Richard Dahlquist, athlete, Gillette executive

Richard Dahlquist

Belmont High and Tufts University athlete Richard C. (Dick) Dahlquist, a four-time golf champion at Marshfield Country Club, was competitive and compassionate.

Mr. Dahlquist - who shares a Tufts pitching record, an .891 winning percentage in 1959 - died Oct. 30 of mesothelioma at his home. A Marshfield resident and former director of research and development for The Gillette Co. in Boston, he was 70.

"My father had a great passion for sports and for competition, and he was good at everything he did, whether it was bowling or playing paddle tennis or playing cards," said Mr. Dahlquist's son, Richard, Jr. of Pembroke. "He combined great skill with an analytical understanding of each game he played.

"He was also a selfless man," his son said. "He donated his time and resources as a coach of youth sports in Marshfield and Norwell. Even after undergoing major surgery because of his illness, he would speak to cancer patients at orientation lunches at Brigham and Women's Hospital."

Mr. Dahlquist had battled mesothelioma, a rare cancer that occurs in the thin layer of tissue that covers the majority of the internal organs, for three years.

Born in Newton, Mr. Dahlquist was a two-sport athlete at Belmont High who, in addition to baseball, played on the varsity basketball team in the 1956 Eastern Massachusetts Class B Tech Tournament at Boston Garden his senior year.

"Dick had a will to win second to no one," said basketball teammate Bruce Morse, later best man at Mr. Dahlquist's wedding. "That desire stayed with him to his final days."

As a Tufts junior in 1959, Mr. Dahlquist won eight games and lost just once, to help the Jumbos go 12-6 overall and finish second in the Greater Boston League. Mr. Dahlquist's two shutouts were one shy of the school single-season record. His eight victories rank third all-time on the program's single-season list. That performance earned Mr. Dahlquist the team's MVP Award, which was presented to him by Bill Russell, then center for the Boston Celtics.

Mr. Dahlquist was also named to the Greater Boston League All-Star Team. However, an arm injury limited his appearances his senior season.

"Dick was a steady player who never let you down," said Bob Meehan of Winchester, head baseball coach at Tufts during Mr. Dahlquist's playing days. "He threw strikes, and he'd get ahead of the hitter. He also had a dry sense of humor and was like a second pitching coach for me, a very bright kid."

Current Tufts head baseball coach John Casey of Milford said Mr. Dahlquist was presented with a Tufts baseball jersey with his name and No. 21 on the back last year in appreciation for his support of the program. "I was always struck by how fondly Dick remembered his years at Tufts," Casey said.

Baseball was the sport of his youth, but golf was Mr. Dahlquist's sport of a lifetime.

He was men's club champion and senior club champion at Marshfield Country Club, where with his children he won numerous father-son and father-daughter titles and held the course record (four under par 66) for many years. Mr. Dahlquist also won the 1967 Southeastern Amateur Championship, a three-day tournament held at the Ponkapoag, Plymouth, and Thorny Lea courses.

"Dick passed on his love of the game to his family who carry on his tradition at Marshfield Country Club," said Jim Dee, head pro at Scituate Country Club, who spent the previous 18 years in the same capacity at Marshfield. "He served on several committees at the club; and my enduring memory of Dick is that he was always with family during his activities there."

"After recovering from major surgery in June 2005, my dad was able to do what the large majority of golfers never do, break 80 (again)," said his son David of Marshfield, referring to his father's surgery to remove a lung. "Even though he could no longer hit the ball more than about 180 yards, he shot a 79" at the Wethersfield Country Club in Connecticut in 2006.

When Jim Lonborg, star pitcher for the 1967 "Impossible Dream" Boston Red Sox team, met Mr. Dahlquist at a golf tournament at the Carnegie Abbey Club in Portsmouth, R.I., last spring, there was an instant rapport. "He was a lovely man, surrounded by a very caring family," Lonborg, a resident of Scituate, recalled. "We talked about pitching philosophy and the joys of competition."

Mr. Dahlquist, through his golfing connections, helped raise money to build the Martin H. Semler Laboratory, a cancer research facility at University Hospital (now Boston Medical Center), in memory of his friend and colleague at Gillette, Marty Semler. The fund-raising tennis and golf tournaments at South Shore Country Club in Hingham and Brookmeadow Country Club in Canton drew full fields of more than 300 golfers.

Mr. Dahlquist worked for Gillette for 29 years, including 15 years as director of research and development, which involved overseas travel. "He got to play a lot of golf courses around the world, which of course delighted him, " said his son, David.

He retired from Gillette in 1986 and moved to Palm City, Fla. After 12 years in Florida, he returned to Marshfield and was plant manager for Osmonics Inc. in Rockland. Mr. Dahlquist was also a small-business owner, consultant, and expert technical witness (based on his experience with Gillette products) who also found time to visit middle school science classes in Marshfield.

In addition to his sons, Mr. Dahlquist leaves his wife of 48 years, Carol (Erwin) of Marshfield; two daughters, Diane (Farina) of Duxbury and Susan (Chapski) of Medfield; his mother, Kathleen Dahlquist of Venice, Fla.; three sisters, Edna Ripka of Willingboro, N.J., Diane Cram of Garden Grove, Calif., and Sharon Guidera of Hood River, Ore.; and two brothers. Philip of Lake Hopatcong, N.J. and William of Billerica.

Services have been held.