Richard James Tait

Richard James Tait of Raleigh, North Carolina, age 59, passed away after a valiant 18 month battle with brain cancer on January 6, 2019. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, January 12th at 10:00 AM at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1433 Aversboro Rd. Garner, NC 27529. Burial will follow at Wake Memorial Park in Cary. The family will receive friends on Friday, January 11th from 6:00-8:00 PM at Bryan-Lee Funeral Home, 1200 Benson Rd. Garner, NC 27529. Richard was born on December 10, 1959 in Orange County, California to Ellon Jane Ward and Don Russell Tait. He grew up in an active and busy family full of love and devotion to faith and to one another. His family lived in Orange County and Livermore, California, as well as Logan, Utah and Mesa, Arizona. As a young man Richard served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Pusan, South Korea where his love for the Korean people and their language began to grow. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1984 in Korean Studies and International Relations. While in college he met his future bride, Deon Brinkerhoff, and they married in May of 1984 in Mesa, Arizona. He was hired by the National Security Agency and lived in Maryland for 30 years to work and to raise his family. He and his family spent a few years in Seoul, South Korea, where he was the first American to graduate from Sogang University with a masters as a “native speaker”. He and his wife moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 2014 to begin a new chapter and worked at North Carolina State University in the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences associated with the Department of Defense. Richard was a devoted patriot and spent his very successful career defending our country from its enemies, mentoring younger employees, innovating ways to improve operations throughout the language and intelligence communities and received many honors for his work. He will be remembered by those with whom he worked as a dear friend and servant of the people. Richard also dedicated himself to serving within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a teacher, scout leader, missionary, and as a bishop. His last calling was serving as a teacher to teens in an early morning religious class every day before school and work. He loved his students with all his heart, as he did all those he has served throughout his life. Richard loved anything from his alma mater, BYU, and greatly enjoyed their football, volleyball and basketball games. He always said that his hobbies were his family and his religion, with a little reading here and there. Richard adored his brothers and sisters. He is pre-deceased by his parents and his oldest sister Velein Rogers, and is survived by Janet Timothy (Utah), Robert Tait (Nevada), Elizabeth Steed (Utah), William Tait (Texas), and Kathleen Lifferth (Tennessee). He was a devoted husband in every way to Deon. No one loved being a father more than Richard. He cherished every moment as a dad with his son Brian Tait and father-in-law to Brittney Martell Tait as well as with his daughter Leslie Tait. He was thrilled to be a grandpa to granddaughter, Conley Tait. He will always be fondly remembered as the uncle to his many nieces and nephews who brought them unique candy and gum from overseas, who adored them and played with them, talked to them to uplift them, and as an example of dedication to his family and to his faith. Flowers are welcome. In lieu of flowers, consider donating to Duke University’s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center.