Ellsworth "Dick" Thiem

Ellsworth “Dick” Thiem, LCDR USNR RET, 91 of Mishawaka, passed away January 7, 2014 at Eastlake Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Elkhart.

He was born October 5, 1922 in Mishawaka. Dick is survived by his son Terry Thiem of Elkhart and his grandson Eric Thiem of Phoenix, AZ. He was preceded in death by brothers, Jack and Junior Thiem, sister, Gloria Sanders, son, Robin Thiem and grandson Christopher Scott Thiem.

Dick was one of the most respected pilots in the business. In his Hellcat fighter, Dick destroyed two enemy planes over northern Honshu and also sank an armed Japanese merchant ship during World War II. He flew missions over Tokyo and was the pilot who first spotted the POW roof with “Pappy Boyington Here”. Boyington was the famous WWII pilot shot down near Rabaul and given up for dead. While stationed at Pensacola before being shipped to the Pacific, he roomed with fellow pilot Ted Williams, maybe the greatest baseball hitter of all time. Dick remained a pilot with the U.S. Navy Reserves and retired after more than 27 years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and making 273 aircraft carrier landings. He later was a jet test pilot, an airlines pilot and formation aerobatic pilot as part of the Saeta Jet team. Dick was a night fighter pilot during the Korean War and later became an Operations Base Manager for the Mercury Space Program. He was put on a ship and managed the tracking and recovery team of five NASA launches. He eventually was made Command Operations Manager for five ships, which did telemetry tracking for missiles fired from Cape Canaveral. Dick wrote the Operations Directive for the Mercury program along side astronauts Gus Grissom and Wally Shirra. He also was the project engineer during John Glenn’s historic orbits of earth. He ended his Cape Canaveral employment and then flew an as airline captain until reaching the age of 60.

A memorial service will be held at 10 am Saturday, Jan. 25th at Stemm-Lawson-Peterson Funeral & Cremation Center, Elkhart. Military honors will be rendered by the U.S. Navy Honor Guard. Burial will take place in Arlington Cemetery at a later date.

Memorials may be given to the Elkhart County War Memorial. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.stemmlawsonpeterson.com.