Richard Des Ruisseaux

Richard Des Ruisseaux of Taylorsville, KY, died on Sunday, September 14th, 2025, wearing corduroy pants, a flannel shirt and clean underwear. He was 85.

He would want you to know you’re probably saying his name wrong. “It’s pronounced Des Rew-so,” he’d tell you matter-of-factly, and then proceed to mentally correct all your grammatical missteps throughout your conversation, though be gracious enough not to mention them.

Richard was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1940 to Robert and Ruth of the same absurd last name. He was the middle child of three sons (between Neil and Roy), whom he is now reunited with, hopefully at a bar in the afterlife where they allow smoking and serve Old Fashioned's.

Richard was a long-time columnist/editor for the Louisville Times/Courier Journal and the editor of the short-lived Snitch magazine. He was also the author of many of his children’s high school and college essays, unbeknownst to their teachers.

Richard also helped found, and lead, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in the late 1970’s with heavyweight writers Bob Hill and Lawrence Maddry.

When not writing, he regularly embarrassed his opponents while playing tennis, golf, chess, table-tennis, Parcheesi, Sorry!, softball and Yahtzee. He also coached his children’s little-league teams (both to championships, I might add).

His book, Two Pounds of Feathers, which was published in 1980, was a compilation of some of his best columns. Copies can still be found if you scour the internet, and all proceeds go elsewhere.

Because Richard never spoke about himself (or any of his accomplishments), little is known about his time in the United States Army, where he served as a medic from 19-something to 19-something else. After which, he enrolled and graduated from the University of Utah.

He was a devout family man, avid reader and all-around wonderful human being. Besides a limited assortment of corduroy pants and flannel shirts, Richard leaves behind his wonderful wife of 55 years, Susan, his daughter, his son Douglas and daughter-in-law Jess.

Also survived by him are his sister-in-law Ann, and his brother-in-law Rob and his wife Barbara. He doted on his grandchildren, Cayman, Julia, Ian, Cali, Conrad, and Hudson, and he had two great-grandchildren, Grayson and Pharaoh.

Richard preferred to be cremated with no service, and wishes his family to stop moaning about him and get on with their lives.

We will … eventually.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Nathan Lane Wimsatt Scholarship

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