You can see all of Rich's sketches on the sketches paged.
(Additional post) I read all those comments and those photos are great. I never saw what Rich looked like in his younger days. I always knew he was a special person and I really enjoy the times I actually got to meet with him. Me being a puck kid (4 years younger) and how he taught me to live life the best way you can. He did, I have and my family knows the name Rich Uhrich and how he must have inspired other along his journey by the comments on the web site.
Al Waltz
Enclosed are a couple of pictures of Rich from about 1967 (his accident was in May, 1968). Picture 1 was taken in Norm's driveway. Picture 2 was taken on Hwy 39, above Morris Dam (where the lab conducted torpedo water entry tests). Rich's bike is on the center stand because he had placed his camera about 15 feet away on a tree stump with the 10 second shutter delay time set. He then had 10 seconds to get back to his bike, mount it and try to look cool and casual as the shutter went off. Picture 3 was taken at Mt. Wilson above Pasadena by Rich with his large image format camera; I think the film format was 4" X 4". I include it because it showed that Rich had a good eye for composure of a good photographic image; note how he positioned the bikes with the main telescope dome in line with the headlights. He had a lot of skills and interests that most people would not get the opportunity to know or appreciate.
Enjoy, Al
Additional comment from Al, on 4/17/2014
I have just one anecdotal observation about Rich that those who first met him after his accident had occurred might not be fully aware of. A few of us knew him quite well (I shared a house in Sierra Madre canyon above Pasadena for a year and a half.) I remember what an active lifestyle he enjoyed. The following is a list of the things he did (I joined him in many of them) :
Snow skiing (Four of us went on ski trip to Europe 2 months before his accident) Water skiing (we went in together on buying a runabout boat) Scuba diving Motorcycling
Sail boating (we mutually arranged to overturn a rented sailboat in Newport Harbor)
Topless bar hopping
Needless to say all of these things immediately came to an end in May, 1968. We didn't talk about this end to these activities after his accident, since such talk served no good purpose. The only time I ever heard him refer to his own inner feelings on his inability to ever pursue any of these activities again was maybe 40 years ago when we were just recalling some past event when we had been skiing at Mammoth. He said that he couldn't even bear to watch a skiing movie, such as the Bruce Brown ski documentary films we had watched prior to his accident. We didn't continue the conversation on that subject, and I never brought the subject up again for the obvious reasons. What occurred to me after he died was that I never, ever heard him lament his situation or condition in life. I think he was thankful that the accident did not affect his mental powers and that he could continue his life just as mentally active as before his accident. I never heard him complain about not being able to do something at work because of his condition. He always put all of his mental power into problem solving and asked for help for those things he could not do. His attitude was an inspiration to those who knew him before and after his accident, and I think many of us seriously wonder if we could have come close to achieving what he did in his lifetime.
Al
Mike and Claire Cooke
The very first time I met Rich was in a meeting of young engineers that were applying for IRIED funds for projects we thought were good ideas. This was just after the Pasadena folks started coming down to San Diego to invade our peaceful little spot on Point Loma. The first two Pasadena folks that I met were Jimmy and Rich. I do not remember what idea we were hyping but I remember that Jimmy and Rich were a cut ahead of most of the folks in San Diego. In any case, Rich had all the facts and pertinent data on the tip of his tongue while the rest of the people had cheat sheets, notes and stacks of paper. I had never met anyone quite like Rich before.
All the Pasadena invaders were in trailer 39T in the Bayside parking lot. A short time later on a Friday, I found out that on Monday, there would be a reorganization in San Diego and I would be become part of the 39T crowd in Ivor Lemaire’s division. That was the start of a lot of good times, good fun on good projects and friendships that have lasted since around 1970.
I worked with a lot of great people, but Rich stands out the most because of his attitude, technical knowledge of just about everything, excellent memory, farm boy common sense.
You have read what other people have said about Rich and know the stories, some of which, are considered to be legends. I would like to share a few stories from inside the lab and outside the lab that sum up my thoughts for Rich. The two main projects that I work on with Rich were MNV which became MNS and the other was AUSS. To quote Stan Watson, "Over a whole career, you could never find another project a good as AUSS!" and I will add that never has such a great group of folks been gathered to work together for a common goal. Rich was certainly an inspiration to the group and in particular to me.
