Baketech

Rich is the fourth good friend that I have lost in a year’s time...

The first lost his life in a random car accident on the way home from work, the second and third were taken by cancer and illness. I’d like to think that Rich was the only one that left us while doing something he loved, but that platitude does damn little to help me make sense of what just happened. If there were ever a situation that posed the question of “why do bad things happen to good people” this is certainly it…

While I’ve only known Rich a few short years, I count him as a good friend due to the intensity of the time we have spent together. I think it’s a universal rider’s trait to make fast friends when you meet another of similar mind, and such was my experience with both Rich and Dave when we met in the spring of 2003.

We crossed paths on an annual VFR ride in West Virginia, an event not unlike the Org days at Grattan…a gathering of VFR enthusiasts that meet every year to ride the back roads with friends old and new. At dinner we realized that we would be traveling home in a similar direction, so I decided to tag along for a good part of the way. In the morning, I was a bit “delicate” from the evening’s indiscretions, but we set out for home with the intent of sampling a few more nice roads on the way home. We immediately had a good rhythm, and it was a fun ride up until the point that the twisty roads took their toll on my hung-over head, sending me in search of the shoulder. As best as I can recall, we shook hands with the agreement to get together and ride soon.

And ride we did…since that time, we’ve taken several opportunities to explore the tobacco roads of Kentucky, and have even made it back to West Virginia a time or two. We’ve sprinkled in more than a few track days in between these rides, and managed to spend quite a bit of time discussing life in the truck on the way home. I feel like I got to know Rich quite a bit during these trips, and found out why he has been such a good lifelong friend to Dave. You see, Rich was the quintessential “good man”…intellectual yet compassionate, opinionated yet empathetic, firm yet kind, and above all, absolutely in love with his family. The proverbial gentle giant…

I know that Rich will be hugely missed by his friends in the riding community, but I am really struggling to comprehend the enormous sense of loss that his family must now deal with. We have lost a good riding buddy, but that simply pales in comparison next to the loss of a husband …or father…or lifelong friend. I know Richard is at peace now, so my thoughts turn to the family and close friends that he was so proud of…

Rest in peace Rich…

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"Ten times more charming than that Arnold on Green Acres..."

seamus

Read this and know Richard for who he was.

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Ducit Amor Patriae

Richard Herald, The Gentle Giant

The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.
--- Thucydides