Richard Charles Macon III

FAIRHOPE, ALRichard Charles Macon III, PhD, a retired FBI agent who served as Chief Engineer, Firearms Instructor, and Special Agent passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his family, friends and pets at 9pm on June 1, 2010 aged 72 in Fairhope, Alabama.  His death was caused by complications from lung cancer. He is buried in Memory Gardens of Fairhope.Although not natives of Fairhope, Alabama, Richard and his family developed a deep love for the community after relocating from Council Bluffs, Iowa. Richard’s father served on the city council and as mayor of Fairhope from 1964-l972.  Richard was born in Nashville, Tennessee on January 23, 1938.  An only child, Richard was preceded in death by his father Richard Charles Macon, Jr. and his mother Ethel Steiner Macon.Richard, a self-acknowledged teacher’s pest from a very early age was well served by his quick wit. He held passions for his country, his family and friends, science and cars. He was not only an FBI agent, he was also a world-class race car driver, a soldier, a university professor, an architect, a craftsman, and last but not least, a husband, father and grandfather.After graduating from Fairhope High School in 1956, he began a serious racing career.  With the assistance of his father, his friends and his mechanic, John Miller, Richard owned, raced and operated some hot race cars.  Richard’s love of cars was both from the engineering as well as a skillful and daring driving standpoint.  During his racing career, he drove an Austin Healy 3000, a Lotus XI, a Cooper Monaco, a Maserati 250F (rumored to have been driven by Juan Manuel Fangio), a Lotus 23, and a McLaren M1A. Several of the cars have been fully restored and are again racing today in vintage car races around the world.  To the dismay of local authorities, these cars were often road tested on the streets of Fairhope with white knuckled friends by his side. His racing took him all over the US (Boca Raton, Pensacola, Gainesville, Courtland, and Los Angeles Riverside and Las Vegas, to name a few). Richard raced several times, winning twice in the Nassau Trophy Races in the Bahamas.  Richard raced with some of the early greats of car racing: Bruce McLaren, Sterling Moss, Carroll Shelby, Roger Penske, Phil Hill, and Roy Salvadori.  Richard enjoyed a successful racing career until it was cut short by a notice from his draft board.Richard served in the 1st Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas.  He was one of the many young men who loaded their equipment and themselves onto trains to travel to Georgia to await the outcome of the potentially deadly standoff between President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev over Soviet Russian midrange missiles in Cuba.With the help of the GI Bill, Richard attended University of South Alabama as one of its early students, finishing in 1969 with a BSEE.  In 1973 he finished his PhD at Southern Methodist University in electrical engineering.  His NASA sponsored dissertation, “A Study of Methods of Analysis of the Dynamics of Flexible Spacecraft”, took a genius to write and also geniuses to read and understand as well.He returned to the University of South Alabama to teach courses in mechanical and electrical engineering.  His advice, stressed to his students and family, “Check the want ads if you are confused about what you want to study” He also said “if what you are studying is not in the want ads, you are studying the wrong thing”.  Soon the direction of his life changed again. In 1977 the FBI recruited him to help strengthen the engineering department in Washington, D.C.As an FBI agent as in life, Richard was always an exception to the rule.  He was the only agent to turn 40 while in new Special Agent’s class.  His exemption was provided by the Department of Justice because of the FBI’s desire to improve its technical skills.  During his tenure at the FBI, Richard worked on many cases.  Most of his secret projects will remain, like Richard, an enigma.  While always one to shy from publicity, he had recognized roles in Washington DC, Virginia, Talladega, Waco and with the FBI’s HRT in Haiti. In September 1993, along with many others, including the 3rd Force Recon Marine, he worked long days and nights at Bayou Canot, AL at the Sunset Limited train crash.  All his life, Richard felt a strong loyalty to the FBI family.While working for the FBI in Washington DC he lived in Virginia and during his spare moments and while on long stake outs, Richard designed and engineered his dream home. Later, with his own hands, back and brain, he built an eco-friendly, contemporary home in the foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains known as “Tree House Macon”.  In typical Richard fashion, he built the 45’ tall cedar home with ramps, pulleys and even a modified skate board.  He would heave the huge rough-cut structural beams up into the air and wrestle them into place to be bolted with his stainless steel bolts.  His only concession to heights was not to look down.But despite his beautiful home in Virginia, his “Sweet Home, Alabama” called to Richard.  In 1991, he transferred to become a Special Agent in Mobile. In 1998, he retired from the FBI, but soon after this first retirement, he started working again with the Mobile County Police department until his final retirement in 2008.It was a sad to lose Richard but it was made joyous by so many of his friends who took the time to visit, stay close, help and share stories and have so many pay their respects.  Richard leaves behind his wife, Karan Leigh Rodgers, his daughter, Daliah Gabriel Macon in Virginia, and his two step-daughters, Stephanie Makiko Torneden in Melbourne, Australia, Jennifer Leigh Bentley Torneden-Nadel, his son-in-law Scott Norris Nadel, MD and grand-daughter, Isabella Bruce Torneden Nadel in Ridgefield, Connecticut.“Some choose the merry go round, which goes round and round. You know where you’re going, you know where you’ve been. While others choose the roller coaster, with its ups and down. But rarely and only a few, choose no track at all. Experiencing life fully, with all the ups and all the downs, and all the degrees of freedom allowed by the laws of physics.” Modified from Ganz, Mandel & Howard, Parenthood 1989.ARRANGEMENTS BYWOLFE-BAYVIEW FUNERAL HOMES& CREMATORY, INC.19698 GREENO ROADFAIRHOPE, AL 36532