Obituary of Richard Max Astley
RICHARD MAX ASTLEY
August 1, 1946 – March 25, 2020
Richard passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on March 25, 2020, in his 73rd year. COVID had just taken the world by storm, and he’d lost his best pal Jerry Astley, our family dog only a few weeks earlier – perhaps it felt like a good time to call it a day.
He is terribly missed by his wife Joan Astley, daughter Kim Astley (Andrew Imrie), son Rob Astley (Shauna Wilde) and their children Grace and Luke. As Astleys come and go as a team, his sister Judith McClure and mother Yvonne Astley passed not long after Dad. He’d lost his father Max Astley years earlier.
It has taken 5 years to write this obituary. The obligation to find the right words, and the permanence of them felt too heavy a weight to bear at the time. As time always does, it has slipped by and here we are marking a half decade with an empty seat at the family table.
He was a humble man of little fanfare but was larger than life in our lives – as many dads are. He loved his family deeply, rooted for the underdog, and had a wonderful sense of humour. He had 2 great passions – watching his kids play sports and solving bridge problems. He believed there is only one good reason to respond to an email – to point out a grammatical error; that a fly ball should be caught with two hands, no exceptions; and that how you do anything is how you do everything.
He was a good man and a great dad – we miss him dearly.