Published in the January 6, 2021 edition.
LYNNFIELD — Lifelong South Lynnfield resident Dick Weeks passed away on the evening of Dec. 21, 2020. He was born on May 25, 1929.
Dick was known for his many accomplishments as a local athlete, particularly in ice hockey and road running. Dick was also a Korean War veteran and participated in the Lynnfield Memorial Day parade and Veterans’ Day commemorations in some capacity for more than 75 years.
Dick was married to Lee Melody (nee Hadsall) Weeks, who passed away in 2005. Dick and Lee were the parents of five children. Two children predeceased Dick: Pammy Lee Weeks (1966) and Jim Weeks (2003). He is survived by his son Richard (Rick) Weeks Jr., his wife Silvina, and their kids Drew, Stevie, April and Caroline of Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Dave Weeks, his wife Karen and daughter Kaleigh of Lynnfield; and Carrie Weeks Rennie and her husband Tim of Merrimac, Massachusetts.
Dick was likely one of the few people in town who was actually born and lived his whole life in South Lynnfield, save for his two years’ service in Korea during the conflict there in the early 1950s. Born at 66 Grove St., which is now gone via the Route 128 expansion, young Dickie and his five siblings — brothers Ed and Harold, and sisters Irene, Marion, and Shirley — spent their childhood years down at Suntaug Park, now known as Newhall Park, and adjoining Suntaug Lake. Growing up in the Great Depression and war years, Dick and the other South Lynnfield kids played sports at the park nearly every day. Dick learned to play baseball and tennis at the park, and taught himself to skate on Suntaug Lake in the winter months. He and his brothers delivered newspapers, worked odd jobs, and participated in the yearly 4th of July Suntaug “bonfires” as well as marched as Boy Scouts in the Memorial Day parades.
Dick attended the old Lynnfield South School, now the South Lynnfield Fire Station, and later went to the Centre School on Main Street before heading off to Wakefield High School. Dick transferred to Lynn English with his sister Irene for his last two years of high school, and then went to work for the Lynnfield Water Department upon graduation in 1948. With the outbreak of the Korean War, brothers Ed and Harold were called up to service first and Dick went to Korea to serve in 1953 after his brothers’ return.
Dick recalls his boxing matches on the 21-day troop ship trip over to Japan and his playing baseball and running track in the national stadiums in Tokyo and Seoul for the 8th Army teams. Since the armistice had already been signed when he arrived, his duties were mainly concerned with transport and planting of trees. After returning from service in Korea, Dick took a job in Lynn with the Massachusetts Gas and Electric Company, and stayed with them for more than 40 years.
But it was with sports that Dick would find his lifelong passion and make his mark in local New England sports history. In the early 1950s, Dick and his brothers played for the Lynnfield Knights hockey team down at the (then) new Lynn Area on Boston Street in Lynn. With older brother Ed anchoring the goal position, Dick, his younger brother Harold and Lynnfield’s Pyburn brothers became quite the team to play against in Massachusetts’ amateur hockey. Dick loved hockey with his gloves on and off. Dick also used his skating and hockey talents to train Lynn’s first group of hockey players, both as an assistant coach to Lynn English’s head coach Red Foote to running hockey schools in the North Shore to teach the game to another generation of youngsters. Dick also was a longtime hockey referee. Many North Shore players can remember getting put in the “sin bin” from a call made by Dick.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Dick was invited to play for the Waterville Exchange Bruins, a semi-pro hockey team based in Waterville, Maine. He played at Colby Arena with Lynn hockey greats John Marsh and Tippy Johnson. He earned the nickname “Smiley Weeks” to Waterville fans, who liked to see him flash his signature smile after a big game win on the ice. In 1960, the Waterville Bruins played the Swiss National Team and a couple other European teams to “soften them up” for the famed 1960 Olympic Gold Medal team. In the 1970s through the early 1990s, he played locally with the Woodies Pro Shop team in the fast Senior 40+ league in Peabody, where they “hoisted the cup” for many, many years. After that, Dick’s pick-up hockey games down at Saugus’ Hockey Town would continue to the ripe old age of 87, when he finally “hung up the blades” after having played for more than 70 years.
In the early 1950s, Dick also started his road running passion. From that time through the early 80s, Dick was a force out on the race circuit. In the 1950s and 1960s, he ran for the Lynn A.C. at the BAA Boston Marathon nine times and one year finished 30th (2:48 his best time). He also was well known as the original winner of the first few Lynnfield Athletic Association Fourth of July Road Races. But his best race probably came at the New England Championship in 1961. That year, the Lynn Wyoma Merchants Association held their annual 30km road race in Lynn. Dick won the race in 1960. In the 1961 race, he led the race until the last 100 yards and was beaten out by Wakefield’s Al Confalone, who had placed fourth in the Marathon at the 1959 Chicago Pan American Games. Dick ran the entire 30km race at a better than 5:30 per mile pace. For a guy known as hockey talent and weighing in at more than 180 lbs., competing with Olympic-level runners was extremely rare – for him it was just another challenge for his passion of sports competition.
In 1962, Dick married his longtime Lynnfield Center sweetheart, Lee Hadsall. They bought a house in Lynnfield on Summer Street and brought up a family. Both Dick and Lee loved to travel. They brought along their kids for every trip. Over the years, through various station wagon road trips, the Weeks “Gypsies” managed to cover the “Lower 48” states and saw countless cities and parks. Dick on one trip hiked down and up the Grand Canyon with just a can of Coke – at 63 years young. Dick and Lee later took the “gang” across the world on their journeys to Europe, Egypt, Israel, China and South America. With married life, Dick added tennis to his resume. He played thousands of sets tennis with his great friend and rival Lenny Guimond down at Suntaug. Dick loved to go all day in the hot sun with nothing to drink to help vanquish his opponents. One memorable time at the courts was in the late 1970s, when Dick battled with Lynnfield High School girls’ tennis coach Craig Stone for the Lynnfield Tournament final. Dick came up short on that one.
Once the 1990s arrived, Dick added bike riding to his sports resume. He was a frequent participant in Lynnfield’s “Reid Ride” charity event and yearly rode his very own “Cape-to-Cape” 165 mile two-day challenge ride with his sons that went from Lynnfield to Provincetown, then by ferry to Gloucester and back to Lynnfield as a “workout.”
After Lee passed away, Dick’s passion turned to training and overseeing yet another generation of “Weeksies.” Dick loved to go to every sport and cultural event that his grandkids did. Grandkids Andrew, Steven, April, Kaleigh and Caroline kept him busy, on the road, and happy as they performed and competed just as he had done.
For anyone who met him, Dick was an unforgettable character well known by several generations of “sportsters” throughout Lynnfield and the North Shore. His many, many stories will keep his memory and smile alive. He lived life to its fullest, always on his own terms. Dick always loved to be playing into “overtime” and he certainly got his wish. Dick was fond of saying, “Conditioning is everything,” and he lived by that creed. “The Old Warrior” will be sorely miss and fondly remembered for years to come.
