Richard Edward (Dick) Hay, 77 died peacefully on Thursday, April 23, 2020 with his partner, Paulane Butler, and close friend, Sister Karen Van De Walle, at his side.
Dick was born in Cincinnati in 1942 to Richard Walter and Evelyn Crosby Hay. After earning his Batchelor of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University in 1964 and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Alfred University in 1966, Dick began a more than forty-year career as a professor of ceramics at Indiana State University. There, he defined careers, shaped and elevated artists, and made thousands of friends. He devotion to his students culminated in the receipt of the Caleb Mills Award for Distinguished Teaching from Indiana State and “Excellence in Teaching Award” from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. As an artist, his work has been seen in more than two-hundred exhibitions and is housed in dozens of permanent collections throughout the world.
Dick’s legacy spans that larger body of work-as an artist, teacher, partner, father, grandfather, and friend. He is survived by his partner, Paulane, his son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Carla, and his grandchildren, Joshua and Savannah.
Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, private services and burial will be Monday, April 27, 2020, and available on The French Funeral Home Facebook page. A larger celebration of Life will be scheduled for a later date. In lieu of flowers or donations, the family kindly requests that letters that share memories of Dick be sent to his grandchildren so that they may know their grandfather better as they age. Those letters can be sent in his name to French Funeral Home, P.O. Box 1, Brazil, IN 47834 or to, www.frenchfuneralhome.com.
Finally, the family wish to thank Linda and Angie, nurses at the Gibson Family Center for Hospice Care at Union Hospital, as well as the entire nursing and treatment team at Union Hospital for all that they did to provide exceptional care to our father and friend.
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