In Memoriam: Ralph “Rick” DeYoung
Members of Timber Valley were heartbroken to learn of the passing of Ralph “Rick” DeYoung of Lot 184 on February 26, 2026.
Rick was born March 4, 1938. He was just a few days shy of 88 years old.
Rick was in the Air Force in the 50’s. He married his wife Nancy in 1957 and they had four children, Ralph, Deborah, David and Daniel. Ralph passed away as an infant from SIDS. He married again on May 12, 1978 to Mabel. Mabel had two children from a previous marriage, Daniel and Elizabeth. Rick gave her the nickname Nusha shortly after they met. Rick had worked as a policeman while putting himself through school to become an attorney. When Nusha met Rick, he was a new attorney from Mercer Island, Washington, who was moving to Anchorage, Alaska to open a branch office for the Seattle law firm which employed him. They discovered they had a mutual love of many things, including spectator sports, playing bridge and raising each other’s kids.
Rick took up flying his own plane in Alaska. Despite Nusha’s prior bad experiences in small planes, she took many cross-country trips with Rick. She learned to share the DeYoung family’s love of water sports and learned to help operate their sail boat, ski boat and a pontoon boat named Nusha’s Nushnik. Rick started his own law firm (R.R. DeYoung-Lawyer) in 1982 and merged it with a mutual friend’s in 1984 to become Wade & DeYoung. Rick retired from the law practice in 2000 and they began their retirement in a new Safari 30’ diesel pusher motorhome in the summer of 2000.
Rick and Nusha joined the Escapees RV Club shortly before retiring and they visited Timber Valley during the summer of 2000. They fell in love with it during that visit. After getting on the Active Waiting List, they traveled all 49 states and Canada. They spent five winters in Davenport, Florida where they owned an RV lot and later a park model home. They continued to visit Timber Valley while on the Active Waiting List until they got their lot on July 11, 2007. They placed a new Layton park model on Lot 184 and made Timber Valley their home. Nusha passed away September 27, 2018.
Rick was very involved in Timber Valley and was know as the “legal-go-to-guy” in the park. He was active on committees in the park including By- Laws and the Grievance Committees. He was very involved with Chapter Nine. He was also very active in the town of Sutherlin. He worked many years with the Lions Club and was the 2020 Man of the Year for the Chamber of Commerce. Rick’s love of boats saw him acquiring a unique little boat that was known as “The Boat That Jack Built”. People would drive by daily to view the little boat during the months it resided in his front yard. He and others from the park would take their boats to Cooper Reservoir and give rides to Timber Valley residents. Rick was also well known during the Saturday morning coffee and doughnuts in the clubhouse. That group renamed the group “The Rick DeYoung Coffee Club”. Rick is remembered with much love and affection and is greatly missed.
He is survived by his daughter Deborah, sons David and Daniel and Nusha’s children, Daniel and Elizabeth.
Thank you for sharing this touching memorial. Rick was my first friend that I made when I visited Timber Valley in 2019. He stopped by Boondocking where I was parked to introduce himself and encouraged me to go to the ice cream social. He introduced me to everyone there and I was impressed with how friendly everyone was.
While I was on the waiting list, we kept in touch by email and text and when I finally got my lot, he gave me a tour of Sutherland and took me to the Rodeo Steakhouse for dinner in Roseburg. He enjoyed going there often. We occasionally shared a dinner or a lunch but more importantly, good conversation.
I will always value the friendship that I had with Rick, and I’ll miss him a great deal.