Richard (Dick) Shannon Thorp passed away on September 5, 2015 from complications of congestive heart failure. His last days were spent surrounded by his family.
Dick was born on November 21, 1933 in Yakima, WA, the eldest child of Calvin Shannon and Elsie Celica (Harrington) Thorp. He grew up in Bremerton, WA with his two sisters, attended school at Saint Marks, and graduated from Bremerton High School. He was industrious from a young age, playing football, delivery newspapers and working at the local gas station amongst many other ventures. Dick was flying and owned his own plan as a teenager and served in the Air Force from 1954 to 1957 and studied business at Seattle University.
In 1959, Dick married his first wife, Kay F. Erickson, with whom he had three children. He was hired by Sam Stroum of Almac/Stroum Electronics as the forth employee and helped build Stroum’s business before purchasing his own company, Electronic Sales Corporation, in 1964. Dick was a true entrepreneur and became one of the area’s pioneers of industrial electronics components distribution and marketing. He went on to form, acquire, and invest in many companies that created over a thousand of jobs locally, notably Shannon LTD., Air Masters, R&R 
Associates, Edmark, Supertronix, Electronic SuperMart, Seattle Radio and others. He considered Sam Stroum his inspirational mentor.
He met his second wife, Joan C. Bertino in the mid 1970’s, and they married in 1992. Dick and Joan resided in Burien, WA, and enjoyed trips to Mexico, boating together, and weekending at their summer places in Roslyn, Discovery Bay, and Kala Point.
One of Dick’s passions was genealogy. He enjoyed studying, researching and investigating his heritage. He did most of this long before the internet and traced his Thorp heritage back to Thomas Thorp born in James City, Virginia in 1642 and migrations to Kentucky, Oregon and then Yakima Valley where his Great-Great Grandfather F.M. Thorp who was one of the first European settlers in Yakima Valley. Dick’s final resting place will be in the town of his ancestors in Thorp, WA.
Dick is preceded in death by his father, mother, and brothers-in-law, Thomas Talbert and 
William Whalen. He is survived by his wife Joan C. (Bertino) Thorp, son Richard (Rick) J. Thorp and his wife Danine, daughter Rhonda K. Thorp, son James (Jim) S. Thorp, granddaughter Cassidy Rae Thorp, sisters Joan Talbert and Barbara Whalen, step-son David Bertino and his wife Judy, and step-daughters Suzanne Fortune and Cheryl Nagel and her husband Uwe.
A funeral is planned for Saturday, September 26th at 11:00 AM at St. Francis of Assisi in Burien, WA with a brunch immediately following. All are welcome. Memories can be shared on www.bartonfuneral.com and flowers or cards may be sent to the church.