October 6, 1936 – November 26, 2025
Richard Yeager Moss II, “Dick” was born in Ft Wayne Indiana on October 6th, 1936 to Rhoda Elizabeth Toothill Moss and Richard Yeager Moss. He was a humble person, but his academics were hard to downplay having graduated as Valedictorian from his high school Western Reserve Academy in 1954. Having perfect grades and getting a near perfect score on his SAT’s took him to Princeton University in where he graduated in 1958 with a BS in Electrical Engineering, Dick went on to get a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in which he graduated from a two-year program in just one year to save money.
During the summers in college Dick worked at the Goodyear Missile Lab in Akron Ohio, and then for Boeing aircraft in Seattle Washington. For a year between college and grad school 1958-1959, he worked for Sperry Gyroscope in NY designing transistorized circuits for surface to air defense missile guidance systems. Dick has always been a hard worker and upon graduating from Stanford on a Sunday in June, he started a new job on Monday at Hewlett Packard where he worked for the next 39 years. He had been so broke upon graduation, HP had to advance him his paycheck for living expenses! While at HP, Dick started a design team to work on digital voltmeters and transistors instead of vacuum tubes. By 1975 he had helped design 5 generations of new products and shifted them all to integrated circuits. Dick was the rare engineer that could not only design but lead people, and he managed a team of over 20 engineers who designed and tested the circuit boards for HP. This work became so important that they created a new area of the company called “Corporate Reliability” and asked him to lead this area. Starting in 1980 Dick created a 2-day seminar that he presented to over 50,000 HP engineers on five continents, to increase the reliability in their product by 10X. He started an industry group called the electrostatic discharge and electrical over stress association with thousands of members in 1984 and he was the President and Chairman of this group leading seminars around the world. Dick has many patents for all the products he designed and he wrote several textbooks, The Handbook of Reliability Engineering and Management which is still in circulation today.
Dick wasn’t all about academics, growing up when he wasn’t inventing things he became an Eagle Scout and obtained Order of the Arrow, he was so proud of his grandson Nate who just achieved the third generation of Eagle Scouts in our family. During his time at Princeton he enjoyed being a member of the Cloisters Inn eating club, working at the campus radio station, and being a member of the crew and fencing teams. One of his favorite stories from 1960, Dick entered a Stanford Ski Club drawing and won tickets to the Olympics in Squaw Valley. After grad school, 1962 Dick and some friends formed their own ski club and rented a chalet at Squaw Valley where they charged $5 a night to sleep in the loft. Dick gave a couple ladies a ride to Tahoe and long story short, in 1965 one of those ladies ended up becoming his wife of 61 years, Susan. They furthered their love of skiing by honeymooning in Aspen, and have taken ski trips to wonderful resorts throughout their lives.
In 1966 they adopted a puppy, Monte who became the need to buy the home they still have in Los Altos 60 years later! In 1970, Dick and Susan welcomed their only child Anja Christina Moss to their lives and they quickly introduced her to their love of skiing. Dick was a wonderful father, and very generous with his time. He was always up in the morning making his daughter fresh squeezed oj and eating cereal together before school, and home by 5:30 in the evenings to eat dinner together every night and help her with her homework. Dick also volunteered as a soccer referee for 9 years with AYSO becoming chief referee and chairman of the Los Altos region, allowing him to watch his daughter play soccer, and trying to be impartial at her games.
Skiing continued to be a big part of their lives and in 1981 they bought a ski cabin in Tahoe with Ian and Suzanne Band to enjoy the mountains year-round. Dick was an avid member of a hiking group with John Miller and hiked many mountains regailing us with exciting fish stories from his trips. For many years he would travel to Kodiak Alaska to fish with his friend Lanny Connel, always bring back the most delicious salmon. After he retired from work, Dick developed a love of duck hunting and he joined a private club in Los Banos, owned by a dear friend John Goddard. The men hosted wonderful dinners and Dick and Lanny had their own mobile home and ATV at the club.
Another of Dick’s great interests has always been the love of wine, and he was a part of several tasting groups one of which is still around today after 55+years called the “Guzzlers”. He also used to lead a popular tasting group for new HP employees during his time there. Dick and Susan always had a great love of travel. They have taken many trips all over the world visiting countless countries beginning as opportunities with work and then just for fun including highlights such as Australia, the Galápagos Islands, and spectacular culinary trips to China, Vietnam, and Cambodia led by our own “Chef Chu”. Dick was always grateful and appreciative of the life he and Susan created together, he was always smiling and happy, the kind of person who talks to people in the elevator, tells dad jokes, and valued time well spent over material wealth.
It was November 26th 2025, the day before Thanksgiving and much of the extended family had gathered at the home in Los Altos where Dick and Susan Moss have raised their family and lived for over 61 years of marriage. Dick’s sister Claudia and her daughter Katie and her family were visiting from Connecticut as well as her son Ben and family from Orinda. Dick and Susan’s daughter Anja, their son in law Chris Hart, and grandsons Jake and Nate were also at the gathering. Just a few short weeks before, Dick also had visited with his brother John Moss, his wife Jackie, and their daughters Rhoda and Jennifer and their families out from Orinda and Australia. To top off the evening, Dick had a slice of pecan pie and a glass of vintage wine from his cellar and then peacefully passed away at the age of 89 surrounded by his family. For those who knew Dick, it was the ending he would have written for himself having lived a very fortunate life.
