Richard Walter Schriefer, 88
Richard Walter Schriefer, 88, formerly of Acton, passed away peacefully on September 20, 2026.
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Richard grew up with his parents Walter and Virginia (Moeller) Schriefer, his younger brother Donald, and his grandmother. The family moved to Westwood, New Jersey, where he graduated high school in 1955. He attended college at Cornell School of Architecture, where he graduated in 1960. After college, in 1961, he moved with his college friends to Boston to start his architecture career. He had two marriages, settling with Martha Scott in 1965 in Lexington with two children and then with Audrey Ellison in 1982 in Acton with one child.
Richard worked at many small and large firms in the Boston area. He stated that architecture was an interesting profession because it was a way of life as well as a job. He appreciated all the beauty in nature, people, buildings, and parks. He designed buildings large and small, from additions to single-family homes to large office buildings in Scotland and Boston. The hotel over the Mass Pike in Newton, the Science Center at Dexter School, and the Jewish Community Center in Marblehead were a few of the projects he worked on. He appreciated the architecture in Boston and loved living in New England.
He was an antique gun collector and a hunter, hiker, woodworker, and sailor, enjoying the mountains and oceans alike. He traveled with friends in Norway and Sweden and greatly appreciated other cultures. He had a strong reverence for the Native American and Inuit cultures and their understanding of how nature and humans work together.
During his final four years, he lived at Orchard Hill at Sudbury, an assisted living community, and he made many friends there. His final struggle was with prostate cancer which had metastasized.
He will be greatly missed by his brother Donald Schriefer and his wife Judy; and his children Karin Baker and her husband Ed, Erica Webber and her husband David, and Cam Schriefer and his wife Cori. Richard will also be dearly missed by his nine (soon to be 10) grandchildren Stephen, Allison, Louis, Cassie, Kelly, Sara, Megan, Wyatt, and Rowan; and one great-grandson Josh.
Relatives and friends are invited to visit with Richard’s family during a memorial gathering on Saturday, October 24, from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Dee Funeral Home, 27 Bedford Street, Acton Center. A private interment will follow at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
Arrangements have been entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Acton. To share a remembrance or a condolence on Richard’s tribute page, visit DeeFuneralHome.com.
