Richard "Skip" Laughlin

Richard Kenneth (“Skip”) Laughlin passed away Sunday, November 3, 2024.  He is survived by his wife Elaine, his children Laura Burke, Sam All, Katie Laughlin and Mike All, twelve grandchildren, a Ford Platinum F150, two pinball machines and a fully stocked beer fridge.

Skip was born to John and Bettye Laughlin on March 10, 1943 and graduated from Edison High School and Tulsa University, after being “unenrolled” from OSU for being an alleged accessory to a “panty raid” in 1961 (he maintained his innocence in the matter until he passed away). He spent three short years in the army teaching electronics and traveling to Washington and Massachusetts. After graduating from TU he had a variety of careers in finance in trucking, printing, soda (Pepsico) and finally banking, working for the FDIC and authoring the software that was used to close the banks during the savings and loan crisis.  He also wrote a software program, WinScore, for scoring Sporting Clay tournaments, revolutionizing the shoots by allowing them to move away from paper accounting to the delight and consternation of many of the gun club owners who he gamely convinced to purchase the software as well as hire he and his wife Elaine to score many shoots.  He earned his nickname “Mr. Happy” because of how seriously he took the responsibility of accurately accounting for the scores of his shooters.  As he did love this responsibility, and had a deep desire to share his true feelings, he added a “Damnit, I AM smiling” sticker to his laptop to settle the matter.

Skip’s luckiest moment came in 1986 when he placed a personal ad in the local paper looking for a mate.  After he and Elaine started dating they seemed to quickly realize they were a match, as they were married in short order 9 months later, much to the confusion of some of their four children who proclaimed them “nuts”.  After about 20 years of witnessing the continued marital bliss, said children begrudgingly admitted perhaps he had know what he was doing after all, as the pair bought progressively bigger and more elaborate motor homes (complete with a tow package for a Mini Cooper or a golf cart, depending on the destination) and traveled the country together scoring shoots, attending NASCAR and vacationing in various national parks, from Acadia in Bar Harbor Maine to Yellowstone Wyoming and Big Bend in their adopted state of Texas.

Skip and Elaine moved to Texas in 1993, purchasing a piece of land in Lucas and building their home in front of a “mudhole” to transform it into “Lake St. John” complete with two car garage and custom room to accommodate Skip’s extensive train set up that he built and ran, to the joy of his grandchildren and neighborhood kids. They loved to come watch him show them how the train could change tracks, display different lights, and disappear under mountains that he had handcrafted himself. The two car garage soon showed itself to be too small due to Skip’s love of purchasing, fixing up and then selling “toy” cars, and so the “Garage Mahal” was built. Even the Mahal was too small ultimately and needed to be extended to house (at various times) 3 Mini Coopers, an MGB, a ’64 Pontiac GTO, a ’51 Ford, a ‘35 Pontiac Hotrod, a 60s-era Bonneville and 2 Mustangs (one a bright yellow Cobra).

Beyond his reputation of earnest self-taught programming skills, stalwart scorekeeping, it’s-happy-hour beer drinking and “He who dies with the most toys wins” motto, Skip’s claim to fame may be his restoration of a 1967 Green “Woody” Mini Cooper, which he paid to have assembled in the UK and shipped to Galveston, Texas. The car earned him several trophies and a front page spread in British car magazine. Skip and Elaine were members of the “Mini Owners of Texas” group for many years, often joining group drives and trips to national gatherings.

The “Brady Bunch” nature of Skip & Elaine’s family has made for many years of fun family gatherings as the clan has grown, centering around the family lore of “Farkle”, their favorite dice game that they’ve been playing together for almost 40 years.  The competition was fierce, with Skip often promoting superstition and trying to change his luck of the game by taking a turn walking around the table, changing his hat, or utilizing Mardi Gras beads to give him the “juju” needed to bring his score over the 5000 points needed to win. The Farkle Championship required a minimum of “three branches” of the family being together in one place and the game needing to be declared an “Official Championship Game”, the prize of which was temporary ownership and display of the legendary “Farkle Trophy”. The trophy has traveled to Oklahoma, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, and Missouri as well as always back to Texas in its precious “brownie tin” box, with adornments added from each temporary owner, including the Statue of Liberty, a Texas Lone Star Boot, a moustache, a buffalo head, a llama, a feather, the Chicago Cubs logo, a turtle, some fairy dust and a magnet from the Salem Witch museum.  Although he struggled with Parkinsons and some memory challenges, Skip still remembered the rules of Farkle to the end, becoming the ultimate Farkle Champion one last time, two weeks before he passed away.

The list of his hobbies and interests would make this obituary far too long to capture the reader’s interest, but his family will be happy to tell you more tales about his adventures and misadventures at his memorial service mass and reception on Friday, November 8, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Jude Catholic Church, 1515 N. Greenville Avenue, Allen, Texas 75002. In the meantime, they like to think he is “up there” carousing with his family and friends that have preceded him, as they watch him race his Tiger Sunbeam around the track, toothpick in his mouth, open beer in his hand and a smile behind the moustache because, well, he’s Mr. Happy.

Donations can be made to Operation Kindness I Texas Lifesaving Animal Shelter https://www.operationkindness.org/ways-to-give/ , your local animal shelter, or whichever charity brings you joy.

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