Richard passed away from a long illness early Wednesday morning February 17, 2021, at his home in Tracy. He was born on December 15, 1951 in McFarland, California to Benjamin Lopez Cantu (deceased) and Elvira Estrada Cantu.
He is survived by his brother Benjamin Jr. (Mary Ochoa) of Manteca, partner Brenda Boyd of Tracy and his children, Pedro J. Cantu and Richard A. Cantu Jr. and grandchild Pedro Cantu Jr.
From the mid-1960s until the senior Benjamin Cantu retired in 1996, Richard was an active partner in the family’s agricultural custom harvesting and trucking business, harvesting thousands of acres of sugar beets annually throughout the region and hauling the beets to the sugar refineries in Manteca and Tracy. He was highly mechanically minded and a superb welder and metal fabricator, he was able to disassemble an entire truck diesel engine and reassemble same without instructions, and fabricate complex farming implements without plans.
Richard graduated from Lincoln Elementary and from Manteca High School. He attended San Joaquin Delta College for a short time, but found the educational process too slow and to constricting, he decided instead to proceed with hands on self-education, and excelled in many ways at the practice.
A viewing will be held Monday, March 1, from
5-7 p.m., Chapel of the Palms, 303 S. California, Stockton. And rosary Monday, March 1, at 5:00 p.m., Chapel of the Palms, Stockton.
Burial will be held Tuesday, March 2, at 10 a.m. at St. John’s Cemetery, (St. Patrick’s Church), 19399 E. Highway 120.
He is survived by his brother Benjamin Jr. (Mary Ochoa) of Manteca, partner Brenda Boyd of Tracy and his children, Pedro J. Cantu and Richard A. Cantu Jr. and grandchild Pedro Cantu Jr.
From the mid-1960s until the senior Benjamin Cantu retired in 1996, Richard was an active partner in the family’s agricultural custom harvesting and trucking business, harvesting thousands of acres of sugar beets annually throughout the region and hauling the beets to the sugar refineries in Manteca and Tracy. He was highly mechanically minded and a superb welder and metal fabricator, he was able to disassemble an entire truck diesel engine and reassemble same without instructions, and fabricate complex farming implements without plans.
Richard graduated from Lincoln Elementary and from Manteca High School. He attended San Joaquin Delta College for a short time, but found the educational process too slow and to constricting, he decided instead to proceed with hands on self-education, and excelled in many ways at the practice.
A viewing will be held Monday, March 1, from
5-7 p.m., Chapel of the Palms, 303 S. California, Stockton. And rosary Monday, March 1, at 5:00 p.m., Chapel of the Palms, Stockton.
Burial will be held Tuesday, March 2, at 10 a.m. at St. John’s Cemetery, (St. Patrick’s Church), 19399 E. Highway 120.
Tracy
Manteca (Calif.) Bulletin
Saturday, February 27, 2021
