Friends have sweet memories of Rick Timm

The first of the dark chocolate began to arrive not long after news of Rick Timm’s death spread last weekend.

That’s because when Blue Springs School District co-workers used to seek Timm’s help on a computer issue, he would joke that they had to pay a price.

“He would always say, ‘I work for dark chocolate,’” said Jacque Timm, widow of the Oak Grove area resident who died Friday in an accident related to his farming hobby. “Friends would send him dark chocolate in the mail. It always made me laugh.”

Her husband, she said, was happiest when riding his tractor. On Friday afternoon, he was cleaning a hay baler before pulling it to a field when a hydraulic failure apparently caused a large section of the implement to fall on him.

He was 58.

Jacque Timm since has found strength in the recollections of friends and family members who loved her husband.

There have been many of those.

“We knew we needed a bigger place than the funeral home for the service,” she said. “And there has been such a line of people coming by.

“I knew how wonderful Rick was, but I didn’t know how many other people also thought that.”

Employees of the Blue Springs School District are “deeply saddened by the loss of our friend and co-worker,” a district statement read. “Rick was always positive — smiling and joking with everyone he met. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and many friends.”

Timm grew up in Abilene, Kan., before his family moved to the Kansas City area. A Truman High School graduate, he started out as a mechanic with the Blue Springs district but later studied computer technology and soon became one of the district’s go-to employees for assistance on information technology.

He worked for the school district for 19 years. But he also remembered the farm fields of his youth, Jacque Timm said, so the two of them acquired approximately 27 acres near Oak Grove.

They were preparing to celebrate their 30th anniversary this November.

“I turn 60 next month,” Jacque Timm said, “and I recently told him, ‘Do you realize that half of my life has been with you?’ and he said, ‘The best part of your life, I bet.’”

Visitation begins at 4 p.m. Thursday at the First Baptist Church of Blue Springs, 1405 W. Main St., with a service at 7 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, family members have asked that friends consider contributing to a memorial fund at CommunityAmerica Credit Union for expenses as well as research into congenital heart defects suffered by a grandson. For more information, go to the Facebook page “Rick Timm’s Memory.”

This story was originally published July 16, 2014 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Friends have sweet memories of Rick Timm."