Rick Williams was a friend of mine….

I met Rick when I was in the 5th Grade at White Oak Elementary School in Westlake Village, California. I instantly liked Rick, he was a nice kid, with a quick wit, and he knew lots of funny songs. He was a great athlete, and a natural right handed guy, who had made himself a lefty by injuring his right arm before I met him. Rick was the kid who wore out toys before their time….. We played with toy soldiers, and made the sounds of battle with our mouths…. For Rick…that wasn’t enough! He brought in caps, squirt bottles full of gasoline. Rick’s parents were forever wondering why their son couldn’t grow arm hair or eyebrows, and they kept finding pools of green melted plastic in their garden. Bees and pincher bugs were also combatants.

Rick was not a great student – I never saw him read a text book, or even take a text book home. He was however a mechanical savant. He could innately take something apart and put it back together again – and most of the time it worked, sometimes it worked better, and sometimes… (Usually if it was either expensive or important), like his Dad’s ride to work…. It didn’t work the same or he had parts left over. Rick was a tinkerer.

Rick, Joe, Dave, and other kids used to play hide and seek – of course Rick made it a Contact Sport – you had to tag the person you found. I recall the time Rick was it, and called “Ollie Ollie Auction, free, free, free!”, and from our hiding places we heard Dave yell “Wait! Time out!" Followed by a loud “Crack”, then followed by the sight and sound of the tree Dave was in shaking violently, as Dave cascaded through the branches – arms & legs still wrapped around the broken branch he had been hanging on to…. Landing on his back with a thud. It knocked the wind out of Dave, and you would have thought that we would have all run over to check on Dave…. not this bunch! We were all on the ground laughing hysterically. Dave managed to crawl to freedom and was the only one who was not tagged. Rick got the rest of us because we were laughing and unable to move.

Rick was into cars. His first car was his dad’s old Buick Riviera GS. It was a rare car that is now worth a small fortune. Rick then got a 1969 Camaro….. another great car… (and another car worth a larger fortune now). Rick was proud of that car, and I remember the day he picked me up at my house to show off his new tires (On the back only!). As we drove away from my house, he explained that the car handled much better now and picked up speed to about 40 miles an hour in a 25 zone as we rounded a corner in the First Neighborhood in Westlake Village. Naturally – the only Sheriff’s car within a 25 mile radius was coming the other way on the same corner! I said “Oh crud, he’s turning around!” I saw Rick downshift into 2nd gear, and thought he was going to pull over before the Sheriff had even completed his U-turn….. Instead, Rick floored it, and that car was fast! We heard the siren come on, but couldn’t see it.. the sound of that car hurtling through the streets at well over 100MPH was amazing! Unfortunately, because of my screams from inside the car – we could not hear the car, the siren, or my anything else….. Rick took an exit street from the neighborhood – but instead of getting out of the neighborhood – he darted into the arched courtyard driveway of a friend, and hid the car behind the wall. We both exited the car and Rick calmly knocked on the door as I frantically rang the doorbell. Bob Merlin’s bearded mother answered the door just as the Sheriffs car wailed past her house, and Mrs. Merlin joked, “are they after you?” I was bouncing up and down, and said “Yeah!” as I pushed past her and into her house, Rick calmly walked in and told her what happened. It seemed like we were at the house for about a half hour, and we decided that we would walk home, and leave the car there. I had just stopped bouncing as we stepped out the front door to walk home – it was now getting dark, and before took more than 10 steps out the front door, we saw a searchlight hit the back of the Camaro….. I started bouncing again. I bounced back into the house, without knocking this time! They knocked on the door, and talked to us. Of course, I was used to talking to the cops, my dad was a cop, and all of his friends were cops…. I knew how to handle this….. “I told him not to do it! I told him to pull over!” I was cool under pressure….. Rick calmly talked to them – and said he got new tires. They seemed to understand. They couldn’t prove who was driving, so they ended up not doing anything – but promising to get Rick if he even spit on the sidewalk.

Rick and I grew closer as our friend group went off to college. We both got married – and we were each other’s “best man” at our 1st wedding’s. We didn’t see each other as much, because we both worked and had our families & lives. Rick was divorced and loved it! My 1st wife & I introduced Rick to Donna – who later adopted me as I was going through a divorce – I was pretty much a fixture in their house for a couple years! Rick and Donna vacationed with my family – and we loved it! My mom took Rick & Donna for a ride on our SeaDoo, and tossed them off the back in the middle of Lake Powell. When Donna was pregnant with David, Rick and I were so excited to hear it was a boy… we both had an excuse to buy toys and green army men again! When Gab came along, Rick was in heaven! He loved his kids. I loved the sparkle in his eyes when he talked about his kids, you could see the pride and the love in the way he smiled as he told me what they were up to! Like the day David & Gab put Mommies self-adhesive “foot prints” they had found under the bathroom sink, and stuck them all over the house.

I have so many memories with Rick, and I could go on for days. When I got a call from Rick’s brother, Ronnie, a couple years ago, I couldn’t believe what he told me. Rick had passed away. I was at work… I was in shock. I didn’t cry… I was mad. Mad at Rick, mad at myself for not being there for Rick when he needed me… not being able to say the right thing at the right time that would have kept Rick here with his family where he belonged. Had I let my best friend down when he really needed me? Had I let his family down? Joe Kiffe set up a beautiful on-line memorial to Rick that I encourage you all to go to and write something to Rick, or about Rick. I couldn’t even look at the pictures on the site…. I finally went to the site again last week, and cried for the 1st time. I had dinner with Donna and the kids a couple weeks ago… I hope it’s not too late to say again, I love you, and need to see you all more often. I see little Ricky when I look at David, and Gab inherited his smile and quick wit. Rick told me often how he loved his family, and he missed them when he was in Washington. Rick and I talked usually a couple times a week – usually on my ride home from the office on my cell phone. I still talk to Rick – usually on the way home, he has become a much better listener, but I really miss his witty come backs.

I really miss you Rick. Love you!