Richard "Dick" Card worked as an owner-operator for Portland-based Mitchell Bros. Trucking in the 1960s.

Remembered for his relentless work ethic and vision for starting what would become a nationally known trucking company with a single semitrailer in 1967, Combined Transport founder Richard “Dick” Card died Oct. 24 at the age of 92.

Those closest to him remember Card’s devotion to helping build and advocate for the trucking industry well into his final decades of life.

Card founded his Central Point-based Combined Transport Inc. in 1980, with a handful of drivers that grew, over nearly a half-century, to more than 600 drivers and employees combined. One of five children raised by Lester Card — a World War I veteran who endured the effects of mustard gas poisoning — and early telephone operator Cora Card, the Michigan native spent most of his life hard at work.

Born Oct. 2, 1931, in the farm community of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Card’s working days began with farm chores at an early age. He landed his first trucking gig at age 13, when he was paid to haul a load of potatoes from Grand Rapids to North Dakota.

While only completing school through seventh grade, Card would earn his GED while serving in the Navy, purchasing his first commercial truck in 1967. He married his first wife, Nancy, in 1954, with whom he had three sons. When Nancy Card died of cancer in 1969, Card would connect with a widow named Ginny, who, coincidentally, also had three children.

Dick and Ginny Card established several truck brokerage firms in the valley, eventually founding Combined Transport Inc. on Sept. 2, 1980, named after their blended, or “combined,” family. Mike Card asserted in an obituary he wrote for his father that the sudden “Brady Bunch” size group was like the infamous TV family “except with knives, and guns, and cussing.”

All six of the couple’s children, at one point, worked for the company. 

“Dad had the company running for a couple years by the time I joined in 1983. My other brothers started the year before I did. … we all started pretty early on and kind of built the company together,” said Mike Card.

“I think we had about 20 or 30 drivers when I started. Now we have 100 office and shop workers, about 500 drivers and 50 owner-operators.”

Decades beyond retirement, Dick Card maintained a passion for the industry and the people he’d come to know.

“Even into his late 80s and early 90s, he was driving almost 100,000 miles a year in his Cadillac,” said the son.

“He had driven a lot of pickup trucks in his time and would escort our oversized loads, even after retiring, all over the United States. Finally, we talked him out of working. He just never wanted to quit. … He and his wife would drive down to Yuma or Alaska or to North Dakota. He was always going to the Oregon Coast. Driving eight, nine or 10 hours a day was nothing.”

Card sold his ownership interest to the company in 1990 but was a regular sight at company headquarters. Combined Transport merged into Cardmoore Trucking upon Card’s retirement, with new headquarters built in 1998. In 2012, Mike Card purchased all stock and limited partnership interests, forming parent company Combined Transport Logistics.

Jason Card, Combined Transport Logistics vice president, said his office had received an endless flow of condolences since Card’s death last week.

“I’m still getting messages from people all over the country,” he said Monday.

“He started the company with one truck, and he operated out of a hotel room for an office. He was just so committed.”

While Card retired in 1990, he remained actively involved and visited the company offices regularly, Jason Card said.

Card’s second wife, Ginny Card, passed away in 2013. After moving into the Pioneer Village retirement home a short time later, he would find love for a third time when he met and married a retiree named Marge Hull. The couple married in 2017 — when Card was 86 — and traveled extensively, including paragliding adventures in Mexico and hunting trips. Dick Card “bagged his last deer” on a hunting trip at age 89, Mike Card said.

Jason Card said his grandfather lived a full life and brought innovation to the trucking industry on a national level.

“I remember, I went up on a job one time with him and it was just a fun experience watching him lead and interact with everybody. … He was one of our pilot car drivers in later years. He would follow our wide loads in his pilot car or do whatever needed done. He always had to be involved one way or another. When he said something everybody listened, because they knew that he knew what he was talking about,” Jason Card said.

“One message I got today, from one of our former drivers, called him a legend in the trucking industry. He really was. He was the kind of guy, too, that was able to do everything he wanted done. He could drive any of the trucks. He could haul anything we were willing to haul. He wouldn’t ask anybody to do anything he couldn’t do himself.”

Mike Card said his dad was a force to be reckoned with and a man who impacted countless lives.

“He gave us all a great place to work and created a great life for a lot of people that have worked at this company over the years,” Mike Card said.

“Whether you liked him or not, he always made an impression on you. … He was really one in a million.”

Dick Card is survived by his wife Marge Card, sons Jon (Jeanette), David (Mary) and Michael (Pam), stepdaughter Cassandra and stepson Ron Moore (Kate). He is also survived by 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by one stepson, Mitchel Kent Moore.

A full online obituary was published in the Rogue Valley Times on Oct. 26, 2023.