Richard Harrington

1934 - 2023

Richard (Rick) Harrington
01/19/1934 - 12/31/2023
Some people are born to teach. Meticulously organized, creative and sensitive, Rick's final career used a lifetime of experience and talent to inspire students to their highest potential. Born January 19, 1934, in Rockford, Illinois, the first son of Ruth and Russ Harrington, from his mother came Rick's kindness and patience. From his father, inventor, skilled machinist, came creativity and drive to follow his dream. At age eight, his uncle went to war and left Rick a movie camera.

Rick wanted to make people happy. At 14 he became a singing cowboy on radio. After high school, it was off to California following a short stint in the Air Force. He entered Pasadena Playhouse College, the epitome of training for actors where he studied acting, literature and Shakespeare (his mother read the Bard to him in utero).

Handsome, destined to be noticed, Rick became a contract player with Republic Pictures and found roles in cowboy movies. When the starlet he married wanted a divorce, Rick left his heartache and escaped to Houston's Alley Theater for an acting job. Creative work in Houston continued at Playhouse Theater as actor/manager and National Photographic Labs as Promotions Manager, writing/producing ads.

Next came KRIV-TV, Channel 26 as Promotions Director, writer/producer of video commercials and storytelling. Word spread, and outside jobs proliferated. Management demanded Rick cease the projects or leave the station. A courageous risk- taker, he formed Rick Harrington Films. In the next 40 years, he married again, reared five children, wrote and directed documentaries, commercials and worked for non-profits and clients in the Texas Medical Center.

Adventure beckoned in 1976. Rick and wife, Sharron, saw a wooden ship during the TV Centennial Celebration. Built and docked in Denmark, Artemis, a 100-year-old, 150-foot, three mast schooner called out. From 1977-1980, the couple, toddler Seanna, Russell and Ruth, plus a volunteer crew, sailed ports in the Gulf of Mexico. With no sailing experience but self-dubbed a "chicken Captain," Rick brought everyone home safely. Sold to a Canadian then caught in a storm, Artemis sank in the Gulf and is resting there today.

In 1996, Rick began feature films with a feminist manifesto, "ELM – Entry Level Male" writing/directing a world in which women governed and only one male survived. It became a cult favorite. In 2000, his future wife, Carole Keeney, recruited him to co-found and teach film at Houston Community College. Starting in Continuing Education with 12 students, Rick's dynamic recruiting and teaching reputation grew moviemaking into a degree program with the only "reel" celluloid film courses in the Houston area.

At age 85 after 20 years teaching in which he produced 15 feature films with his students and increased student enrollments to 500 per semester, Rick turned off the film cameras and retired, He left a legacy of excellence in teaching.

Recognition during Rick's teaching included, most importantly, tributes from students who voted him the winner in higher education during a KHOU-TV contest for best teachers in Houston. In 2009 came the Houston West Chamber of Commerce Christa McAuliffe in Search of Excellence Award in Post-Secondary Education. In 2010 students gifted him a clock engraved, "Master filmmaking teacher. Love from your film students." Later in 2019 came the statewide Texas Film Alliance Award for his influence and contribution to moviemaking in Texas.

Beloved by family as "Saint Rick," his surviving soul mate, Carole Keeney Harrington, declared him the love of her life. Rick leaves two daughters, Seanna Haruko Harrington and Ruth Harrington Harris, two stepchildren, CeAnne McClure Jones and Eugene Craig McClure; sisters, Wendy Louise Morgan and Phyllis Marshall; grandchildren Ricki Paige Harrington, Brooke Harrington, Ivy Fallon and Francisco Fallon; step grandchildren Michael McClure Jones, Matthew Wilkes Jones, Jessica Renee McClure and Emily Katherine Philips, ex-wife, Sharron Harrington and daughter-in-law, Camilla Harrington, wife of his tragically deceased at age 31, his son Richard (Ricky) John Harrington. Also, pre-deceasing Rick were his parents, Ruth and Russell, brother, John Harrington and sister, Nancy Janice Schaeffer.

Never again will there be such a unique, kind and loving man as Rick. He wanted no services.