Richard “Dick” Louis Sackmann passed away Sunday night in his South Toledo home.

Dick was born in Toledo on February 3rd, 1951 to Louis Frederick Sackmann and Norma Eugenia (Braun) and squeezed the most out of his seventy-five trips around the sun. He grew up on “the farm” in Genoa, Ohio surrounded by humans and animals he cherished–horses, cows, chickens, and dogs.

Dick loved a lot of things. He always dived deep into hobbies. He built a rideable train track in his backyard for his children to enjoy, and then — forty years later — recreated it for his grandchildren. He played saxophone in the band The Quarternotes when he was young. He learned to build steel pans, mentored by Ellie Mannette, the Trinidadian inventor of the musical instrument. He volunteered teaching classes at Maumee Valley on building and playing steel drums. Other hobbies included woodworking, dandelion wine making, foraging, gardening, bonsai trees, photography, astronomy, cooking, old British cars, panning for gold, rock climbing, soda fountains, carpentry and more.

Dick contained multitudes. He was gentle, but strong. He was quiet, but if you got him talking about the past, he could talk for hours.

People close to Dick were aware of the difficulties he had toward the end of his life: two hip replacements, a pulmonary embolism, a torn quadricep, and afib. Combined with his struggles with alcoholism and depression, there were some tough times.

Despite this, Dick found solace in the bright moments, spending time with family, traveling, and simply enjoying trains going by. He was adventurous, but he also held a childlike wonder for all things. Those are the parts of him that we will remember most, knowing that he has left the weight of his struggles behind. Indeed, these things are now a part of all of us that he touched with his magic.

He loved to travel, and he was never more content than when he was driving through the night in that old ‘72 Dodge camper all over this country. He made it to every state except for Hawaii. He loved the Rocky Mountains and the deserts of the Southwest. He would always be scanning the roads for things that interested him: VW buses (a couple of which he owned in his lifetime), cab-overs, and onion trucks.

After vacations, he would visit Arlington Elementary, giving slideshows to his kids’ classes about their various travels. We have a letter from one kid: “Mr. Sackmann could make anything interesting.” And he could.

Lately he enjoyed visiting his children and grandchildren scattered over the country, in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Montana, Texas and Louisiana. Dick would drop anything for the kids.

Though he could have easily been a teacher, he found a career working as a diesel mechanic for 30 years at TARTA. He could fix just about anything. He was a lifelong, proud Union Democrat.

He is survived by his wife of almost 53 years, Leitha Sackmann; his children, Matthew (Erin) Sackmann; Mark (Lissa) Sackmann; Abigail (Brian) Sackmann Zelip; and Christopher Sackmann; as well as six grandchildren: Macio, Arlo, Iva, June, Townes, and River. He is also survived by his three sisters: Cathy, Amy, and Julie.

We know that he is now at peace, and we hope he is enjoying the love and comfort of those he has been missing for so long, including both his parents and his older brother, Twink.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations in his name made to the Toledo Lucas County Public Library.

A private celebration of life will be held at the Sackmann compound on Saturday, June 13th.