Richard McQuillan

Richard Alan McQuillan was born on May 18th, 1954 in Oakland, California. He died on August 7th, 2025 in Tucson, Arizona. His parents were Arthur and Dorothy (Enloe) McQuillan. Richard's father, a quiet and gentle man (his nickname was "Silent Sam"), was an Oakland police officer who had boxed semi-professionally and served in Army Intelligence. Dorothy was a stay-at-home mother and quite a handful. Richard graduated from Bishop O'Dowd High School in 1972 and received his B.A. in Music at California State, Hayward (now Cal State, East Bay) in 1977. He returned to school in the late '80s and completed his M.A. in Music at the University of California, San Diego, studying composition under Brian Ferneyhough, the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Even as a boy, Richard was fascinated by the Modernist movement in music. While other 13-year-olds were playing baseball, or making mischief (though the famous duck on the city bus incident with Jim was way mischievous), he was carrying home albums by Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Webern, Scriabin and Bartok. He was especially fond of the music of Pierre Boulez, a leader in musical serialism, and it was a red-letter day when he visited Boulez's Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique at the Pompidou Center in Paris. Although Richard decided to make his living in the computer field, in which he had worked since the 1970s, he composed for the rest of his life and played the piano, not well enough for his liking, but beautifully. In his early years, he also found time to form a band with his younger brother, Bob, Sinister Midget, inspired in part by the works of Frank Zappa, one of Richard's musical heroes. (See his Youtube channel @bickymcq for some of his music.) ("Bicky" was his wife's nickname for him.) Richard and Bob also shared a love for early cinema. Richard was fond of hiking in the redwoods and walked many a mile under their canopy. He was a skeptical but amused observer of the paranormal. In 1977, Richard had just graduated from college and, at loose ends, he began work in an ice cream store in the basement of the McArthur-Broadway Center in Oakland (the dilapidated food court was called The Hamlet). One day in December he came to work only to find a young woman there, wearing The Creamery's striped uniform shirt, seated on an empty ice cream bin. For Richard it was love at first sight and the pair went on (in Richard's version) one date before Susan White left for graduate school at Johns Hopkins. They remained in touch for years but Susan married someone else. In the year 2000 Richard sent Susan an email message wishing her a Happy Millennium. Susan, now a Professor of English at the University of Arizona and single once more, wrote back and scolded Richard for disappearing. "I thought we were friends!" She invited him to visit Tucson. Not long thereafter, at the Saguaro National Monument (now Park), under the Quadrantids meteor shower, they fell in love. Richard told Susan that he had waited for her for 22 years. She felt like a fool for not marrying him in 1978. They were married on Oct. 5, 2002, in a beautiful wedding at Susan's father's (Frank) and step-mother's (Cheryl) house in Newbury Park, Ca. Susan's mother (Thelma) and sisters (Cindy and Theresa), as well as Frank and Cheryl, adored him. Richard moved to Tucson although he might find himself jobless there. As luck would have it, his company, Innovative Interfaces, where he documented software for librarians, allowed him to telecommute to Emeryville, Ca. Susan and Richard traveled widely, mostly for Susan's job. He had only left California once in his 44 years there. So, they went to Paris, where Richard bravely ordered "une baguette, s'il vous plaît" under Susan's supervision, to London, New York, Chicago, Switzerland and Georgia, where Susan was from. They enjoyed returning to Berkeley, hanging out in coffee houses, visiting Amoeba Records and Moe's Books. Richard and Susan had many cats and several dogs over their 25-year relationship (22 years, 10 months of marriage). Most beloved of all was Baby Kitty, whom Susan brought home as a 3-day-old kitten. Richard bottle fed her and loved her every minute of her life. Other cats were Kool Whip, Muffin Top, Milky Way, Cheez-it, Nougat, Zipper and Lenny. Doggies were Bunny, Duncan, and the irascible Whitey. Richard was diagnosed with Parkinson's at age 57. It was a very difficult path to walk but he did so courageously. He finally died at age 71, of complications of Parkinson's, with Susan by his side, in the soft rays of the morning sun. Richard is survived by his wife, Susan (Tucson, Az), his younger brother Bob (his companion in pizza and movies, Oakland, Ca.), nephews, and numerous cousins. Gone before him are his parents, older brother Patrick, older sister Janet, and cousin Kieran Kealy. Richard was a beautiful, kind and gentle man. He was utterly brilliant and had an eidetic memory for character actors, music and movies. He shared so much of this with his wife, whom he had known for almost 47 years, that they could speak to each other in code. He was the sweetest man she has ever known. His last word to her was in response to the question, "Do you remember the girl in the striped shirt? He whispered "Yes." He will live on in the sound of the ocean, in birds' musical notes, in the vault of the starry sky, in the meow of a cat, in symphonies and sonatas, in cups of strong coffee, in cheap Soviet sci fi, in cooking shows, in the score of Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, in Glenn Gould's immortal performances of Bach, in the complexity of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, in his own challenging music, in the hearts of all those who loved him and in the soul of his wife, by whom he is eternally beloved. A memorial will be held for Richard in Tucson just before Thanksgiving. "It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now." --Barry Lyndon Click this link to view additional details about Richard's Services: https://my.gather.app/remember/richard-mcquillan