Greg Rich

Greg Rich, 77, of Oblong, IL, passed away on January 14, 2026, at The Gibson Family Center for Hospice Care in Terre Haute, IN. He was born on November 14, 1948, at Brooks Hospital in Robinson, and grew up right here in a community that helped shape his steady, competitive spirit. From an early age, sports were a big part of his world. He played center field on a Babe Ruth All-Star team that went on to place 2nd in State, and that love of competition never really left him. You could see it in the way he followed the game, and you could see it in his lifelong loyalty to the Green Bay Packers. He graduated from Robinson High School in 1966, and Greg attended trade school briefly before joining the Army, where he served for eight years. He spent a year in Vietnam, though he did not really talk about it. What he did talk about was Alaska, because Alaska felt like a place made for a man who loved the outdoors. He requested it and got it, spending five of those years there, hunting and fishing in a land that matched his sense of adventure.

After all, Greg loved to explore. Through the years, he made a couple of trips back to Alaska for fishing, and he fished in Florida, too. He fished all over Illinois and Indiana, because he did not need a famous destination, just a place where the water was good and the fish were willing. He was an avid hunter, the kind who took the craft seriously. He went to Africa twice and hunted a wide range of exotic game. He kept good bird dogs and trained them himself, not just as tools for the hunt, but as companions along the way. He cast his own bullets, reloaded his own shells, and made his own fishing baits, because Greg was the kind of man who liked to know how things worked and liked to do it with his own hands.

It should come as no surprise that he had quite the work ethic. Having worked for over 30 years at the Marathon refinery, he spent most of those years in the boilerhouse. He ended his career as a boardman in central control, a role built for someone who could stay steady, pay attention, and handle responsibility without fanfare. He had been retired for over 15 years, but retirement did not turn him into a man who sat still, because Greg was always drawn to motion. To the quiet pull of a river when the fish were biting. To the low thunder of a train rolling through. To a motorcycle leaning into the next bend. He liked things that moved, and he liked to move with them.

He was, through and through, a Harley-Davidson man. Greg rode for the joy of it. He went on poker runs and benefit rides through the years, and he had a spontaneous streak that made life feel less like a schedule and more like a map with blank spaces still waiting. If the wind blew, he went. Sometimes that meant a ride, sometimes that meant a new place to eat, because Greg loved going out to restaurants and discovering what was out there. He and his friend made a habit of trying somewhere different every day, all over the area, collecting meals and miles the way other people collect souvenirs. But if there was one thing that could stop him in his tracks, it was a train. Greg came from a family of train enthusiasts, and he carried that wonder like it was something you could keep in your pocket. He would set up a tripod and record the moment as it passed, not because he needed proof, but because he enjoyed the simple fact of it. Steel on steel. Distance collapsing. A long line of cars headed somewhere else, reminding you that the world is bigger than the block you live on.

In a life marked by motion, those trains were just one more reminder of what he loved: the pull of distance, the promise of somewhere else, and the joy of going to see it. And somehow, that was Greg in a nutshell. Always watching. Always ready. Always a little bit drawn to whatever was out there beyond the next bend.

He is survived by his daughters, Sarah Rich (Minneapolis, MN) and Christen Thomas (Lawrenceburg, IN); by his granddaughter, Ava Thomas; by his brother & sister-in-law, Mike & Rita Rich (Robinson, IL); by his niece, Kelly & husband Brandon Kitts (Robinson, IL); and by his great-nephew, Brier Kitts (Robinson, IL); as well as cousins by the dozens. He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles R. "Mort" Rich & Elizabeth "Betty" (Hummel) Rich; by his uncle, William H. "Bill" Hummel; by his nephew, J.D. Rich; and by his son-in-law, Nick Thomas.

A graveside service will be held in the Good Hope Cemetery, rural Flat Rock, and service details will be posted soon. The Goodwine Funeral Home in Robinson is assisting the family at this time.