Richard L. Bennett

Richard L. Bennett, 59 years old, of Torrance, CA, went to be with Our Lord on December 29th, 2023.

Rick was born on April 18th, 1964 to Robert & Aileen Bennett in Charlotte, MI. After Rick graduated valedictorian from Olivet High School in 1982, he went on to study Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan.

After graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Electrical Engineering, he started his first job at Hughes Space and Communications Division as a Staff Engineer, kick starting decades of a career in the satellite industry. Rick left Hughes in the late spring/summer of 2004 to start up Flight Microwave. Rick developed all key system software.

All the while Rick was designing filters and other devices using his own home-brewed design programs. Rick and his business partner Rolf would take a request for proposal and come up with a filter that met the customer’s needs. Rick was also a key player in developing FMC AS9100 quality system documents. He worked with outside consultants to develop a QA system that all the auditors praised as outstanding.

One of Rick’s favorite projects was designing the GPS3 beam forming network. While his primary area of expertise was in Filters, he stepped out of his comfort zone and tackled this challenge with the same enthusiasm and attention to detail that he demonstrated on filters and multiplexers. He even bolted the thing together and tested it himself. Rick kept Flight Microwave running as smoothly as a small high-tech company could. He was responsible for maintaining the servers and computer systems at large. Rick was well respected by the entire satellite community. He was a member of the team that developed the standards for Multipactor and Corona design and testing. He kept in contact with the industry scientists to stay up to date on the latest developments in Microwave technology. No task was out of bounds for Rick, from engineering to finance to writing business software. Rick did it all.

Rick has 2 adult daughters, Megan Toledo (Idaho) and Cassandra Bennett (SoCal), from his first marriage. Rick loved his daughters very much and was very proud of both of them. Rick met Patricia and after many years of dating, they married on December 13, 2014. Rick enjoyed gardening with his wife, smoking various proteins on the weekends to share with the neighborhood, as well as sitting outside in the evening with Patricia and their dogs Moose & Cookie, nursing a serving of Lagavulin and trying to see how many satellites he could spot first. In his free time Rick also enjoyed playing cards and working on jigsaw puzzles.

Rick was predeceased by his father, Robert Bennett, and in-laws, Frank & Maria Prieto. He is survived by his wife Patricia, his mother Aileen Bennett, his sisters Sue Heisler (Gregg) and Pat Spotts, his brother Dave (Julie) Bennett, his daughters Megan Toledo, and Cassandra Bennett, and countless nephews and nieces.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to https://www.stvincentdepaul.net/give/donate.