15 years of caring and giving
It was back in 1983 that Dick East began honoring his daughter in a very special way

[Published in the October 1998 edition of Reporting Point, the monthly newsletter of the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association.]

By David Stewart
The way Frank Wright remembers it, Dick East didn’t really ask him to cook a meal at the Houston Ronald McDonald House back in October 1983. “He just told me to be there.”
On Tuesday, October 13, Frank, Dick and Dispatcher Cliff Haygood will unite again, as they have countless times since they first started messing up Ronald McDonald House kitchens 15 years ago. Everyone is invited.
“It started off as a small deal,” Cliff recalls. “Dick just invited some pilots and guys like me he knew.”
Prior to the dinner, Dick made a pitch to SWAPA's then president, Mike Egan, about cooking dinners at the Houston Ronald McDonald House. Mike asked, “Why just one city?”
“Back then, everyone showed up at the general membership meetings. After I made my presentation to the membership, Mike got up and said, 'Does anyone dare vote no?'”
The association voted to try it for one year. SWAPA still pays for the Houston dinner. (The company pays for the dinners in all the other cities.)
“I was hesitant to go down,” Cliff says. “I was thinking I would have a hard time seeing kids that are bad sick.”
Apparently, others also were hesitant.
Five pilots, one Flight Attendant and Dispatcher Cliff Haygood showed up for what would become one of the most legendary Southwest-sponsored dinners ever at a Ronald McDonald House.
“We may have gotten a little careless,” Cliff explains, “with the way we were throwing the chicken into the grease and all of a sudden there’s this fire. Everyone’s panicking.”
“Someone remembered his Boy Scout training and threw some sugar on the fire, then a bunch of flour. Then the gravy got thrown in too. We put the fire out. But it was a real mess.
“There was grease, sugar, flour, and gravy on the floor and stove, all over the kitchen.”
Dick remembers that, had it not been for the manager of the Marriott being there, there probably wouldn’t have been a meal.
“He took the chicken back to the hotel to have it cooked and brought back. That was our salvation.”

The legend of the fire that first night perhaps demonstrated to those seven from Southwest Airlines that there was some fun and camaraderie at these dinners.
Fun in fact, says Dick, plays an important part for the families and patients.
“That’s what the people need is fun. There is so much heartache, they need to have a little fun.”
But there was something more special that those seven took away from the first dinner. That why Dick saw his efforts multiply so quickly.
“You have to be affected by what you see,” insists Cliff.
“The kids are so matter-of-fact about their condition. They understand the cards they’ve been dealt and they’re prepared to play that hand. It brings you back to earth.”
That’s why Cliff brought his eight-year-old son to the Dallas Ronald McDonald House.
“Afterwards,” recalls Cliff, “he was real quiet.”
“You know Dad,” his son said, “Maybe I don’t have as many problems as I thought I did.”
Within five months of the dinner in 1983, the Flight Attendants became involved, then Scheduling, then Vice President Camille Keith, then Herb and Colleen, ten Reservationists, and then the entire Southwest Airlines family.
To prepare Herb and Colleen for their first dinner in 1984, Dick penned a memo and suggested they be ready for anything.
“Loud and boisterous is not only acceptable but encouraged,” wrote Dick.
Sure enough, Herb entered the house and yelled, “Where’s Roxy?” Roxy Connor was running the dinner that night and she quickly barked out the instructions, “Your job is to take out the garbage Herb.”
As Herb glanced over to where the garbage bags were, he noticed a strategically placed, unopened bottle of Wild Turkey, his favorite.
“I understand my responsibility,” he retorted.
And so was born yet another Ronald McDonald/SWA tradition.
“But Herb also seriously wanted to help,” Dick remembers, “For an hour and a half, he visited with each family and served them drinks.”
“At the end of the evening, we argued over who was most grateful to whom. He said he wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I knew then, ‘This is gonna be big.’”
Big indeed.
Tracie Martin, Southwest’s manager of civic and charitable contributions, says Southwest has supported Ronald McDonald Houses for 14 years by providing transportation to staffers to the annual conferences, through employee group golf tournaments, basketball games and through the dinners.
“Plus all the money raised by the Love Classic and Party benefits the Ronald McDonald Houses. Each house from around the country petitions us on their particular needs. We evaluate each one and then make contributions accordingly,” she said.

