Richard Keith Wright, 71, of Clawson, Utah passed way in a tragic house fire on Father’s Day, June 15, 2025.
Richard was born on June 12, 1954, to Helen Lucille (Rasmussen) and Keith Norwood Wright. As a child Richard and his family moved around a lot, landing in the cities of Green River, Utah, Mesquite, NV, Provo, Utah, and his personal favorite, Clawson, Utah.
As a young child, Richard was affectionately known to his family as the “Happy Wanderer” as he was always smiling and always adventuring. At 17, he convinced his parents to sign the waiver so he could join the US Army. Throughout his military career he was stationed in several places like Kansas, Hawaii and Korea. Following his military career, Richard worked several jobs including coal mining and coal truck driving. Richard also spent time serving as the Carbon/Emery County’s Fire Warden for Utah State Lands Division of Forestry and Fire Control. Richard achieved a bachelor’s degree from SUU with an emphasis in botany; he had a love for plants and growing things.
Richard enjoyed a variety of activities including gardening, photography, hunting, fishing, wood whittling, cross stitching, and bead working. In his later years, Richard picked up a hobby of bee keeping. In the couple of years that he perused this hobby, he enjoyed telling anybody who would listen about the bees and how a hive works and thrives. He even went as far as to buy a child-sized bee suit so he could teach his granddaughter all about the bees. He had a couple of years of successful bee keeping with pretty successful honey harvests.
In 2024, Richard was diagnosed with vascular dementia. Due to extenuating circumstances, Richard was unable to be cared for by family and needed to be in a care facility and was moved to St. George to an assisted living facility where his daughter could be more involved in his care. In early 2025, Richard was failed by two different facilities when they bypassed his power of attorney and had him sign paperwork to have him released from their facilities, which ended in him returning to his home in Clawson. He was again failed by adult protective services, when despite multiple reports of his medical conditions and the poor living conditions of his home, they deemed him adequate to provide for himself.
Richard is survived by his two children; granddaughter; three brothers and one sister; and multiple nieces, nephews and cousins.
Richard’s remains have been in the amazing care of Mitchell Funeral Home in Price, Utah. At this time there will not be official services for Richard.
Richard’s family would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to Emery County Fire Departments from Castle Dale, Orangeville, Huntington and Ferron, as well as Emery County Sheriff’s Office and all first responders and members of the community that took time out of their Father’s Day to respond to this horrific event.