Richard J. Folsom

Richard John Folsom, a resident of Highland Glen in Westwood, and formerly of Norwood, Walpole and Wareham, died unexpectedly on August 18, 2012 at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton.  He was 82.  Dick was born August 17, 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Earl Wildred and Ada Marion (Shannehan) Folsom.  He attended Roxbury Latin School and graduated high school from Bordentown Military Institute in Bordentown, New Jersey.  He attended Boston University before graduating from the New England Institute of Anatomy, Sanitary Science and Embalming in Boston in April of 1956.  Dick enlisted and served for three years in the US Army during the Korean War, stationed in Germany.  He was discharged from the US Army Reserve in 1960 as a Corporal E-4.  Dick joined the family business, started by his grandfather in Roslindale in 1905, as a funeral director and embalmer. He joined his father  Bill,and older brother Earl, and shortly thereafter was  joined by his younger brother Don.  Eventually he was joined by both his son and his grandson in running Folsom Funeral Service which has offices in Dedham, Westwood and Norwood, as well as the original Roslindale home. He retired in 1995.  Dick was a member of Celestial Lodge AF & AM (formerly Eliot-Hyde Park Lodge in Westwood), an active member of the First Baptist Church of  Westwood where he was a former Deacon, a member of the Society in Dedham for the Apprehension of Horsethieves, a Past President of the Westwood Rotary Club, a member of the Westwood Retired Mens Club, a Director of the former Dedham Cooperative Bank, and a life member of the Folsom Family Association.  He was the husband of the late E. Jane (Anderson) who predeceased him in 2009, and a brother of the late Jean Enman and the late Earl W. Folsom Jr.  Dick is survived by his son, Robert M. Folsom, and his wife Donna (Jacobs) of Westwood; his daughter, Judith Ann “Jodi” Murray, and her husband John, of Westwood; his five grandchildren, Christine Lynn and Caitlin Elizabeth Murray, both of Westwood, Sarah Jane Folcrum, and her husband James, of Norwood, Brian Robert Folsom of Dedham, and Julia Grace Folsom of Norwood; and his brother, Donald Owen Folsom, and his wife Corinne, of Keene, NH.  He also leaves two sisters-in-law, Alice (MacLeod) Folsom of Middleboro, and  Dorothy (Siddell) Folsom of Dedham; a brother-in-law, John Enman of Rindge, New Hampshire; and his wife’s sister, Vivien Reboli, and her husband Warren, of Arizona.  Visiting hours will be held Tuesday, August 21st from 2-4 and 7-9 PM at the Folsom Funeral Home, 649 High Street, Westwood.  Relatives and friends are invited to attend his funeral Wednesday at 11 AM at the First Baptist Church of Westwood, 808 High Street.  After cremation interment will be in New Westwood Cemetery, Westwood.  Donations in his memory to the Memorial Fund of the First Baptist Church, 808 High Street, Westwood, MA 02090 would be appreciated.