Richard Tuscher, 72, a longtime former Riverside Township trustee and supervisor, died March 19, 2019.
Mr. Tuscher, who lived in the Hollywood section of Brookfield, was born Aug. 23, 1946 and graduated from Riverside-Brookfield High School. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in Miami for six years beginning in the late 1960s and returned to the area in 1975.
He was active first in Brookfield politics, serving for a time as the president of the Brookfield Public Library Board of Trustees and as a member of the Brookfield Zoning Board of Appeals.
It was in the late 1990s that Mr. Tuscher became active with the Riverside Township Regular Republican Organization, which continues to dominate township politics. He was slated and won election as a township trustee in 1997, a position he would hold until 2006, when he was appointed township supervisor after Supervisor Patricia Pavlich stepped down.
Mr. Tuscher would remain township supervisor until 2017, when he and three others first elected as township trustees in 1997 stepped aside to make way for a new generation.
“I’ve been on the board a long time and it’s time,” Mr. Tuscher told the Landmark in November 2016 when the Riverside GOP announced its slate for the 2017 election. “Let’s just fade away into the sunset.”
Mr. Tuscher was the husband of Glenda Tuscher (nee Desamito) and the late Carol Tuscher (nee Gaa); the father of Loretta (Geoff) Schneider, Charles (Judith) Fischer, Michael (Paulette) Fischer and Christina Tuscher; the grandfather of Emily (AJ) Frucci, Katelyn, Alex, Brandon, Cayla, Dylan, Skylar, Mandy and Rafa; the brother of the late Carol (Del ) Clough; and an uncle of many.
Visitation is on Friday, March 22 from 3 to 8 p.m. at Hitzeman Funeral Home, 9445 31st Street in Brookfield. Entombment is private at Queen of Heaven Cemetery, Hillside.
— Bob Uphues
