Richard C. Lindsay; Air Force Lieutenant General

Richard Clark Lindsay, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general who served as commander of NATO air forces in southern Europe in the late 1950s, has died in a Glendale hospital. He was 85.

A longtime resident of Glendale, Lindsay died Saturday of heart failure, said his son, Richard B. Lindsay.

Born Oct. 31, 1905, in Minneapolis, he graduated from the University of Minnesota and enlisted as a flying cadet in the Army Air Corps in 1928, becoming director of the ground school and assistant director of training at Brooks Field, Tex., in 1941. Later that year, he joined the War Department general staff, where he was assigned to the Air Plans Division and later became chief of the African-Middle East Section.

Lindsay became chief of the combined Joint Staff Division of the Army Air Forces Headquarters in 1944 and attended summit meetings with world leaders including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. In 1945, he became assistant chief of staff of plans for the U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces on Guam. He later became commander of the 316th Bomb Wing and assistant chief of staff for intelligence for the Far East Air Forces in Tokyo in 1947.

In May, 1957, Lindsay was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and three months later he was appointed commander of NATO air forces in Southern Europe, a position he held until retirement in 1960. In 1963, he was a consultant for the Rand Corp., helping to write a report on the needs of the U.S. Air Force for the next 25 years. Lindsay later worked as a consultant to several defense contractors until 1969.

He was a life member of the Air Force Assn. and the Harold L. George Flight of the Order of Daedalians.

Besides his son, Richard of Fremont, he leaves a daughter, Raylyn Terrell of Alexandria, Va.; nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. His wife of 30 years, Margaret Lindsay, died in August.

Memorial services are scheduled Sunday at the Presidio in San Francisco and at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Nov. 25. Kiefer & Eyerick Mortuary in Glendale is handling the arrangements. Donations can be made in Lindsay’s name to the American Heart Assn.