OCALA, Fla. – Richard Patrick Breen, 74, a native son of Lewiston, died after a brief battle with cancer at the Legacy Hospice House in Ocala, Fla. He had retired to Las Vegas, Nev., before relocating to Ocala to be closer to his children and grandchildren.

He starred in football, basketball and baseball for Lewiston High School and graduated in 1949. He then received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine in 1953, where he was an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and a star varsity player in football and basketball. He earned his graduate degree of law in 1958 from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and passed the Virginia bar in 1959, where he resided until 1979.

He was a civil service lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C., for 20 years and then the airport director with the City of Vero Beach, Fla., for almost 9 years from Dec. 1982 and retiring in May 1991.

He served in the Army as a first lieutenant and married his wife of 51 years, Vera Breen, in 1953.

He was the loving husband and father to his wife, Vera; five children, Catherine Gibson of Herndon, Va., Michael Breen of Ocala, Fla., Cynthia Armstrong of Ocala, Fla., James Breen of Ocala, Fla., and Daniel Breen of Buda, Texas; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

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