I first knew Richard from our years at Indiana University. We were both Residence Scholars, a unique program which gave reduced housing rates to students with good grades and financial need. We were housed- for our class only one semester as it turned out- in Linden Hall, a converted army barracks which could best be described as IU's slum housing. Few who could afford better lived there, but it gave those of us who did a common bond. We were the poor smart guys. Rich and I were never best friends, but we became good friends and we stayed in touch through the years.

My first impression of him was that he was very sure of himself and a little pretentious with his pipe, his European cigarettes and European beer, and his progressive jazz records. He had long hair and a beard before most and he looked like a hippie or a campus radical. He said Marti thought he was "scary". The first time I saw marijuana was in the basement of the converted parsonage he shared with his buddy Joe Gore. Some of it may have been pretension and, like for many of us at that age, a search for identity, but Rich really was an intellectual from way back. He was a very bright guy who still had the common touch.

Few of us had any interest in going to Vietnam and Rich, being the picture of nonathletic, draftable health, headed for Canada where he really did seem more at home. We and our college friends were mostly out of touch until 1987 when we started having reunions in Bloomington. Rich and Marti drove down for most of them, an indication of how important those college years were to him and others of us. We kept in touch by e-mail and at one time started exchanging reminiscences with others from our group.

Rich lovingly created a website with pictures, stories, and information about the scholarship program. He and I exchanged our ideas about religion- his a little farther to the left than mine. I would like to see the look on his face if he has recently been handed a harp and a pair of wings. Better yet, what I really hope is that we will all get a chance to sit around and laugh together again with Richard. His passing was most untimely, but he left a lot of people with a lot of great memories.

Larry Clunie