Goodbye, Richard
Richard, as many of you know, was the showrunner for both T.H.E. Show in Newport and T.H.E. Show in Las Vegas. I wish I could say that I knew him better, but I’ve only been covering his shows for the last four years and Richard has been a pillar of the audio community for far longer than that.
A lovely tribute, far more detailed that I could have managed, is available over at T.H.E. Show. A guestbook to share memories can also be found there.
In our short acquaintance, I found Richard to be utterly charming and hugely generous. He always had a kind word, a quick smile, and seemed ever on the edge of that legendary laugh. He never sat still, but was always on the move — there with a quiet word, a wink, a handshake or hug — and then off to the next person, plan, problem, or adventure.
Richard was funny as hell and mean as a bag of snakes. Never without his wit, which had been sharpened to a point that was casually murderous, Richard stole every scene he entered. A story-teller of truly epic proportions (all of which I will keep to myself for good, solid, legal reasons), he was a grandmaster of the outlandish and outrageous. I’m pretty sure he saw it as a personal mission to scandalize as many as possible, as often as possible, and he was terrifically good at it.
He was a dervish, a devil, and he will be sorely missed.
With much love and affection to our beloved friend, Richard — Godspeed, sir. Your memory will always make me smile. And laugh.
We will miss you terribly.
This sounds like my kind of guy: gregarious, funny, to-the-point, and gracious on top of all that. Shame we never met, we would have raised some hell in the afterhours of one of his events.
RIP.
i actually met him last year at Newport, he seemed so happy about being able to bring the show to the people. I told him that i always looked forward to his show
Thank you, Scott, for this sweet (and accurate) tribute.
I exhibited at many CES and THE Show events, starting in the 80s before Dave Wilson was a household audiophile name, and when Stereophile sponsored a huge Saturday night bash for exhibitors at a major hotel on the Vegas strip (forgot the hotel name, the suite looked like a 70s Playboy Magazine venue).
Richard was a very “hands on” President/Manager/CEO. If you were an exhibitor, you’d have at least one if not multiple brief and memorable (in a good way) encounter with dear Richard.
One might suspect it would be a cold day day you know where before an exhibitor would bump into the CES President during setup or tear down. Yes, of course CES is a much larger event. But I suspect it would be the same if the roles reversed. We’d still see a lot of Richard running CES, and none of the other guy/gal running THE Show.
RIP Richard…