Richard E. "Dick" Harris, 1932-2017

March 22, 2017 | 3 min.
MGA

     Richard E. “Dick” Harris, 85, of St. Paul, passed away in Naples, Fla., March 15. Harris, who attended St. Paul Academy and Yale University, was a life-long student of the game of golf and golf administration leader inside and outside of the ropes. He was president of B.W. Harris Co., a clothing manufacturer, a former executive director of Outward Bound, and a top official with the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce. 
     Harris was elected to the MGA board of directors in 1962, the same year that the association inaugurated a new amateur team championship, the MGA Four-Ball, whose idea he’d championed while chairman of the golf committee at Oak Ridge Country Club. Several years later, the MGA Tournament Committee, under Harris’ direction, conceived and implemented a new match-play championship, called the Players. Today, both the Four-Ball and Players are thriving and entering their 55th and 39th years, respectively.
     Harris served as MGA President in 1985-1986, a significant transition period for the golf association. While the industry was entering a sustained period of growth, the MGA was in the process of implementing the USGA Slope Handicap System, an improvement on the existing handicap method. The slope system was “more equitable, more responsive to the golfers’ talents as he or she moved from course to course,” Harris wrote in the Minnesota Golfer, at the time a semi-annual newsletter published to golf stakeholders in Minnesota. Before Harris was through as president, the MGA had purchased a computer to enable the association to mail the Golfer, soon to morph into a full-fledged magazine, to all 64,000 individual members of the MGA. 
     Harris also served the game at the national level, as a member of the USGA’s Museum and Library committee.
     His dedication and organizing skills were evident during his tenure as overall chair of the MGA Centennial Celebrations. All told, nine committees would spend more than three years planning the activities associated with the hundred-year anniversary culminating in a black-tie gala, Aug. 20, 2001, at The Minikahda Club, by the shores of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. 
     “Dick was such a quiet, unassuming man who loved the game. He seemed to me to be so passionate about protecting the integrity of the game and what it stood for in the state of Minnesota,” recollected George Brown III, a centennial committee participant and the author of “100 Years of Minnesota Golf,” published as part of the Centennial Celebrations. 
     “For Dick, it was never about him. It was about what he could do in a small way to better the game of golf in Minnesota,” said Brown.
     Harris also served as the original chair of the MGA Warren J. Rebholz Distinguished Service Award selection committee, honoring individuals who, through their actions, have exemplified the spirit of the game at its highest level and who have made a substantial contribution to the game in Minnesota, or on a national or international level. In 2003, Harris retired from the Rebbie Award committee after leading it for nine years. Just five years later, he was honored as the 2008 recipient of the Rebbie Award – the MGA’s highest award. 
     Harris is survived by his wife of 62 years, Dee Dee, sister, Jane Wilmer, four children and six grandchildren. A graveside service was held March 22 at Mt. Zion Cemetery, St. Paul. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to breastcancereducation.org, the Finberg Education fund, at mzion.org, or the neighborhoodhealthclinic.org. 

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