Alice Gaffney
I first met Richard Wall over 60 years ago. Richard, Wally, and Kinzy Jones had taken on the project of restoring a wooden Blue Jay class boat that a sailing friend had decided to paint on a sunny morning, using his chosen color of house paint, and then launching the still tacky painted boat the same day for a sail. Obviously, the paint job curdled. And the three friends agreed to help out the owner. They thought they would earn a little money. They kept copious notes of hours and materials invested. Richard was the meticulous, detail oriented of the three. The boat was beautiful when finished. And when all was accounted for, the three teenagers had completed the project, earning them less than ten cents an hour. But like everything Richard did throughout his life, the project was accomplished with precision and integrity.
Richard was never boastful. He listened, he cared, and gave great attention to detail to everything he did. And he quietly struggled through some of the most challenging parts of his life.
When Richard returned to Miami from his Navy service, we thought he had been mostly in San Diego doing security coding type work. But many years later, we were at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Vermont, waiting for our table with Richard and Jo, and he chose that time to share some of his Vietnam experiences with me. He spoke about being on the first vessel to go up the Mekong River, and the terror at night, as the river was not marked, so they had to anchor, and the Viet Cong would release mines to flow down river.
The vessel was damaged, and it was a very long run, with steering gear compromised, to travel to the Philippines for shipyard repair. And he told me the story as if we were discussing a regatta on Biscayne Bay or at Block Island Race Week. But the understory, untold, revealed some of the flashbacks he had suffered through.
In many ways, this focused, talented, patient (mostly) man in my mind was a true Renaissance man. Everything he started, he accomplished with perfection, from playing and singing folk music, to art, carpentry, writing, story telling, photography, and enjoying the beauty from the sea to the mountain tops. I am so grateful for the friendship and love my family enjoyed.
Alice Wright Gaffney