Richard Cirivilleri
Richard Cirivilleri
Obituary
Guest Book
Richard Cirivilleri Obituary
A graduate of Willow Glen High School and early member of San Francisco's Bear Community, Rich was known for his kindness, warmth, gentle demeanor, and sense of humor. He displayed extraordinary resilience during his health struggles and after losing everything he had in the PG&E Paradise Fire-most heartbreakingly, one of his cats. Rich was an inspiration and a wonderful friend to all.
Rich was a man of quick wit, myriad talents and many interests. He was an amateur filmmaker, and avid local historian. It was during his tenure at the Winchester Mystery House as a tour guide where he honed his skills as a storyteller. He would recount (embellish) the life and times of Sarah Winchester and is credited by some with ending the curse of the Winchester rifle which haunted Sarah in her later years and beyond. He made many lifelong friends during this time, and it was the happiest period of his life.
He had an encyclopedic knowledge of local history, classic movies and TV shows, most notably Star Trek and Lost in Space, and enjoyed creating world-class miniatures of iconic props.
Rich was a truly unique individual who was adored by many and will be missed terribly. Rest well, dear friend.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to your local cat shelter in Rich's name.
To see some examples of Rich's work, feel free to visit his YouTube channels
@richcirivilleri73
@richeerich101
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To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Joanne Francia
October 15, 2024
Rich was a big Star Trek fan and he created scale models of the Starship Enterprise, the bridge and the captain´s chair and he had gadgets like a phaser and the futuristic tablet used to record things. He also had the life sized futuristic looking chair of one of the characters on the bridge of the Enterprise.
Speaking of Star Trek, another fond memory I have is of the time we attended a huge Star Trek convention in downtown San Jose. I wish I still had the photos I took there. He was a huge fan and I was a big fan too. We often watched episodes of Star Trek and other shows projected onto a wall in his room. It was like going to the movies! Sometimes we even had popcorn!
Rich was always doing or saying something funny to make me laugh. I cherish those memories! I always put spending time with Rich first before getting together with friends or other social events. He was more than my brother, we were great friends.
I was very sad when Rich moved away to North Dakota although I did go to visit him there. But now he´s moved on to heaven and I will miss my brother forever, until my time has come and we meet again. Rest in peace Rich!
Joanne Francia
October 15, 2024
Rich had a great sense of humor. He and his friends would often devise funny skits to entertain us all. Our mother´s kitchen was the usual site where many of these took place. One time they put raw eggs into a bingo cage, the thing you´d spin till one of the balls came out. They spun that thing till the eggs broke. This was part of a demonstration of how to make scrambled eggs. What a mess! Then there was the Julia Child skit. Rich dressed up in a skirt and blouse, put on a wig and performed his best impression of Julia Child preparing raw chicken. Everything was cross contaminated and plenty of ketchup was used to simulate blood when "Julia" cut herself along with the chicken.
Then there was the Ethel Merman impression. Again making use of wig and skirt, he sang "Come on Feel the Noise. Girls rock your boys!" in his best Ethel Merman voice. Hilarious!
One of the funniest skits was "Presto Bresto". Again wearing skirt and wig, Rich put a bra on and he´d rigged it up with balloons in each cup, with said balloons attached to a sort of Y shaped pipe which he used to blow the balloons up. He and his friends demonstrated the whole contraption and I can still hear his friend Bill saying "Presto Bresto! Simply place the nozzle to your lips and blow!" as Rich blew into to the pipe until the balloons popped! There were more. I wish I could remember all of them! Something else he did which really cracked me up was the time he set up his projector and played footage of the TV show "The Flying Nun" against a huge wall across from his apartment building. This had to be done at night when it got dark. He had his blinds closed and the lights off with the lens poking strategically through his blinds. He´d wait till someone was walking by, then switch on the projector so it looked like the Flying Nun was flying down the street! What an imagination! He was so funny!
Joanne Francia
October 15, 2024
One week after losing my dad, our family suffered another terrible tragedy. My youngest brother Rich, number 8 of the eight kids in our family, was taken home to heaven on August 27th. He was only 60 years old. He had been recovering from recent open heart surgery. How can I fit all that Rich meant to me and the wonderful memories that I have of him into a few short paragraphs? It´s near impossible but I´ll try.
I was just 10 1/2 when Rich was born. I was at the perfect age to be a big help to my mom and help take care of this adorable new baby. She still had two very young children in diapers when Rich was born, Rob and Jim. So since Rich was the easiest, I took care of him more than the others. His crib was in my room and if he had bad dreams or needed something at night, I was the one who was there to change him, cuddle him or get him a bottle. I just loved him to pieces from day one! I used to carry him around everywhere. My nickname for him was "Richie Roo", at least for his first year or two. Rich and I had a very strong bond that lasted all his life. When he was still living at home at my parents house in San Jose and I´d drive down to visit the family, he would be the one I´d spend most of my time with. I always planned my time around what he was doing and we always had great times together and a lot of laughs. Sometimes we´d go to breakfast or lunch in town, but often we´d take a drive over to Santa Cruz and go to the wharf for lunch. Other times we´d watch movies or recordings of TV shows projected on the wall in his bedroom.
. . . Post #1 (To be continued)
Carolyn Whalen
September 27, 2024
I´ll always LOVE you my Brother. I´m so thankful that you and I were able to reconnect earlier this year. I will always miss you. I know that you´re up there creating magic. Rest in Peace.
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Carolyn Whalen
September 27, 2024
I remember seeing Richard for the first time when my mom brought him home from the hospital when he was a brand new baby.
Carolyn Whalen
September 27, 2024
Hello, this is Rich´s Sister Carolyn. If you plan to join us to Celebrate the Life of Rich on October 25th, please send me an email at [email protected]. Please put Rich Cirivilleri in the title so that I don´t see it as spam. This is so I can get an idea of the number of people so that I´ll be sure to order enough food. Thanks so much!
Joanne Cirivilleri Francia
September 27, 2024
Celebration of Life for Rich Cirivilleri will be on Friday October 25th at 1pm at the family home: 2328 Gundersen Drive, San Jose, CA 95125
Joanne Cirivilleri Francia
September 27, 2024
Lyn Balistreri
September 25, 2024
From the time I was maybe 10 years old, Rich was one of my brother's best friends and was therefore my honorary big brother. We reconnected a few years ago, and I'll always be grateful to have had the privilege of knowing him as an adult. What a wonderful, funny, gentle man. The world was so much better with him in it. I will always miss him.
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