Jim Walton has told about the software and conops for AUSS, but what he did not tell was how Rich, Stan, Jerry and Howard McCracken did the planning for most of their work. It would start early in the morning in the hallway outside of Rich’s office. They would be talking and talking after a little while, Jerry and Howard would disappear but Rich and Stan would still be talking. If you went up to them they would generally be talking about some line of software code that "Well, maybe if we this or maybe if we that." It always puzzled me that they never seemed to draw a conclusion. An hour later they might still be talking. Then all of a sudden, they all would be gone.
Then later on in the AM or PM the hallway meeting would magically reappear and then disappear again. Rich would go back into his office and be typing at his key board. Nobody seemed to know where Stan, Jerry and Howard went. But at the end of the day or end of the time period between sea tests on AUSS, they always seemed to have things ready to go. They defined the end of preparation period as the time we were on station and set to deploy AUSS. Often times, they were loading all the code that had been worked on into the vehicle on the way out to the op site. I don’t know how they kept track of it all. It was rumored to be 100K lines of code, another thing the S/W reviewers did not believe. But we, the AUSS team, did believe.
Some of the most fun and interesting things were helping Rich with his things that broke: wheelchairs, van chair lifts, etc. One week end, Rich and Shirley were in Point Loma shopping
or eating or something, and the rear ramp would not fold down so Rich could get back in the van. Claire and I went down there with tools and meters to trouble shoot it and got them going with a temporary fix until they could get to the van repair shop. Shirley would always think that Rich would be stranded forever, Rich thought, Hey another technical problem to work on and solve.
We had many eating outings with the Uhrich’s, Jones’, Johnson’s that generally ended up at someone’s home. One really interesting night we ended up at the Uhrich’s and started a search for the Brooklyn Bridge to look at a picture of the bridge. As it turns out, the early search engines did not always find the thing you were interested in on the first try. The search for the BB first found a porn site. As did the 2nd and 3rd try. Finally, we found what we wanted and tried to shut off the computer, but every time we tried, the porn sites would pop back up. The final solution for Norm and I was to tell Rich that we were not computer geeks, but he was and let us know how he solved the problem. I don’t remember the solution, but he did solve it. Rich’s solution to most computer problems was to "Right click." He coined the saying, "When in doubt, Right Click." Try it sometime, you’ll like it.
In a recent chat with Al Waltz, he was relating a story about Al trying to figure out how to give Rich a ride in his convertible without hurting him getting in or out of the car. That reminded me of the time that Rich "had to go Topside, very important" one day and his van was not at work that particular day. We loaded him into the back of my 56 Ford truck with the lift gate, secured him down and made a grand entrance up in front of Building 33, a crowd and dignitaries waiting while Rich was being unloaded Rich from my truck. That may have been Rich’s last "convertible ride." The event was an awards ceremony in which he was supposed to participate. He made it, I do not remember if he said it was too much trouble.
I found a cartoon once, that I described to Rich as a farm yard scene with several pigs at a pig trough. The pigs were facing the trough in the foreground. Each pig had a big smile on its face. The caption read "Good friends, good food and good mud." Later on, after one of our evening outings, Rich ended the evening with the words, GOOD MUD. For many years after that, "GOOD MUD" is how, phone calls or outings ended.
GOOD MUD to you R Uhrich
Mike and Claire Cooke
Rich
Uhrich
A long friendship
By Ron Reich
(The way I remember it)
The Carpool
The drive from Rich’s home in Clairemont to the lab in Pt. Loma was usually about 30 minutes and the drive back home about 45 minutes. There were several of us that met at Rich’s home and then transfer to his specially equipped van to head for work. Those long commutes provided lots of time for hearing and telling stories that could be shared at a time like this.
Whether the facts are accurate or not
these accounts are presented in the way that I remember them.
Rich at age of 24 was embarking on a career as a professional mechanical engineer when on the night before he was to catch a plain to Hawaii while stopped at a stop sign a drunk driver plowed into the back of his little VW Bug. The seat became dislodged and consequently Rich’s neck was broken at the 3rd ,4th or 5th vertebra. At that period of time (1967) it was believed that the average life expectancy of an individual with a break at that location was 5 years.
During Rich’s college years he developed some very strong friendships. Those friendships along with strong support from his family were responsible for encouraging Rich to not give up on his career during his hospital recovery period. He had already been hired as a federal employee and only his body had changed and not his brain.
