Richard Pearce

A couple of weeks ago I learned that a friend of ours from a few years ago, Richard Pearce, died last month. Although it was a long, long time ago we last saw and spoke to him, the news of his death did upset me; and upon reading his obituary in the Mail Tribune I was shocked to learn that he had died from Alzheimer's Disease.

Richard Pearce, or "Dick", as we knew him as, was an extremely kind man. When we moved to Southern Oregon, he was the first of our neighbors to introduce themselves to us: he and his wife, Anne, helped us during our first years there, especially giving advice on how to manage the land and providing some history on the area. We went to their Christmas Eve parties to celebrate the season with them, with the first one we attended taking place a little over a month after we had moved up. Dick once took my Dad, brother, and myself to one of the speedways to watch a race, and during the wildfires in 2002, when we all had to evacuate from the valley, we were able to stay with him and Anne at their son's house with their family until we could return home.

They moved away in mid-2003, and we only had occasional contact after then. I regret that we did not speak much after their move (there was not a falling out or anything along those lines), but it is too late to change that now. I can ensure that Dick is remembered for the decent man he was.

Here are the links to his obituary and to his Alzheimer's memorial fund:

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110828/NEWS04/308289999

http://act.alz.org/site/TR?pg=fund&fr_id=1060&pxfid=31412

Richard Pearce

February 12, 1934 - August 21, 2011