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On April 6, 2025, Richard Dean Kahoe slipped peacefully away to his Eternal Reward at the Fairview Fellowship Home in Fairview, OK. Richard's memorial service will be Sunday, April 27 at 3:00 P.M. at Billings Funeral Home in Woodward, OK.
Delivered by pioneer Doctor O.C. Newman, Richard was born at Shattuck (OK) Hospital on November 27, 1935, to Clifton Albert Kahoe and Laura Evelyn Weir Kahoe. The family was completed by the birth of his siblings Jimmie Mac, Marilyn Jane, and Ellen Charlene.
Richard first attended grade school in Okay and Medford, OK, and continued his education at Sharon Public Schools, graduating as valedictorian with the class of 1953. At Oklahoma Baptist University, he studied English and psychology, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in 1957. Richard then earned his Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology at Ohio University, and completed his formal education at George Peabody College for Teachers with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and higher education.
After earning his doctorate, Richard served as Psychology department chair and dean of students at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri and Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. Later, he was staff psychologist and director at residential facilities in Indiana and Missouri until moving to Woodward, Oklahoma, where he established a private practice in psychology.
Richard also held lay ministry certificates from Baptist entities in Oklahoma and Indiana. As an adult, he served in sundry ministerial positions in Oregon, Oklahoma, Indiana, and elsewhere. For the last thirteen years or so, he held part-time pastorates with Native American congregations in American Baptist churches in Watonga and Canton, Oklahoma.
Midway in his college years, Richard joined the U.S. Navy, serving as a line officer on a radar patrol ship in the Atlantic Theatre during the Cold War. He continued service in the naval reserve, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
From his demanding English teachers at Sharon High School and his English professors at Oklahoma Baptist University, Richard learned the joy of producing good writing. Before finishing graduate school, he had already published several professional articles and continued throughout his career to publish numerous professional and conceptual articles. With his colleague Mary Jo Meadow, he co-authored the text Psychology of Religion: Religion in Individual Lives. A week-long writers workshop in Iowa inspired an additional career in writing for the general population, especially articles in religious magazines. From 1975 to 2024, Richard began writing poetry, for which he received numerous awards and commendations. Later, he also self-published several collections of his poems and essays, on topics ranging from "man in nature" to the Irish experience. Richard also published Manna Forty, a literary newsletter focused on the nexus of religion, nature, and psychology.
Richard's major hobbies included gardening and working with "natural" woods. Inspired by the words of Jesus, who told his disciples to go out, "taking with you only a walking stick" (Mark 6:8), he began crafting walking sticks made from local and regional woods. A member of the Woodward Farmers Market Association for over thirty years, Richard received a commendation for "near-charter membership" from the Association.
Dr. Kahoe was pre-deceased by his parents Clifton and Laura, his infant brother J.C., siblings Jimmie and Charlene, and first wife Deborah Rider. Survivors include wife Deborah Yarbrough of the home, ex-wife Sharon Zmuda; sons Gregory (Jennifer) of Ester, AK and Daniel (Anna) of Washington, DC; grandchildren Rebecca of Ester, AK and Benjamin (Sienna Archunde) of Alamogordo, NM; stepchildren Eric Zmuda of Oswego, IL, Shahana Ali Wyss (Mark) and Yusuf Ali and son Samir of Denver, CO; sister Marilyn Radcliffe (Jerry) of Colorado Springs, CO; sister-in-law Meryl Kahoe of Mooreland, OK, and numerous nieces and nephews.
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