RIP: Richard English - July 25, 1943 - Dec. 22, 2015 On a dark and snowy evening in February 1961, at an Army post in Germany, Id gone to the Mess Hall office I worked in to use the government-issued typewriter to compose a long letter about a trip Id just made to Zurich, Florence, and Rome, with my friend Henry Bradbury Coons III. There was a rap at the window. I looked up. It was a soldier Id seen around; he was sort of new to the base. I unlocked a door to let him in. Im glad I did. We became friends. I have not had, over these many years, a more loyal friend. One time, before the two black and white pictures below were taken (one snapped in 1965 near Saugatuck, Michigan; the other his Merchant Seaman identification), he told me he wanted to be a painter but he didnt think his imagination could be confined within the boundaries of frames. After stints as a merchant seaman on the Great Lakes, Richard would arrive at my Ann Arbor apartment with fat wads of cash; he was the first person I knew to buy an entire pound of weed at once. He dumped it on a spread-newspaper on the floor for sorting; it was an astonishing volume of contraband to one like me who was accustomed to nickel bags, dime bags. In the early seventies several of my Michigan friends migrated to Provincetown, a fishing village/artists colony at the tip of Cape Cod. Richard, hopping onto a Greyhound bus in 1968 with another of those wads of cash in his pocket, was the first of us to do so. He aim was to become a simple fisherman as John Lennon had said in a Rolling Stone interview that he sometimes longed to become. In Provincetown, as evidenced in one of the pictures below, Richard came to accept the boundaries of frames. He also caught many a few fish. Ive had mako shark just once ... it was at Richards table. I love fish ... Ive had some amazingly good fish, but that mako shark was the best ever; Richard was an excellent cook. He also became a fine finish carpenter; perhaps the only regular job he ever held was as Chief of Maintenance at the Provincetown Monument and Museum where his skills at everything from constructing a vitrine to repairing a broken lock were appreciated. In October of 2013, Richard, Jim Rann, Rodney Reetz, and I gathered at Fanizzis Restaurant to celebrate 50 years of friendship, for it had been in October 1963 that the three of us had met Rodney in Lansing, Michigan. Richard was found dead in his apartment in Provincetown night before last. Jim, Rodney, and I are feeling a huge loss, as no doubt others of his friends are, such as Albert, whom Richard loved lavishly. Rest in peace my dear and loyal friend. His Merchant Marine ID photo. Cathy OBrien Fitzgerald and Barbara Verdi like this. 1 share (I may be correcting the birth year later; were not certain that it wasnt 1942. 58 mins) Tim McNulty Im so sorry George. A great guy. Known him for years myself, as you know. Uugh. Im sad for you. Frel blessed for your long friendship. 39 mins · Like George Fitzgerald Thanks, Tim. I along with his other close friends are feeling both blessed and bummed! 3 mins · Like George Fitzgerald Write a comment...
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 16:29:51 +0000
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