Born on Sept. 24, 1935 into a Navy family in San Diego, young Milton “Richard” Hegeman soon found himself moving to Vallejo, California, where he joined a local swim team. This started his lifelong love to be on, near, or in the water.
In swimming, he broke record after record, finally holding four All-American 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle records, and being ranked in the top 10 swimmers in the nation. Later, Richard would be inducted into the Vallejo Sports Hall of Fame for swimming.
After junior college, Richard attended the California Maritime Academy (CMA) where he continued swimming, while adding water polo and boxing to his schedule.
CMA was a very hands-on academy taking Richard to many parts of the world on their training ship The Golden Bear. Richard graduated with a degree in marine engineering and a US Coast Guard License as a third engineer.
Following his military service in the Navy, Merchant Marines, and Naval Reserve, Richard accepted a job as a diving engineer with AC Delco Sea Operations, a General Motors (GM) division based in Goleta.
Soon he would be working side-by-side with two of his CMA classmates Dave Schiefen and Lloyd Sorensen. The “Three Amigos” would end up spending their careers together traveling the world on government projects, including Cannikin, Azorian-CIAs Russian sub recovery, SWTR, Sea Spider, and others.
Their travels took them to Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Greenland, Alaska, Hawaii, and other remote places. The work consisted of numerous undersea projects installing equipment of various types. Dave and Richard were the two pilots for the company’s submersible DOWB, Deep Ocean Work Boat.
In 1983, GM closed the Sea Operations Division. Richard was one of the 14 founders who established MariPro and continued to provide their expertise in this niche underwater field. As the new company grew, they were able to hire an amazing group of divers, engineers and others.
Richard led by example, was creative in finding solutions, and considered MariPro part of his “family.” Over the years, four of the Hegeman kids would be employed by MariPro.
Summers were spent camping at his beloved OFRC in the Redwoods, playing tennis, diving for abalone, canoeing, kayaking, introducing his grandkids to the “Garbage Monkeys,” swimming across the river to Mud Island and the rope swing, enjoying conversations with friends, and telling stories around the campfire. Count yourself lucky if you ever heard a story from Richard.
Other wonderful vacations included camping at El Capitan; family gatherings in Pismo Beach; visiting their timeshare on the Las Vegas strip; Church Youth trips to Mexicali, Yosemite, Colorado River, and white water rafting; great white shark diving with his sons in Guadalupe, Mexico; a dive trip with Jean Michele Cousteau; trips with friends to Fiji; and participating in the Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C., with other veterans, including his son Jim.
Richard’s love for the beauty beneath the sea sparked his interest in underwater photography. After he retired from MariPro in 2000, he pulled all his underwater photos together and decided to put them on cards to give away. Many afternoons were spent with a Hegeman family assembly line taping photos onto cards and adding Richards personalized stamp to the back.
Richard was active in his church, Emanuel Lutheran. He attended worship services, Men’s Bible Study, assembled books in Braille, and provided his underwater photo note cards for the Jail Outreach program.
We remember Richard for his stories, humor, willingness to serve, attention to detail, loyalty, strong work ethic, joy for life, and dedication to his family and friends.
His mother used to tell him: “My love for you is as vast as the ocean.” He shorted this sentiment to “Oceans of Love,” which became his signature saying.
Richard is survived by his wife of 66 years Yvonne; his kids Cindy Thompson, Myndi Hegeman, Sandi Marting (Paul), James Hegeman (Melissa), David Hegeman (Tracie Tunnell); and grandkids and great grandkids, who adored their Papa, Nicole Blankenship (Nick), Brooke Sulaitis (John), Kenan Marting (Carolyn), Selah Marting (Abe Musto), Sophia Hegeman, Savanna Kim (Jun), Kai Hegeman, Alex Hegeman, Kori Blankenship, Levi Blankenship, Linden Sulaitis, and Lainey Marting.
A celebration of life will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, at Emanuel Lutheran Church, 3721 Modoc Road, Santa Barbara, followed by a lunch reception in the church hall.
There will be another celebration this summer for Northern California family and friends.
Instead of flowers, donations can be made to Paws For Purple Hearts San Diego where granddaughter Selah is program instructor.
Paws For Purple Hearts is a nonprofit that offers Canine-Assisted Warrior Therapy, service dog placement with veterans, and facility dog placement for the VA.
Donations can be sent through Venmo @ PawsForPurpleHeart PPH; please include “San Diego” in the subject to route donations directly to the San Diego location.
Checks can be made out to Paws for Purple Hearts San Diego, and mailed to 1022 W. Morena Blvd, Ste. H, San Diego, CA 92110. You may also consider a charity of your choice in memory of Richard.