Richard L. Madsen

Richard Lowell Madsen, 85, of Grants Pass died Friday, March 19, 2010, at Royale Gardens Health and Rehabilitation Center. No services are planned. He was born July 16, 1924, in Hayfield, Minn., to Daniel and Alma Lee Madsen. He was raised in Rochester, Minn., where he graduated from Rochester High School. On Dec. 2, 1942, he enlisted in the Navy and trained as a medic and X-ray technician at the Farragut Naval School in Idaho. He was assigned to the Navy-Marine transport carrier USS Telfair and served in the South Pacific. He landed at Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan five days after the atomic bomb was dropped. In December 1945, he was discharged as a chief pharmacist's mate. On May 9, 1944, in Rochester, he married Virginia Dale, who survives. His civilian career began in 1946 as a chief X-ray tech at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. In 1956, he accepted a position as director of radiology at Garden Park Hospital in Garden Park, Calif. In 1970, he became administrator of radiology at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Orange, Calif. He retired in 1979. Later that year, he moved to Grants Pass and was a silent partner in a photographic lab with his son, Rick. In addition to his wife, survivors include three sons, Richard "Rick" Madsen of Rochester, Minn., Robbin Madsen of Sunny Valley, and Roddy Madsen of Grants Pass; five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.