Albert M. Rick

LOWELL -- Albert M. Rick, 79, a well-known businessman and philanthropist, died yesterday morning, Feb. 6, at Saints Medical Center, after an extended illness.

He was the husband of the late Elaine (Goodman) Rick whom he was well known for bragging about and telling his friends he married Miss Lowell of 1948, in 1949.

He was born in Lowell, Feb. 16, 1927, son of the late Abraham and Ethel Rick. He received his early education in the Lowell School System and graduated from Lowell High School in 1944. He furthered his education at Boston University.

During World War II, he enlisted in the Navy and served as a radioman on the USS Sampson. He was honorably discharged in 1946.

Mr. Rick returned to Lowell with his immigrant parents and he and his father started making "Comforpedic" mattresses in a small area where the furniture store is now. For more than six decades you could see "Al Rick" at his furniture store, "Comfort Furniture" a fixture in Lowell in the big brick warehouse on Thorndike Street. Over the years Al expanded the business to include higher quality, living room, dining room and bedroom furniture. It was the first quality discount furniture store in New England.

When he was not at the store he was an avid card player. He especially enjoyed having large games of gin or poker at his home, several times a week. He enjoyed traveling extensively with his wife Elaine and visiting the casinos in the Caribbean and Europe. He was known for always seeing the good side in people and always a very charitable businessman through out Lowell. In his younger day he especially enjoyed Community Theater Group; he had served on the Trustees of the YMCA and had been an active member and served as an officer on the board, the former Temple Beth El.

He is survived by a daughter and son-in-law, Shari Rick Whiman and Lawrence Whiman of Chelmsford; a son and daughter-in-law, Errol and Elizabeth Rick, also of Chelmsford; a sister and brother-in-law, Evelyn and James Gill of Florida; four grandchildren, whom he doted on and would take to breakfast every Sunday morning, Ashley Rick, Alexander Rick, Adam Whiman, and Matthew Whiman.

He was also the father of the late Nadine J. Rick.