Richard Baldwin – Tulsa Oilers hockey fan, Central Brave, Amoco retiree, loyal friend and loving father – died Monday, Jan. 30, 2023, at Hillcrest Hospital South in Tulsa after a brief illness. He was 94.

Charles "Richard" Baldwin was born Dec. 12, 1928, in Tulsa at what was then Morningside Hospital, the original Hillcrest Medical Center, to Mamie "Doris" (Barnes) and Willis Baldwin.

He was the elder of the couple's two sons, with brother Ray coming along just shy of four years later.

Richard attended Mark Twain Elementary School, Roosevelt Junior High School and Central High School, graduating in 1948. While in high school, he was involved with the Opera Club, performing during his senior year as the sergeant of police in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance."

With the exception of a brief period during his young married years and his military service, Richard lived his entire life within a square mile of what became the family homestead just west of downtown Tulsa, land that originally was owned by the Tulsa school system. Amid concerns about the school flooding from the nearby Arkansas River, the family swapped their property north of Charles Page Boulevard for the land where the original Mark Twain had sat.

In the mid-1940s, he watched the construction of the levee behind his house, bisecting the family's property, with the river on the other side.

Richard often told stories about how, as a youth, he and his friends would take the Sand Springs Line – a streetcar that linked Sand Springs and Tulsa – out to the Sand Springs Lake or into downtown Tulsa to go to the movies or get coneys at Coney Island (three cheese coneys, chips and a drink for a quarter).

He also held several jobs in and around downtown Tulsa as a youth and young man, including working on his father's and grandfather's trash-collection routes, working in a confectionary making candy, delivering printer's "type boxes" for a print shop and working clerical jobs.

Those clerical skills came in handy when he was drafted into the Army to serve in the Korean War. Richard was probably one of very few veterans never to have fired a single shot, even in basic training. Instead, based on his skills and what was needed overseas, he was sent to an Army clerk school for two months and then shipped out to Korea, where he was the company clerk at a massive fuel depot in Pusan.

After returning from the war, Richard went to work for Shell Oil Co. in Tulsa.

He married Helen Grace on Feb. 8, 1957, at the First Methodist Church in downtown Tulsa, and daughter Janet was born two years later.

When Janet was only a few weeks old, Richard accepted a transfer with Shell to Denver, and the family moved to suburban Westminster, Colorado. Weekends spent in the nearby Rocky Mountains and elsewhere around Colorado no doubt contributed to his lifelong wanderlust.

Richard, Helen and Janet returned to Tulsa to take over the operation of the family's A&B Tourist Court after Richard's father died in July 1963. Begun decades earlier as modest rental cabins for tourists, by then it was primarily a mobile-home park and campground, home to both long-term residents and travelers.

After the family's return to Tulsa, Richard also began working for Standard Oil Company of Indiana as a reprographics operator. The company later became Amoco Production Co.

Richard and Helen welcomed a second daughter, Sharon, in 1968.

During Janet's and Sharon's high school years, Richard played an active role in the Band Parents Club at his alma mater, Central High School, where both girls graduated.

During Sharon's junior and senior years, the family hosted foreign exchange students – first Annewieke Vos from the Netherlands and then Mariana Maccioni from Argentina. They are still considered a part of our family.

Richard accepted a buyout offer from Amoco, allowing him to retire in September 1986 after 21 years with the company, when he was 57.

Richard and Helen owned and operated the trailer park until late 1987, when they retired from serving other travelers so that they themselves could travel more.

The family had owned a motor home since about 1972 – first a Winnebago and later an Allegro – and had traveled around the country, primarily to national parks, monuments and other places in nature, anytime the girls were out of school for more than a day or two. Summer trips were almost always two-weekers, but one trip to Canada lasted three weeks.

Their first great destination after they began shutting down the trailer park – to and across Alaska and back – took about four months. It was a grand adventure, with the Alaska part of the trip being a tour group of about 30 couples in motor homes and travel trailers.

By the end of his life, Richard had been to all 50 states and had driven a motor home in all of them but Hawaii. And he and Janet tried really hard to find one there to rent.

Helen died in April 1995. She and Richard had been married for 38 years.

Richard married Beverly LaBouff in 2007.

Besides family and travel, the biggest constant in Richard's life was Tulsa Oilers ice hockey. At the time of his death, he had held season tickets through about seven decades.

The Oilers, coincidentally "born" in 1928, the same year as Richard, played 24 seasons at the old Tulsa Coliseum, which was built in 1928 for the team, with the first game taking place on Jan. 1, 1929, against the Duluth Hornets.

Richard wasn't likely at that game, but his love for Oilers hockey did begin in his boyhood, when his own father had season tickets.

Richard was in Korea in 1952 when the Coliseum burned to the ground after it was struck by lightning. About a decade ago, he told the family that he learned of the fire on Armed Forces Radio. He grew emotional as he explained how that had made him feel – like something that was so important to him was important to the world, too.

In his later years, the Oilers made him feel as important as they were to him, bestowing him with special anniversary jerseys on his 90 ^th and 92 ^nd birthdays.

In Richard's honor, a group of family members and close friends will attend Saturday night's hockey game at the BOK Center to cheer on his beloved Oilers.

Richard was preceded in death by his wife, Helen (Grace) Baldwin; his parents; and his brother, Ray Baldwin, who died just 29 days earlier on Jan. 1, 2023, at age 90.

He is survived by two daughters, Janet/Jan and Sharon, and by Sharon's wife, Mary, whom he also called his daughter. He is also survived by 13 nieces and nephews and their families.

A visitation with the family will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3, at Mobley-Groesbeck Funeral Home in Sand Springs.

A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4, at the Mobley-Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel, with interment to follow at Woodland Memorial Park in Sand Springs.