Dr. Richard R. Drisko, DDS, age 91, of Frisco, Texas, passed away June 1, 2023. He was born July 6, 1931, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to Charles L. and Lela Esper (Sears) Drisko.
As a dentist, Dr. Drisko ran his own private practice but soon transitioned to academia, becoming director of the Learning Resources Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He served as director of public relations for the Veterans Administration Central Office in Washington, D.C. before returning to Kansas City as the associate chief of staff for education at the VA Medical Center.
He also served as an associate professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center (UMKC) and the UMKC School of Dentistry, where he originally earned his DDS degree.
He was married to Dr. Connie Hastings Drisko, a well-known board-certified periodontist and dean of the College of Dental Medicine at Georgia Regents University (GRU), in Augusta, Georgia. They were married for more than 40 years prior to her death in 2014.
He is remembered with love by his family; daughter, Julia Ann Gardner and husband, Marc of Frisco, Texas; granddaughters, Kristin Longstaff and husband, Travis, of Dallas, Texas, and Cara King and husband, William of Celina, Texas; great-grandson, Maximillian King; one niece and numerous nephews.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Dr. Connie Drisko, and two older brothers, Major William W. Drisko, veteran of World War II and Korea, a P-51 pilot and member of the famous 352nd “Blue-Nosed Bastards of Bodney”, and Ret. Lt. Col. Charles Herbert Drisko, a veteran of the Korean War where he flew the legendary fighter jet, F-104 StarFighter.