Tribute from Ralph Braun

This is such sad news.
Rich and I go back to kindergarten and I have so many wonderful   filled memories of growing up with him as a friend and the great times we had.
Teen age summers were special because we both lived in Oran then and spent most of the warm days at a particular swimming hole along Limestone creek,  fishing, camping out and pestering the local neighbors.
That consisted  mostly of bothering and flirting with the Jowett and Gaulin girls, although some of the other neighbors living in that area were recipients of actions a little less noteworthy. You can guess at the adolescent pranks that were executed.
 Sometimes we got caught sometime we felt we had really pulled a fast one on some unsuspecting neighbor and laughed heartily over our success, but seldom would these fits of teenage excess result in any real damage done. We were just pushing the limits.
Rich, Al Clute, Dave Copeland and I could be found at the "flat piece" as we named it, most hours of the day and sometimes nights throughout the whole summer.
 I never look back on those years without wishing they could be again. The days and we, were so carefree and full of what the future would bring.
I stopped there a few years ago  and the memories came flooding back, of course the place looks so different now , not nearly so open and much smaller in scope then the memory of it but the sparkle of youth was still there waiting to be revisited.
The bridges along the old Oran Delphi road nearby are closed and crumbling now but in crossing them on foot I could still see us sitting on the concrete siding talking, plotting a caper or just absorbing the wonder of being without a serious care in the world. Rich was an integral part of it all that and It would have been a lesser experience without him there.
 In a few short years, everything would change forever, as it must but from this late vantage point , let me say, those remain some of the best years of our lives, never to be repeated but never to be forgotten.
 He was a good pal and I morn his passing with a deep sadness
God speed Rich
Ralph