Richard E. Huss, Jr.

Richard E. Huss Jr., 87, of Willow Street, Pa., passed away Monday, June 1, 2020 at the Inpatient Hospice Center at Mount Joy after a brief illness. Along with the previous eight generations of his maternal family, Richard (“Dick”) was a lifelong resident of Lancaster County. Growing up in the city, on East Orange Street, Dick was an active Boy Scout and member of the Pathfinders of the Golden Trail Honor Society. He graduated from McCaskey High School in 1950 and went to work as a typesetter for the Lancaster Newspapers before joining the U.S. Navy in 1951. He served on the USS Quincy until it was decommissioned in 1955, working as one of six seamen operating the ship’s print shop. He was also stationed at the Guam Naval Base during that time, where he worked as a printer, writer and editor for the Navy newspaper. While in the service, Dick met his wife Norma in Washington State. They were married in September 1955 at the chapel in Valley Forge, Pa., and settled in Lancaster. He joined the small printing business his father had operated in the family’s basement and helped grow the company into a full-service trade bindery in Willow Street, Pa., called Graphic Crafts, Inc. Dick eventually took the helm as CEO and Chairman of the company. After 50 years in business, he retired at the age of 73 and passed the reins to the company’s current leadership, but continued to help out as an advisor, bindery worker, and even floor-sweeper. Dick’s family fondly remembers the many camping vacations they took throughout the U.S. Later in his life, he discovered a love of boating inspired by sailing vacations in the Caribbean. After earning his captain’s license, he and his wife enjoyed adventures sailing and piloting their own boats on the Chesapeake Bay, the Intercoastal Waterway, and the Canadian canals and waterways. The couple also traveled to Antarctica, the Galapagos Islands, the British Isles and other destinations around the world. Dick kept active in more recent years playing on senior bowling and softball teams and supporting his wife’s passion for writing mystery novels and stories. Dick Huss will be remembered by friends and family as a map and geography aficionado, an avid non-fiction reader, an expert planner, a successful business entrepreneur, a loyal friend, a role model for being hard-working and honest, and a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Norma Collins Huss, his four daughters, Diane Bock (husband Kerry), Donna Hedricks, Patricia Traynor, Sharon Roat, his son, Robert Huss (wife Cindi), and his grandchildren Matthew Traynor (wife Courtney), Eric Traynor, Grant Hedricks (fiancé Hannah), Leah Lucas (husband Garrett), Linore Huss, Jana Huss, Sebastian Roat, Anna Roat, and his great-grandchildren Maisy and Theodore Traynor. Preceding him in death were his parents Richard and Anna Huss and his son-in-law, Rich Roat. A private burial event will be scheduled in the future.