them fishing, and playing video games.
Richard valued friends as well as family, visiting across the country and attending yearly oyster supper reunions. For decades he joined friends for a weekly breakfast or lunch. He loved lighting fireworks (for himself, children, and grandchildren), hunting pheasants in Kansas, fishing in Canada and Roaring Forks, wood working (even deemed a “wood snob” by friends), doing house repair (except plumbing), working with choirs, and eating good food (that was hot). He collected and distributed jokes, inspiring much laughter and groaning. Richard was a big man with a big heart, and many will find their worlds smaller in his absence.
Richard is survived by his wife, Cheryl; children Nathan (Jill), Laura (Ryan) Poole, Daniel, and Dennis (Eileen) Ju; grandchildren Emmy, Jude, Genevieve, Elliana, Peyton, and Taylor. He is also survived by his sister Naomi Bryant and family Liz (sons Gavin and Owen), Rachel (Wes), and Jonathan. Survivors also include special friend Deanna (Roger) Bitner; in-laws Linda Barnes, John Helvering, Bob and Leah Helvering, and Lisa and Jim Ragsdale.
Preceded in death by his parents John and Bessie Willowby, Leonard and Doris Helvering, brothers-in-law Don Barnes and Danny Bryant, nephew Aaron, and special cousins Margretta and Don Owens.
Services will be held Saturday, December 6th at Park Place Church of God, Anderson, Indiana. Visitation is from 10:00 am until 1:00 pm with service immediately following. To view funeral service on Saturday at 1:00 P.M., go to ppchog.org.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be given to the James Earl Massey Center for Compelling Preaching at Anderson University.
Online condolences may be given at www.rozelle-johnson.com