7 years ago he had to have a lung removed. He never really found out why and that, I imagine, as much as its removal and subsequent disabilities annoyed him. He was not a smoker. Maybe it's true what they say about wood dust, for his models were all wood. He could make a Liberty aero engine in a boat that you would swear was made of metal.
Attitudes to hand made models changed recently and he lost his interest, especially when aol summarily removed all the websites they hosted and we lost Model Boat Wizards. Rich never really knew what to do after that. He passed on to me two lovely jobs I'm sure he would have done himself previously, a Miss America X and a Baby Horace III, which are now in a restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia, called Artie's. He sent me books on woodies which I treasure, but when he found little or no interest in all the hundreds of drawings he'd amassed over the years he made a huge bonfire in his garden and they were gone. That, is the fault of the model world. No club or museum could be arsed to answer him. It was out of disgust and despair for the hobby that he burned them. For all I know he might have done the same with the kits and books he had remaining, because they would have been too expensive for him to send or me to receive, thanks to sudden huge increases in postal charges.
I'm lucky to have some CDs he recorded, telling the story of an old Allard J2X that his chum once owned, which seemed to be jinxed. His rumbling voice is both restful and amusing. He went under the handle of Chatham on my followers list. He could rarely leave a comment due to blogger being difficult, but he'd always mail me instead.
Sock it to 'em up there, old chum. Give 'em Hell.
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