Charles Merton Richmond RIP

 


Yesterday my old friend and collegue Charles Merton Richmond (Charlie) died at home in Cebu PH of a massive heart attack.

Charlie and I go back a long time.  We first met when Lotus Development set up a UNIX porting group in Dublin, Ireland.  Charlie was Digital Equipment Corporation's on-site go-to person for the port of Lotus 1-2-3 to DEC Ultrix.  At that time Charlie was single-handedly raising his son, Keith, and brought him with him to Dublin for the 6 month assignment.

I was a principal software engineer responsible for the Ultrix, HP and SCO UNIX ports of 1-2-3 so we quickly came to know each other pretty well.  The UNIX porting group was a lively and interesting group with many characters and we often had a good evening at the Grave Diggers in Glasnevin.  Charlie thoroughly enjoyed Irish pubs and restaurants.  The older and more oddball the pub or restaurant the happier he was.  He could not get over the fact that the Irish (and English) would put hot curry sauce over french fies or deep fry Mars bars as a dessert.

When the Ultrix port was finished Charles and his son moved back to their high rise apartment in downtown Boston.  Since I used visit the Lotus headquarters in Cambridge on a regular basis, I would frequently meet up with Charlie for sushi and drinks.  Charles was a true sushi aficionado and I learned a lot about the finer points of sushi and other Japanese foods from him.

Charlie was the person who recruited me to go work fulltime for Digital Equipment Corporation.  We ended up working together on localization and internationalization issues for nearly 18 months in Manalapan, NJ and Nashua, NH.  He was an amazing driver.  Many times we left Manapan NJ at 3.30 in the afternoon and would make downtown Boston by 7.30 that evening.

Charlie also loved motorbikes but was badly injured by a careless driver on the Southeast Expressway in early 2000 while on his way to work.  During a followup visit to a specialist, he was again badly injured by a vehicle whose driver failed to see him on the crosswalk!

Over the years Charlie and I worked together on various projects.  In 2004 he moved to Cebu where he met and married a wonderful Filipana woman named Ashley.  Last year I worked with Charlie in Cebu on a couple of projects. 

Charlie and I had a tentative schedule to again work together on a project in Cebu later this year and I was really looking forward to spending time with him again.  Alas, that will not now happen.

I shall miss you, Charlie.

Rest in peace.