Dick F. Waterfield has had a somewhat varied and essentially vigorous career in connection with business affairs and is a recognized authority in the tobacco trade and commerce, of which he is now a leading representative in Fort Wayne, where he is secretary and treasurer of the Wayne Tobacco Company, the well-equipped” establishment which is located at 111-113 East Columbia street. A scion of staunch Pennsylvania German stock and of one of the sterling pioneer families of Clermont County, Ohio, Mr. Waterfield was born in the town of Felicity, on the 30th of October 1870, the fourth in order of birth of the six children of William W. and Mary Elizabeth (Frazier) Waterfield. His father was a prosperous general merchant and tobacco dealer in Clermont County for thirty years. After having duly profited by the advantages of the public schools of his native village, Dick F. Waterfield pursued an advanced course of study in Bethel Academy, at Nicholasville, Kentucky. At the age of eighteen years, he went to Hutchinson, Kansas, where he completed a course at Hutchinson Business College, and where also he took another and more important step in life, as he there married, when he was twenty years of age, Miss Florence May Folmer. Incidentally it may be noted at this point that seven children of this union have been born, all of whom are living and remain at the parental home, namely: Marydel, William, Sabina, Dallas, Richard, Helen and Camilla. For six years Mr. Waterfield continued his residence at Hutchinson, Kansas, and then established the family home at Covington, Kentucky, where he identified himself with the manufacturing of tobacco as superintendent of the large and well-equipped plant of the Lowell & Buffington Tobacco Company. He continued his connection with this concern until 1904 and for the ensuing six years held an executive position in the Commercial National Bank of Covington. In March 1913, he came to Fort Wayne as secretary and treasurer of the Wayne Tobacco Company, and in the development of the substantial wholesale business he has been the dominating force. Mr. Waterfield has been an active worker on behalf of the principles and policies of the Republican party, is one of the active and valued members of the Fort Wayne Commercial Club and the Rotary Club, in the latter of which he takes especially lively interest; he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The family is one of marked popularity in the representative social life of the Allen County metropolis, with residence at 136 East DeWald street.