I am so sad to hear this. Dick was one of those folks that makes the FSGW such a wonderful patchwork quilt of folkies. The one thing about the FSGW crowd is that they truly love, and do all they can to preserve and perpetuate, this music we all love. From the most talented to the least talented, across the board they are savvy, know the music, and put the leather to the floor when the work of passin' it on has to be done. In the short 9 years that I have come to know, respect and love these folkies in the Greater Washington area, Dick has been right at the front of it. He was such a fixture, and such a font of information, that the FSGW (for all his foibles) will not be the same organization without him. He loved the music with all his heart, he was friendly to a fault, and he had a lovely curiousity about him.

Yeah, he could bug folks too. That man absolutely drove me crazy with his Northumbrian Pipes. He owns a lovely set in cherry that he has been tinkering with for years. The bag is shot, the reeds are made of some of the damnedest materials I have ever seen, the joints leak, and the whole rig smells of cigarette smoke. I remember chewing his ass about taking them to a pipe builder, I even recommended folks in the area. I begged him to sell them to me so I could repair them. He would just kind of chuckle and tell me he was sure he could get them going. And he would try, and the noise was more than another piper could bear...... I still chuckle at the thought of watching him pumping like crazy and doing his best, and then asking me if I recognized it. I would tell him no, and try to convince him.....again..... to sell me the pipes to no avail. Odd as it seems, I will miss our annual argument over those pipes.

God be good to you, Dick. You will be missed and I will sing a song to you at the Getaway this year.

To Bob, Jennifer, Kath, Charley, Lisa, and all my dear FSGW friends, please accept my condolences on the loss of your friend.

All the best,

Mick