Richard “Dick” Warner Carlson passed away at his residence in Boca Grande, Florida, surrounded by his children. Like his son, Dick began his career as a reporter before becoming the U.S. Ambassador to the Seychelles during President George H. W. Bush’s administration in the early 1990s. Prior to that role, he served as the Director of Voice of America under President Ronald Reagan.
In his heartfelt tribute, Tucker noted, “Throughout his life, he fervently loved dogs,” and shared that after enduring a six-week illness, Dick chose to forgo painkillers until the end, departing this life with dignity and clarity, holding his children’s hands with his dogs by his side. Born on February 10, 1941, in Massachusetts to a Swedish-speaking mother at the age of 15, Dick was placed in an orphanage in Boston. He spent his childhood moving between foster homes before being adopted. At 17, he was expelled from school and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Tucker described his father as “a free thinker and a compulsive book reader, even at red lights.”
“He left behind a library of thousands of books, many well-worn and filled with notes in the margins. His reading and life experiences led him to believe in the existence of God. He possessed an outlaw spirit balanced by a sense of decency.”
Throughout his life, Dick worked in various countries and interacted with numerous world leaders. “He was fundamentally nonjudgmental and difficult to shock, describing them all with a sense of amused affection,” Tucker remarked about his father.
As a single father, Dick raised his sons alone after his wife left for Europe and did not return, pursuing her dream of a bohemian lifestyle, as Tucker recounted.Dick frequently took his sons on reporting excursions and engaged them in discussions at the dinner table about a wide array of subjects, including the French Revolution, Bolshevik Russia, P.G. Wodehouse, the history of Native Americans, and, invariably, the timeless and unchanging aspects of human nature.
In 1979, he wed Patricia Swanson, the heiress to the Swanson Foods fortune. Tucker Carlson noted, “They enjoyed 44 years together, all filled with happiness.” He added that she passed away sixteen months prior to him, and he grieved for her daily.
Richard “Dick” Warner Carlson is survived by his two sons, five grandchildren, and a daughter-in-law.
May he rest in peace.
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Bored Daddy
Love and Peace
