Early life was lived at 132 Dean St, Moonee Ponds across the road from Moonee Valley Racecourse.
A brother to Carol and John, Richard went to South West Brunswick Primary School, recalling his father walking him to school before he went off to serve in WWII in the islands north of Australia.
As a young boy Richard enjoyed going to visit his nanna on the outskirts of Rutherglen where he found his love for country life.
He showed early signs as a businessman by trapping rabbits and selling their skins.
At the end of 1950, the family moved to Kyabram where Richard was a student in Form 2 at Kyabram Elementary School.
In those days the Isaac family lived at 45 Union St with a pool in the front yard and the Kyabram Swimming Pool over the road.
As legend has it Richard won a bet with friend Jimmy Telford that he could swim 100 laps of the Kyabram pool.
At about 70 laps Jimmy had had enough and went home while Richard continued until he finished the 100 laps to fulfil his promise.
Richard made lifelong friends at school with Neil Lanyon, Stuart Black and Kevin Ryan, who are strong suspects of leading him a little astray at times.
There were stories like:
How did a teacher’s car get parked on the bike shed roof and who was responsible for the penny bungers going off in inappropriate places around the town?
Richard went on to do two more years of senior schooling at Ivanhoe Grammar before returning home and starting work at Albion Motors and then selling spare parts at the Ford garage at Deniliquin.
He then worked for a time as an electrician with Lindsay Dillon.
When his father took sole ownership of Albion Motors in 1958-59 Richard was asked to come back and work in the business.
To learn the industry he was sent to Australian Motor Industries in Melbourne for three months where he often channelled business to Albion Motors.
He then returned to Kyabram and took up a position as a salesman at Albion Motors.
Sports-minded, he played football for the Kyabram seconds and then Lancaster.
Richard described himself as an ordinary footballer, but he did have the honour of being declared best-on-ground in a losing grand final side in his time at Lancaster.
His football career was cut short with a knee injury.
Richard took up playing tennis for Wyuna after a deal was struck that if well-known local Hilda Hewitt bought a car from Albion Motors he would play tennis for Wyuna Tennis Club.
Richard first met his future wife Dianne Pell playing table tennis at the Druids Hall in Kyabram in 1960 when he asked her on their first date.
They went to the Shepparton drive-in and he asked Dianne to drive him home because he was tired – not a great first impression by any means.
In early times together Richard and Dianne spent a lot of time attending YMCA Bendigo dances with Richard transporting Dianne home to be with family at weekends.
They started building a house in Sawers Ave together and were engaged on Dianne’s 21st birthday in 1963.
This was followed by their marriage on October 12, 1963, honeymooning at Surfers Paradise before returning home to Kyabram to a new house.
Then along came children Terri, Kathryn and Ian.
They then bought a Palmer Rd Kyvalley property in 1972.
Richard had always had aspirations of being on the land and this started his time as a hobby farmer.
There were horses, lambs, ducks, geese, cows and dogs on their property and they spent a year at Wyuna while the new house was being built.
Richard’s maths lessons to his children in the car on the way to school were almost famous.
The Isaacs moved into the new house in 1974 where they stayed until 2018 when they moved into a unit at Warramunda.
Richard was very community minded.
He taught ballroom dancing and later trained debutants.
He was involved in Apex, Rotary and served stints as Kyabram Lawn Tennis Club and Kyabram Chamber of Commerce president.
He was heavily involved in negotiations for the construction of the Kyabram Youth Club building at Kyabram Recreation Reserve.
He was also a life member and country representative for the national Toyota network.
He also served time as Kyvalley Primary School’s council president where he disclosed to principal Paul Rowe his pie-in-the-sky wish was to construct a pool at the school.
After carting lots of hay bales and negotiating with the Victorian Government the pool was built.
Richard always claimed the Kyvalley Primary School committee was the best committee he ever served on.
He was also secretary for the Cooma and District Tennis Association for 13 years.
Richard also took his enthusiasm and business acumen to the former Kyabram Council for eight years, serving a term as mayor of the town where friendships with town stalwarts Don McKenzie and Chris Salter blossomed.
Richard always claimed his greatest achievement on council was getting laneways installed at the rear of the Kyabram business centre so deliveries of goods could be made from the back of businesses and reduce traffic in Allan St.
Most of his working life was, however, being Dealer Principal of Albion Motors for 36 years between 1969-2005.
And one of his biggest claims to fame is he has been the centre pin — with his late father Dick and son Ian — in the oldest Toyota dealership in Australia.
At his funeral family associated their father with:
Collingwood Football Club, Toyota, dancing, singing, English Springer Spaniels, ugly pig dogs, Viscount cigarettes, a brown tennis outfit that would not look out of place on the NZ cricket team, the walking serve and the wind up and out of control forehand when playing tennis, getting 10 of the best for putting sulphuric acid in the school fish tank on Carol’s first day at Kyabram High School.
Singing True Love in the shower when Carol’s date arrived to pick her up, Canaries, bush poetry and the Piddling Pete poem, bulls in veggie patches or dams, Footrot Flats, sunburnt feet, first place at the Melbourne Show with Croad Langshans (chickens), VB long necks, constant change of cars in the home garage, Toyota trips, cruising the Rhine, cricket in the Caribbean, visiting new grandson in England, outback camping road trips, a Moroko shotgun acquired in Japan, duck opening and winter hunting trips, Ivanhoe, Warrawee station, teasing nieces and nephews and later grandchildren about prospective girlfriends and boyfriends, traditional Christmas lunch and walking the Willandra Creek with his dogs.
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