On a Sunday morning in March 1979, Dick’s daughter Megan died at age nine. She had succumbed after fighting lymphoma for two years and nine months. Dick needed to get to Dallas to make arrangements for the funeral to be held in McKinney the next day.
Having commuted from Houston to Dallas for weekend naval reserve duty, Dick knew he’d have trouble finding a seat on a plane. (Life as a Southwest Airlines pilot still lay three years in Dick’s future.)
He called Southwest Airlines.
“Listen, I know how hard it is to get a seat on a Sunday,” Dick explained. “But my daughter just died this morning and I have to get to Dallas. Can you help me?”
“What time do you need to go?” the reservationist asked.
“At 5,” Dick said.
After a few minutes on hold, the reservationist came back on the line, “You’re booked for two seats on the five o’clock.”
In part, that explains why Dick East has committed so much to Ronald McDonald Houses.
Another motivating event occurred that day Megan passed away.
“A neighbor sat my wife and me down and stuck some sandwiches in front of us and said, ‘Eat.’”
“It was great,” Dick said.
“And I thought to myself, ‘This is what we have needed during the many months Megan was sick. Sometimes the parents of a sick child are just too busy and worried to eat.”
“That’s why I do what I do,” Dick said. “Somebody reached out to me when I was at a low point. I want to be there for others.”

On Tuesday, the 13th, the assembled will celebrate the 15th anniversary of that fiery evening in 1983 and christen the new 50-bedroom Houston Ronald McDonald House on the occasion of its first anniversary.
Flo McGee, who served as co-chairman of the capital campaign to build the new facility, says “Dick East’s friendship is one of the treasures of my involvement with Ronald McDonald House Houston.”
“He is a man of character, caring and commitment and Ronald McDonald House is blessed to have had him as one of its strongest partners,” she added.
“Dick is just a lot of fun and he has so much energy,” says Naomi Scott, executive director of the Houston House.
“He arranged for six of us to tour Ronald McDonald Houses in Lubbock, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio. With his experience at Ronald McDonald Houses, Dick recommended we incorporate large open spaces, including a kitchen that opens up to the living room. Dick knew that families need an environment in which they can sit and visit together.”
It seems like everyone in Houston knows of Dick’s accomplishments. In fact, in 1994, then Houston Mayor Lanier presented Dick with the Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service.
Dick hasn’t ignored Galveston either. “He has been with us since the Galveston House was just a twinkle in a few people’s eye,” said Fridell Rosen, past president of Ronald McDonald House Galveston.
“We had families sleeping in cars and on the beach. It was just awful. It was a great challenge to take on this second commitment.
“We are the first McDonald’s owner/operator group to support two houses. Dick East helped convince them of the need. He pledged the support of Southwest Airlines and the employees. He’s always behind the scenes, never wanting attention.”
“There have been a lot of people who he has brought into the fold. He has shared all the warm fuzzies that happen in a Ronald McDonald House. It makes me teary just thinking about all the things that he did,” she said.
Susan Antonelli, current president of the Galveston House says, “When patients are scheduling to come down for treatment, they frequently ask, ‘Is Southwest coming this week?’”
“Not only do they bring wonderful food, but they bring their children to play with the kids and it makes so much fun.
“I just can’t say enough about Dick East. He is so wonderful. Dick stays in the background but he is so there.”
Herb and Colleen had this to say about Dick:
“Since Dick’s first dinner in Houston, the Pilots and Employees of Southwest Airlines have done a lot to support the Ronald McDonald Houses across America. But we have received so much more in return.
“Every time we cook at a Ronald McDonald House, we leave with a profound sense of awe for the brave kids and their parents.
“Each one of us leaves humbled. We leave with a new appreciation for just how blessed we are.
“So back in October 1983, Dick began to change not just the lives of countless children in need, but he set in motion a course that would strengthen and bring out the best in the 25,000 Employees of Southwest Airlines.”
If you have a chance on the 13th at the new Houston house, look for the “Heart Stone” that reads, “Thanks Southwest Airlines from the family of Mary Megan East.”
It’s time to say thank you, Megan, for opening the hearts of everyone at Southwest Airlines.