My recollection is a little foggy at this point. Sometime during his rehabilitation period he met a young single mother from a Scandinavian country that was about to be deported. She was working in the hospital as a patient helper. They had developed a good relationship over several months so Rich felt comfortable making her a very special offer. As I understand it, both of them knowing that his life expectancy was only about 5 years, if she agreed to marry him, take care of him and take him back and forth to work then he would adopt her child and buy a house and wheelchair van thereby saving her from deportation. She agreed and Rich was able to start working in a real office. Things were going along pretty well during the first 5 years and then the 6th year and then the 7th year. Rich was beating the odds and he seemed very healthy all things considered. Her son was now a teenager and wanted to see her homeland country. I think she must have been homesick as well so Rich granted her a divorce and went back into a hospital environment. Again by the strong support and encouragement of his friends and colleagues Rich was reminded of his special value to all the important programs he was working on. He was continuing some of his work at the hospital but eventually posted an add on the hospital bulletin board requesting a live-in and care situation. “IN STEPS SHIRLEY” WOW ! what a blessing. Rich and Shirley had developed a good friendship in the hospital and when she saw the add she jumped at the chance. Rich moved in with Shirley and her 3 young children. A couple years later they got married. They lived in that home until he retired.
After retirement Rich and Shirley bought a 5th floor condo on the beach in Seaside Oregon. Their corner condo had a magnificent view of the ocean and, as Rich would agree, the sun bathers. Rich quickly became a popular figure in his electric wheelchair on the boardwalk and in the local restaurants. Rich passed away peacefully enjoying the ocean view.
The Vacation
My wife Judy and I had a couple of opportunities to take joint vacations with Rich and Shirley. Our first trip was a long weekend trip to the beautiful ocean community of Santa Barbara. We toured the pier and took in some of the other points of interest. Another time we made a week- long trip to take in Yosemite and Sequoia.
A long friendship
By Ron Reich
(The way I remember it)
The Carpool
The drive from Rich’s home in Clairemont to the lab in Pt. Loma was usually about 30 minutes and the drive back home about 45 minutes. There were several of us that met at Rich’s home and then transfer to his specially equipped van to head for work. Those long commutes provided lots of time for hearing and telling stories that could be shared at a time like this.
Whether the facts are accurate or not
these accounts are presented in the way that I remember them.
Rich at age of 24 was embarking on a career as a professional mechanical engineer when on the night before he was to catch a plain to Hawaii while stopped at a stop sign a drunk driver plowed into the back of his little VW Bug. The seat became dislodged and consequently Rich’s neck was broken at the 3rd ,4th or 5th vertebra. At that period of time (1967) it was believed that the average life expectancy of an individual with a break at that location was 5 years.
During Rich’s college years he developed some very strong friendships. Those friendships along with strong support from his family were responsible for encouraging Rich to not give up on his career during his hospital recovery period. He had already been hired as a federal employee and only his body had changed and not his brain.
My recollection is a little foggy at this point. Sometime during his rehabilitation period he met a young single mother from a Scandinavian country that was about to be deported. She was working in the hospital as a patient helper. They had developed a good relationship over several months so Rich felt comfortable making her a very special offer. As I understand it, both of them knowing that his life expectancy was only about 5 years, if she agreed to marry him, take care of him and take him back and forth to work then he would adopt her child and buy a house and wheelchair van thereby saving her from deportation. She agreed and Rich was able to start working in a real office. Things were going along pretty well during the first 5 years and then the 6th year and then the 7th year. Rich was beating the odds and he seemed very healthy all things considered. Her son was now a teenager and wanted to see her homeland country. I think she must have been homesick as well so Rich granted her a divorce and went back into a hospital environment. Again by the strong support and encouragement of his friends and colleagues Rich was reminded of his special value to all the important programs he was working on. He was continuing some of his work at the hospital but eventually posted an add on the hospital bulletin board requesting a live-in and care situation. “IN STEPS SHIRLEY” WOW ! what a blessing. Rich and Shirley had developed a good friendship in the hospital and when she saw the add she jumped at the chance. Rich moved in with Shirley and her 3 young children. A couple years later they got married. They lived in that home until he retired.
After retirement Rich and Shirley bought a 5th floor condo on the beach in Seaside Oregon. Their corner condo had a magnificent view of the ocean and, as Rich would agree, the sun bathers. Rich quickly became a popular figure in his electric wheelchair on the boardwalk and in the local restaurants. Rich passed away peacefully enjoying the ocean view.
The Vacation
My wife Judy and I had a couple of opportunities to take joint vacations with Rich and Shirley. Our first trip was a long weekend trip to the beautiful ocean community of Santa Barbara. We toured the pier and took in some of the other points of interest. Another time we made a week- long trip to take in Yosemite and Sequoia.
