Roll Call Tribute

Richard Jacobs Reiser
1940-2020

Do you know how many years of life and adventures you can pack into a single year, never mind a lifetime? Richard Reiser did. Never afraid, always curious. He traveled the world and could not get enough. Wondering Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, up the Nile, down the Amazon with his wife by his side tasting all that he could and wanting more.

Richard Jacobs Reiser, 79, died from complications of Mesothelioma while holding his wife’s Gail’s hand on March 5, 2020.

Born in 1940 in Raleigh North Carolina, to parents Dr. Raymond and Shirley Reiser, Richard (Dick) is best known as the founder of the advertising agency Reiser Williams deYoung, based in Irvine, California. Lovingly called RWD.

The RWD agency is largely credited with reinventing the way high tech advertising was portrayed. As the agency’s fearless leader, Richard (Dick) insisted that high tech advertising could be as entertaining and effective as consumer advertising. But more importantly, an impressive list of clients agreed.

Over the course of its twelve year life span, RWD provided jobs for over 700 employees working out of five offices in California. You could find them in Costa Mesa, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Clara and San Francisco. Many of the employees went on to form their own companies each with their own talents and style. He would get calls over the years from people saying, “It was the best place I ever worked”, and “Thanks for taking a chance on me”.

The offices were always crammed with awards from the “Great work” that he demanded. Always creative he started writing and promoting at age 9, raising money for the March of Dimes at a local theater in Bryan, Texas. Richard also wrote a weekly column for teenagers in the town paper known as The Eagle. He would also be asked to rewrite research papers for the Professors at the local college so they could get research grants. He left high school a year early to attend Texas A&M where he graduated with a degree in English and enlisted in the U.S. Navy, going to Officer Candidate School.

His first ship was the USS Los Angeles where he was unfortunately exposed to asbestos, which after sixty years took his life.

Living in Long Beach, off the ship he met a young women on a blind date. Three days later he asked her to marry him, three months later they were married. The marriage lasted 56 years. Their son Damon was born 4 years later.

In 1987 he sold the agency, and he and his wife Gail traveled the world. He then did Route 66 around the USA and Canada. Upon his return he went to Graduate School and got a Masters in family therapy and became a Family Therapist giving his time to the homeless, aids patients, drug and alcohol communities. During this time Gail worked at ASF doing groups with AIDS patients. Gail, her co-therapist Michael Demoratz and Richard decided to write a book, Dying 101which they published in 1995. In 2018 they were asked to update the book. Richard lived long enough to see it become a best seller.

Richard Jacobs Reiser is survived by his wife, Gail Cason Reiser; son, Damon Cason Reiser, daughter-in-law, Julianne Reiser; and two beautiful grandchildren, Simone Reiser and Karl Reiser. Richard is also survived by his brother, Donald Reiser, sister-in-law, Gay Yellen; niece and nephew, Cyvia Reiser and Martin Reiser.

For those of you who remember,
“DO GREAT WORK-HAVE FUN-MAKE MONEY, Thank you and I love you all, Dick”
The date, time and location of his memorial is posted at www.RichardReisermemorial.com.

Due to the circumstances that the county and the world is facing with the Coronavirus all we can do is keep people informed of any change in the plans of his memorial, so please keep checking the website for any updates.