Richard H. Shepherd Sr., 88, founder of a surety bond agency in Fort Washington, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Monday at the Hill at Whitemarsh, a continuing-care retirement community in Lafayette Hill. He lived in Chestnut Hill from 1956 through 2007.
Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Shepherd graduated from Germantown High School in 1939. He attended the University of Miami for two years and earned his bachelor's degree there in 1945, with credit for course study while he was in the Army Air Corps.
His son, Richard H. Jr., said that as a pilot in World War II, Mr. Shepherd received flight training with the Royal Air Force, earned RAF and USAAF wings, and flew C-47 cargo planes during the China-Burma-India campaign.
From 1946 to 1965, his son said, Mr. Shepherd worked in the Philadelphia office of the Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland, rising to branch manager before becoming a vice president in the firm's New York office.
Mr. Shepherd's years with that firm were interrupted, his son said, when he was recalled to military service during the Korean War and served as a flight instructor at bases in Oklahoma and Texas.
In 1967, Mr. Shepherd and his wife, Ruth, opened the Shepherd Agency, an insurance firm specializing in surety bonds, in Philadelphia. In 1991, they moved it to Fort Washington, where it operates today. Mr. Shepherd was the firm's chairman until he retired in 2007.
He was a member of the Yacht Club of Stone Harbor, N.J., and the Philadelphia Cricket Club.
In addition to his wife of 67 years and his son, Mr. Shepherd is survived by daughter Candace Adams; two grandsons; two granddaughters; and three great-grandchildren.
Services will be private.
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