Memorial service set for retired Kennewick teacher

The family of a retired automotive technology teacher who taught for nearly 20 years at Tri-Tech Skills Center in Kennewick is inviting former students to attend an Oct. 24 memorial service in his honor.

Richard Ousse, 72, died Sept. 22 in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, according to his obituary. Most of his teaching career was spent at the Kennewick School District’s vocational technical program, where he led two groups of student to national-level auto skills competitions after winning state contests in 1998 and 2002.

“One of the reasons we wanted to have a service in the Tri-Cities is because people knew him there,” said his daughter Shawna Ousse of Everett.

Richard Ousse was born in Louisiana and served in the Marine Corps for five years before he began teaching. He’d grown up working on cars and that led him to teach automotive technology, becoming an instructor at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi in 1980. He joined Tri-Tech in 1986.

Shawna Ousse said her father was focused on teaching life lessons as much as teaching about cars. He would yell at students who didn’t wear their safety goggles and made sure students memorized their Social Security numbers.

“He made me take his class before I could get my first vehicle,” she said.

He stressed the importance of math skills and took extra certifications so his students could take the course as a math credit.

Beyond twice winning the state-level Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills competitions, Ousse’s students regularly placed in the top three among the competition’s teams several other years. Those students frequently took home scholarships that allowed them to continue their education.

“Education was really important to him,” Shawna Ousse said. Not all of her father’s past students work in the automotive field but some have their own shops or have gone on to become airplane mechanics in the military.

Ousse moved to Naples, Idaho, with his wife Brenda Ousse after he retired in 2004. He suffered a series of strokes in recent years which led to declining health. He is survived by his wife, daughter, two sisters, a brother and several nieces and nephews.

The memorial service begins at 1 p.m. at Events at Sunset at 915 Bypass Highway in Richland.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 10:02 AM with the headline "Memorial service set for retired Kennewick teacher."