Rodney C. Kincaid

Rodney Clarke Kincaid, 89, of Olathe, passed away on October 6, 2022 at Olathe Hospice House.

He was born on January 14, 1933 to Marvin and Edna (Huffback) Kincaid at Kansas City, MO. He graduated from the University of Kansas and the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterrey, California. As a young navy pilot, he married a nurse at St. Luke's, Darlene Richardson, and they made their first home in Providence, RI, where Rod and Darlene's son Greg was born in 1957. Thereafter, the Navy brought them to many destinations across the United States and Europe, including Texas where their daughter Karen was born in 1958.

Rod served our country in the US Navy for over 14 years. He piloted submarine reconnaissance planes and flew off the U.S.S. Antietam and U.S.S. Forrestal. A stroke cut off his military career long before he was ready for retirement. No longer able to fly, the Kincaid family returned to the family farm owned by Darlene's parents, Chester and Maurine Richardson. Rod had always enjoyed spending summers and vacation on the farm so while the retirement from Navy, giving up a career he loved, was difficult, he spent a lot of time on tractors and decided that pilot or no pilot had still a lot to give and lot to live. So, live and give he did.

Rod went back to KU and got his teacher's certificate and it led to a second career he also felt passionate about. He went on to teach Math and Unified Studies at Santa Fe Trail Junior High School, retiring in 1982.

Rod and Darlene enjoyed many good years on the "family farm," west of Olathe, where they busied themselves with the seemingly endless tasks of maintaining a rural property. They wore out a lot of lawn mowers along the way but enjoyed their times together and the quiet evenings of watching the deer play in the meadow while sipping a martini, his favorite drink, and listening to big band jazz sounds, like Armstrong, Sinatra and Cole.

Rod loved being with his family and friends and was outgoing and friendly. He had his own unique sense of humor that included a lot of good-natured teasing. He was humble when needed but confident too. Darlene was the love of his life and the two of them were inseparable, particularly on the dance floor!

He was a member of Trinity Anglican Church in Mission, KS.

Rod is survived by his loving wife, Darlene, his daughter, Karen Huggins, and son, Greg Kincaid, 5 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers memorials are suggested to Wounded Warriors or Olathe Hospice House.


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