Gundars Richters, 80, of Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, passed away July 11, 2025. He was born July 17, 1944, in Riga, Latvia, the son of Janis and Silvija (Terins) Richters.

In 1944 WWII was still raging across Europe and in the summer of that year the Soviet Union had begun their offensive to invade the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). The prospect of Soviet tyranny lead to a mass exodus of citizens fleeing these countries. Gundars was born in July and his mother fled for Germany one month later carrying her infant son in her arms.

His father was off fighting with what was left of the Latvian Army. He eventually also made it out of Latvia and reunited with his wife and son at a Displaced Persons (DP) Camp in Germany. The details of where and how they were reunited are not known. Between 1944 and 1949 the Richters family lived in several DP camps in Germany (Kempten and Hanau). In 1949 they finally cleared the immigration process to the United States and began their journey to their new home in East Liverpool, Ohio where Gundars’ parents worked on a farm. In 1950 Gundars’ sister Ilze was born and soon after that, the family left East Liverpool and drove their first automobile to New Jersey where they reunited with relatives.

The Richters family ended up settling in Bloomfield, NJ where Gundars and his sister attended school. Gundars was a track star at Bloomfield High School and held a school record in hurdles. He graduated in 1962 and attended Cornell University and Newark College of Engineering. Rather than pursue a career in engineering, Gundars followed in his father's footsteps and became a master furniture refinisher, a career from which he retired in 2006. During the Vietnam era Gundars served with the 4th Armored Division in Germany and was honorably discharged as a SGT (E5) when his enlistment ended.

In 1979 he met his wife Carol Linda (Mannik) Richters and the two were married in October 1980. The couple resided in Lakewood, NJ where they were active in the Latvian and Estonian communities nearby. But they would not remain in NJ for long and moved to Pennsylvania where they resided in New Hope and Fayetteville. While living in Pennsylvania, Gundars became an avid golfer and shortly after he retired from work, the couple moved to Penn National in Fayetteville where he played pool and golf for several years until his health declined. Gundars was also a formidable bowler, having bowled two 300 games in his lifetime.

Gundars loved to travel and the couple spent memorable holidays together in Mexico, Grand Cayman, St Thomas, the southwest US, and the Dominican Republic. In 2018 Gundars and Linda took a trip of a lifetime to Estonia to visit Linda’s relatives and to Latvia to visit the land of his birth.

He was a kind, affable man who made friends everywhere he went. He will be sorely missed by friends and family, and his beloved pets Rudi (dog) and Martha (cat).

Gundars is survived by his wife Carol Linda (Mannik) and her family; his sister Ilze (Richters) Pelkaus; his nephew Eriks Pelkaus and his children; his niece Diana (Pelkaus) Drulle and her family; and numerous cousins and their children. He was preceded in death by his father, Janis Richters; his mother Silvija (Terins) Richters; and his brother-in-law John Pelkaus.

Services will be private and at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Gundars’ name may be made to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation (https://t2t.org/donate/).