{"id":374033,"date":"2026-07-15T13:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T13:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/374033\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T13:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T13:59:17","slug":"robstown-sports-statistician-richard-gillespie-dies-after-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/374033\/","title":{"rendered":"Robstown sports statistician Richard Gillespie dies after cancer battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROBSTOWN, Tx \u2014 Richard Gillespie, the longtime sports statistician for Robstown ISD, has died after his third battle with cancer.<\/a><\/p>\n

Those who knew Gillespie remember him as a familiar face at Cotton Picker athletic events. For decades, he kept stats for countless Robstown ISD games.<\/p>\n

Richard Gillespie, Robstown’s beloved sports statistician, passes away after third cancer battle<\/p>\n

“He was a really good student in that he was very conscientious about everything he did,” Bill Westfall, retired Robstown ISD staff member, said. “That translated later when he joined the athletic department as a statistician; he was always dead accurate in what he had to do.”<\/p>\n

In 2024, Robstown ISD honored Gillespie by naming the high school gym <\/a>after him in recognition of his longtime commitment to the district and its student athletes. Friends say it was a tribute he was able to see and appreciate.<\/p>\n

“I’m so, so happy that Robstown did honor him so much, that you honored him,” Martha Westfall, a retired Robstown ISD staff member, said to Neighborhood News reporter Stephanie Molina. “He has a gym named for him when he could appreciate that.”<\/p>\n

Friends and former colleagues say Gillespie’s impact extended beyond athletics, remembering him as someone who quietly helped others without seeking recognition.<\/p>\n

“There was a young lady whose family had a terrible tragedy, and he came, and he gave us $50, and this was back in the eighties when $50 was a lot of money,” Martha Westfall said. “He said, ‘I want you to give this to that family, but don’t you say a word about where it came from.’ And that was Richard.”<\/p>\n

Gillespie died Sunday. For many in the community, he will be remembered as a Cotton Picker legend.<\/p>\n

“We’re gonna miss him,” Robstown ISD Athletic Director Adolfo Gonzalez said. “The kids are gonna miss him. The community is gonna miss him. Robstown ISD athletics is gonna miss Richard Gillespie.”<\/p>\n

Funeral arrangements have not been announced. KRIS 6 News will provide updates as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROBSTOWN, Tx \u2014 Richard Gillespie, the longtime sports statistician for Robstown ISD, has died after his third battle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[132323,155,157,156,13549,132325,132324,31712,132326,11909,132327,10873],"class_list":["post-374033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-adolfo-gonzalez","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-cotton-pickers","tag-richard-gillespie","tag-risd-athletics","tag-robstown-isd","tag-robstown-sports","tag-robstown-texas","tag-sports-statistician","tag-stephanie-molina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}