| Notes |
- Richard was adopted. His birth surname was Percival.
Here is a thumbnail sketch of my husband, Richard Henry Drullinger ( nee, Richard Erdman Percival)
Dick had many talents and capabilities. He was : violinist, poet, naturalist, teacher, avid fisherman & hunter , lover of classical music ( as am I ), story-teller, and amateur photographer! Although our courses of study put us at opposite ends of the campus, we probably would never have met if it hadn;t been in the depths of the great depression in the mid-thirties and we both needed jobs, so landed in the same place of work, the Agr'l Bulletin Room on the campus where we worked side by side every day on off-hours between classes.
After college he taught Vocational Agr'l and Biology for 4 years in a nearby high school, but then the war WW2 came along and he quit teaching while he worked temporarily in a propellor plant waiting for his draft number to come up--which it never did, thankfully, but after the war he took his career job with the US Dept of Agr'l which he kept for 30 years. The gov't moved us around the state for 15 years and then promoted him into the state office of that agency where he became the Agronomist for the state of Michigan until his retirement 15 years later. Now, as to the violin. Even though I was a music student, we never really told each other, of our co-workers about ourselves. So, I was shocked one day when I came in to work and saw a violin laying where we always threw our coats and books. I hollered over the half partition, "Whose violin is this?" Dick answered that it was his. Being a bit of a smark-aleck I answered, "Oh yeah. Well, if it's yours play us a tune". Dick was very shy those days, so demurred that he couldn't very well play in there! The boss was gone that day, so I told him that if he could play that instrument he could at least strum it. He took it out and strummed" Lieberstrom", a very difficult classical number .!! I think I gulped hard ! Much later I got up the nerve to tell him that I lived in East Lansing ( the home of MSC) and that we had a piano, so invited him to bring some of his music over to my house on a Friday night as I played the piano and would enjoy accompanying him. My mother, being a former public school music teacher, fell in love with him that night !! But that " bug didn't bite me until many more Friday nights later .
As to his poetry, he loved poetry and often wrote poems himself, most of them were " love" poems to me often written on whatever scrap of paper was available at the moment of inspiration. Sometimes a paper napkin in a restaurant or a corner torn out of a grocery sack!! He was always a "teacher", in fact one of our boys remarked at Dick's funeral that " Dad was always teaching us". ( Speaking of his funeral, he died Dec. 10, 1986 of a cancer known as Adeno Carcinoma, just 6 days before his 71st birthday in Ocala, Fla. )
A couple of other quick things about Dick. He was a popular story-teller, often spell-binding an audience with his quoting ,word for word, his favorite poet, the Yukon poet, Robert Service. Also, he was an excellent amateur photographer, always carrying his camera to various events and family affairs .
(Partial email from Florence Ruby Carter, widow of Richard Henry Drullinger dated 6 Aug 2012.)
1930 United States Federal Census
Name: Richard H Drullinger
Home in 1930: Keeler, Van Buren, Michigan
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Age: 14
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1916
Relation to Head of House: Adopted Son
Race: White
Occupation:
Education:
Military Service:
Rent/home value:
Age at first marriage:
Parents' birthplace: View image
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members: Name Age
Luther B Drullinger 54
Maud E Drullinger 51
Richard H Drullinger 14
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1915 - 1986 (70 years)
