My mother met him in 1982, when she was buying a used car, a
Dodge Diplomat, from him (the car had belonged to his mother). Dick dated my
mother a short time, and he was enough of a family friend that he came to my
college graduation in 1984. I would see him, be associated with him, and know
him as enough of a “man about town” that, in the 1990s, I would be tapped to be involved
with him, as would many others, as part of the Vernon Township Democratic Club
and other Democratic doings in town—campaigns, including one in 1995 where
Howard Burrell was first elected to the township committee. Dick, some of us
Dems, and others also were involved in county-level Democratic business.
The Dems stuff was a rich phase of my life, running about
1994-2005.
I last saw Dick in 2012, at a memorial event for Sig
Borstad, the son of Daniel Borstad; Sig had died in his fifties, I believe. Dan
died within the past couple years, in his eighties.
Dick was in a nursing home for years. My mother and I have
talked about him a lot. She used to get Christmas cards from two of his sisters
for years (we didn’t realize the older sister had died).
