Rick and I were close friends and fellow officers at Cloister and that friendship continued when I moved to Albuquerque to work at Sandia Labs as a newly minted electrical engineer. Rick was off in Texas for law school but I saw him when he came home for visits; and his mom and dad were most gracious and had me to their home on many occasions. Most memorable for me was sitting in their living room in July, 1969, watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin do their thing.

 

I last saw Rick six or seven years ago when Susan and I settled into a little "casita" for three weeks in Santa Fe, a place we had loved since our time in Albuquerque. I contacted him and we had lunch on Canyon Road. A night or two later Susan and I met him and Layne for dinner at one of his favorite restaurants but not, unfortunately, The Compound (which we knew quite well). We all quickly became fast friends (I hadn't met Layne and Susan hadn't met either) and Rick led the story-telling as raconteur-in-chief.