Richard Heldt

Richard D. Heldt, 56, a resident of Yamato-Shi, Kanagwa, Japan and formerly of Davenport died Friday, December 19, 2003 in Tama-Shi, Tokyo, Japan.
Funeral services will be held at 1:00 P.M. Monday, January 5, 2003 at McGinnis-Chambers Funeral Chapel, Bettendorf. Burial will be in the Rock Island National Cemetery where military honors will be conducted. Visitation will be from 12:00 Noon to 1:00 P.M. Monday at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association or the Bettendorf American Legion.
Richard was born to John Heldt and Betty Ballard Heldt in Davenport on June 4, 1947. He attended grade school in Orion, Illinois and graduated from Orion High School.
He married Rhona Christ of Orion and they had two daughters, Darcie and Deena.
Richard served in the U.S. Air Force for twenty-six years, retiring in 1992. He worked on the Stars & Stripes Magazine for six years in downtown Tokyo. He then went to Okinawa Air Base where he was a graphic artist. He later was stationed at Tinker Air Base in Oklahoma where he worked in computer graphics. Later, he was re-assigned to Yokota Air Base in Japan where he remained until his retirement.
Once a year, a United States team, of which Richard was a member, would travel to Sapora, Japan to the annual Snow Festival. There they would build huge snow sculptures in competition with other countries.
He married Mutsuko Ohara in Tokyo on December 10, 1975.
In addition to his beloved wife, Mutsuko, he is survived by his mother & step-father, Betty & Harold Marley of Bettendorf; his brother, John Heldt in Kentucky; his daughters, Darcie Pottebaum of Moline, Illinois and Deena Heldt in Arizona; and two grandsons, David & Christopher, both of Moline.
He was preceded in death by his father; and his sister, Frances K. Mullen; and by his former wife, Rhona.