Richard Eugene Shaffer

Richard “Dick” Eugene Shaffer, 81, died May 2, 2020, due to COVID-19. He was born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, to Eugene Shaffer and Dorothy Walker. While he had been living in Maryland Masonic Homes in Cockeysville for about three years, he called Southern Maryland home after having lived there for almost 40 years. He was an active member of the Oxon Hill Masonic Lodge No. 231, frequented Andrews Air Force Base seafood nights and he and his wife Betty were known to the staff of the Clinton IHOP they were regulars at. Betty and Richard met in Georgia in 1960 on a blind date at a drive-in, got engaged three months later and married in another three. The Air Force brought them to California and Alaska, as well as sent Richard to Iceland and Thailand, before they were stationed in the Washington, D.C. area where they planted roots. Richard served in the Air Force for 20 years, earning an Air Force Good Conduct Medal and an Air Force Commendation Medal for his service during the Vietnam War. He regularly delivered documents around Udorn Air Force base, including going to the flight-line to retrieve aerial photographs flight personnel took from above Vietnam and bring to the General. After leaving the Air Force, he was hired at Metro Transit Police right after its founding. There he started as a special police officer in 1976, then as an officer before moving to dispatch in 1981. He spent 23 years at Metro Transit before retiring. He was especially proud of his grandson JR Bottalico for joining Metro Transit in 2005, where he is the Bomb Squad Commander. He loved fishing, spending time with family, his dog Murphy, the Redskins, anything chocolate, Ford trucks, and most of all his wife Betty, who died in 2019 after a battle with lung cancer. He will be missed by his surviving family members: his two children, Linda Bottalico and Keith Shaffer; daughter-in-law Kim Shaffer; grandchildren JR and Brandi Bottalico, Richard, Shannon and Ryan Shaffer; great grandchildren Zachary and Autumn, and his sister Jean Sheptak, many nieces and nephews. He is predeceased in death by siblings Barb Sloan, Judy Kaufman and Jack Shaffer. Services will be private due to the coronavirus pandemic. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Richard Eugene Shaffer please visit our Sympathy Store.