Shelley Johnston (Ron and Judy’s daughter)
I met Rich through my dad, Ron Reich, and at the time, they were carpooling together. I needed help in a course that I was taking that was teaching me how to program computers. This was in 1987. Rich was a wonderful teacher. His mentoring was so successful that I became an A student, where I was failing before. My heart goes out to everyone posting here and all the readers. Thanks for all the wonderful pictures and stories shared. I also was a recipient of two of Rich's drawings and cherish them. All my love to Shirley, friends and family. Thanks Dad and Mike for making this website possible. Thanks Mom, for always keeping Rich in your prayers. Shelly Johnston.
I met Rich through my dad, Ron Reich, and at the time, they were carpooling together. I needed help in a course that I was taking that was teaching me how to program computers. This was in 1987. Rich was a wonderful teacher. His mentoring was so successful that I became an A student, where I was failing before. My heart goes out to everyone posting here and all the readers. Thanks for all the wonderful pictures and stories shared. I also was a recipient of two of Rich's drawings and cherish them. All my love to Shirley, friends and family. Thanks Dad and Mike for making this website possible. Thanks Mom, for always keeping Rich in your prayers. Shelly Johnston.
(I didn't particularly want to contribute it to favorite memories, but I do recall an embarrassing moment, probably my last acquaintance with beer, when I had driven Rich home from a poker game at Rick Marrone's. I screwed up and rolled him off the ramp of his van and tipped him over. Fortunately, Rich had also had a few beers and was laughing too hard to notice the scrapes and bruises.) Steve Bryant
Don Ream
It was really bad news hearing about Rich. I used to help him with computer support issues, and trying out different devices and software that would allow him to continue programming as his mobility decreased. Here's a couple particular incidents I remember: I was in Rich's office helping him try out a head-gear device that allowed him to use his head movements to manipulate the text on his monitor. I was looking over his shoulder when he put his chair in reverse, and pinned me against the wall. It's a good thing it wasn't against his office window, or I may have had a really bad day. A few days later, after my ribs recovered, I was checking up on something in his office, when he ran over my foot. The way I squealed, you would have thought he broke my toe! He didn't, but I remember telling him that if these incidents keep happening, we'd be able to have wheel chair races in the hallway. In typical Rich fashion, he replied "I'll give you a head start." I remember another time when I helped carry him down, and back up, three flights of stairs during a fire drill. By the time we got him back up in his office, my arms were killing me, and I was sweating. I looked at him and joked "Man, you need to lose some weight." He glanced at my scrawny arms, and said "Man, you need to start working out!" Rich was a joy to work with, and an inspiration to be around. He reminded me everyday that a person can overcome just about anything if they have the courage, heart and determination. Rich had all of that, and more. He had one other thing that many men only dream about. That's a loving wife that dedicates her life to the man she loves no matter what that life brings. I only met Shirley a couple of times, but I have to believe she was an angel sent from above. It was a great joy to work with Rich. He will be missed, but remembered. Regards, Don Ream
It was really bad news hearing about Rich. I used to help him with computer support issues, and trying out different devices and software that would allow him to continue programming as his mobility decreased. Here's a couple particular incidents I remember: I was in Rich's office helping him try out a head-gear device that allowed him to use his head movements to manipulate the text on his monitor. I was looking over his shoulder when he put his chair in reverse, and pinned me against the wall. It's a good thing it wasn't against his office window, or I may have had a really bad day. A few days later, after my ribs recovered, I was checking up on something in his office, when he ran over my foot. The way I squealed, you would have thought he broke my toe! He didn't, but I remember telling him that if these incidents keep happening, we'd be able to have wheel chair races in the hallway. In typical Rich fashion, he replied "I'll give you a head start." I remember another time when I helped carry him down, and back up, three flights of stairs during a fire drill. By the time we got him back up in his office, my arms were killing me, and I was sweating. I looked at him and joked "Man, you need to lose some weight." He glanced at my scrawny arms, and said "Man, you need to start working out!" Rich was a joy to work with, and an inspiration to be around. He reminded me everyday that a person can overcome just about anything if they have the courage, heart and determination. Rich had all of that, and more. He had one other thing that many men only dream about. That's a loving wife that dedicates her life to the man she loves no matter what that life brings. I only met Shirley a couple of times, but I have to believe she was an angel sent from above. It was a great joy to work with Rich. He will be missed, but remembered. Regards, Don Ream