Lasting Memories

Richiko Obuchi
Jan. 12, 1937-Dec. 2, 2022
Mountain View, California

Richiko Obuchi, beautiful, warm hearted, loving mother and grandmother, passed away too soon, yet peacefully on Friday, December 2, 2022. She was a loyal friend, dog lover, avid 49er fan, Shohei Ohtani fangirl and a talented seamstress. Devoted to her grandkids she would always have warm hugs and their favorite food waiting for them when they visited, and piles of presents under the tree at Christmas.

Richiko was born on January 12, 1937 in Kurogi, Japan, a small country village where her parents and siblings were educators. The baby of the family, her adventurous spirit was apparent in her youth when she dated a so-called yakuza member and dance instructor. With him she would win many dance competitions in her black and white polk-a-dotted dress with her hair dyed auburn from beer. In 1960, her bold spirit would lead her on a solo, three week boat ride across the Pacific to be with her new husband, Hiroshi (Paul) Obuchi. When asked why she would marry someone she barely knew, she replied “he was tall and handsome.”

Hiroshi’s adoration for Richiko was made evident, when he wouldn’t allow her to accept a housekeeper position that was offered to her. Instead, she took on a role as a nanny which was short-lived when she realized she didn’t know how to care for babies. A year later her first child, Richard, was born.

Over the next several years Richiko would work as a seamstress and develop her English skills by watching American television shows, along with baseball games and her favorite player, Sandy Koufax. Even at age 83, she would still recall the Cy Young award-winning Dodgers pitcher and how “tall and handsome he was.”

In 1966, her second child, Alice, was born. Thankfully by then Richiko’s child raising skills were well-honed.

The 70’s opened up a new chapter in her life where she worked in the burgeoning high-tech industry at Fairchild and later Hewlett Packard. She flourished at work making new friends and enjoying company “beer busts”, birthday lunches, and football betting pools, where she would consistently win each week and use her winnings to buy lunch for her friends. She would spend the next 18 years with her HP family and retired at the end of 1993 at the young age of 56.

The 90’s were spent traveling with Hiroshi throughout the U.S., as well as overseas to Italy, France, England and Denmark. 1998 would be the highlight of the decade with the birth of her grandson, Kai, and yet marred by tragedy with the passing of her beloved husband.

Richiko bravely powered through her loss with the aid of frequent visits from her grandson, the support of friends at her exercise class and frequent walks with her best friend, Satsuki. She would spend the next twenty years alone, rebuilding a life of her own, a testament to that young, brave, spirited girl who had left Japan so many decades ago.

Richiko’s spirit lives on through her daughter Alice and grandson Kai, her son Richard and granddaughter Julia.