Richard L. Faust

I just heard the news of Richard's passing this weekend. I think I can speak for many of us at Caffe Taci when I say that he brought such warmth and enthusiasm to opera nights. Richard was often the first of the regular patrons I would see each week when I showed up to sing. The second he saw me, he would jump up with a hearty hello and give me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. I'm so glad to have known him and will treasure the memory of the times we would chat at the bar of Taci. What...

Richard was a wordsmith who freely shared his wisdom and knowledge.His observations of the human condition, our society and our mass dummed-down sports and television cultures were educational and profound.When they made Richard, they threw away the mold and I am very lucky to have known him. I will truly miss him as a friend and wise observer of what was around him.

A man of intellect and integrity
Erudite, eloquent and elegant

An archivist and in a way an anarchist
Wise, witty, and wonderful –
Genuinely generous

Always giving
Always going
Now gone

The Silent Weekend: In Memory of Dick Faust


The ALP is a lonely place on this sunny September Saturday. For once, as I pushed open the back-office door, the familiar clank elicited only silence. No cheery “Hello!” rang out to greet me; no face emerged from behind the partitions. As if those August reports might somehow have been mistaken, I found myself drawn to the cubby that had become his weekend abode in recent years. But there was no one: only the huge,...

The last time I saw Dick -- I guess it was sometime in the spring -- I remember thinking that he looked frail, and that was the first time I remember ever thinking to myself about his mortality. And then I immediately put the thought out of my mind, because it seemed impossible for Dick not to be around at the ALP, even if his visits were becoming more sporadic. Of course when I asked him how he was, he said "Just fine", in that reassuring way that is such a relief to hear, even if you...

There is no way for us to talk about Dick without recalling the emotions he brought out in so many, even though he would have hated the sentimentality and would have been embarrassed by the attention placed on him, basically a modest man, and as many have said, not just "a gentleman but also a gentle man." What Patrick said about Dick's big smile being so genuine it could ease anyone's tensions and his desire to make others comfortable are so true. I watched how time and time again (even when...

Although I had only a few short years in which to know Dick, it seemed as if our paths crossed nearly every weekend. I would call out "Hello" upon my arrival and from the recesses of Room 504 would come a clear, "Hi, Myra. It's Dick."

We'd talk as he prepared his lunch or watered his plants and often discussed our mutual love of traveling. He delighted in sharing his looseleaf photo albums and we always spoke about our next trip.

I'll miss those conversations and the...

We were colleagues at the American Language Program for 25 years. It seems like just the other day that he was extolling the virtues of oatmeal as he stirred himself a batch for lunch in the office. His great learning and the way he wore it so lightly inspired me. Any question, query, or doubt was a delight to him, a moment to search, to think, to remember. Although I never met members of his family, he always spoke enthusiastically of visits and trips with them. Where were the most recent...

Without Dick...
Who will be there to play Santa Claus to the newest generation of children?
Who will be there to tell us whether to say, “The Yankees is a team or are one?”
Who will be there to bemoan the news media's inability to use “amount” and “number' properly?
Who will scribble “d's” on all the “ice tea” signs?
Who will be there to help us plan a trip to Vietnam?
Who will be there to go with me to theatres so small they don't even have names?
Who...