CRESWELL – While celebrating his 101st birthday Sunday, retired Col. Richard Heyman took a few moments to reflect on a life well-lived.
“I’m proud of the life I’ve lived. I didn’t wait for the world to come to me, I went looking for it,” Heyman said after an impromptu birthday party in which a half-dozen friends and neighbors stopped in for drinks and cake with his wife Barbara and him.
“I got into flying school as soon as I could. It was like flashing a light. Bam! There, it’s on. That’s what I wanted to do. It happened overnight, really. I was driving this junk truck down the road, and I see these RAF cadets, and they’re flying a fairly good airplane at that time, and I knew right then and there – that’s what I wanted to do.”
Heyman would go on to become a fighter pilot in three wars – World War II, Korea, and Vietnam – during his storied career. Last October, he was awarded the 2024 Swords of Honor as Richard was the special guest – and quite a memorable guest speaker – for the Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation “Spirit of the Battle of Britain” banquet in Washington, D.C.
Normally, Richard would be one of the guests of honor during Creswell’s Memorial Day celebration, which was held Monday.
Bob Williams / Chronicle photos
“They don’t call me anymore. And that’s OK,” Heyman said.
Heyman claims his health is excellent for a fella his age. Barb had gotten worried several months ago that he was spending most of his days in bed sleeping.
“I was hibernating,” Heyman explained. “I’m the kind of guy who has to have an aim. I have to have a goal. Seems like everything I wanted to do, I had already done.
“Generally speaking, though, I’m the kind of guy who wakes up thinking, ‘What am I going to tear up today?’ I don’t think I have the doldrums. I think I’m ready for life every day.”
He often laments how he came close to not finishing high school.
“There were things I was good at in school. You had to take Latin or Spanish and I couldn’t learn either one of them. I was good at math,” Heyman said. “The teacher taught shop classes like auto mechanics and woodworks and metal works, and if he was busy teaching some kid something, if there was any teaching that needed to be done by a student in either woodworks or metal works or auto mechanics, he’d holler for me because I picked up auto mechanics like ‘bang.’ I could rebuild a motor.
“The only reason I graduated high school is because I wanted to be a cadet. And I really had to buckle down – cadets taught me how to study. That got me through.”
