Charles Richards

Charles Julius Richards

Charles J. Richards of San Francisco died peacefully in his sleep on April 10, 2014 after a short illness. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1920 and completed his education there at Texas Christian University. He was preceded in death by his wife Janet Richards, an artist and writer. He is survived by dear friends, Patricia McHugh of Sacramento, Kent Guthrie of Livermore, Vince Lateano and Madeline Eastman , Emily Davis and Bonita Pasfarelli of San Francisco.

Above all, music and especially jazz were his abiding passion and sustenance. His abilities also extended to fine art, cuisine, drafting, graphic design and several fields in engineering. From his high school days leading a marching band as an ROTC cadet major to playing his first instrument, the sousaphone, music was a constant. At TCU's highly regarded music department, he played trombone in all the musical groups. The students benefited from playing jazz with professional quality black jazz musicians from the nearby federal narcotics prison.

After aeronautical engineering training at both TCU and Johns Hopkins, in pre-war Baltimore, Charles began his work life under numerous aircraft contracts. He spent most weekends in New York City or Washington D.C., listening to the jazz greats. Of particular interest were the jazz sessions on the top floor of the Turkish Embassy where the Ambassador's sons Ahmet and Nesui Ertegun held regular events. In early WWII years, he continued work on many aspects of aircraft design.

When deferments ended he volunteered for service. After several unsuitable assignments, he landed in the right place for his talents: the Armed Forces Radio Service in Hollywood. They arranged for and made recordings of the best performers to be broadcast to bases worldwide. Los Angeles was replete with refugees of renown: it was a heady mix of artists of every kind. The Erteguns had migrated to Hollywood to begin their recording business. After Charles was mustered out, he joined them to work at JAZZMAN records, a primary scene for jazz aficionados.

In post-war San Francisco, Charles had met his wife Janet, a native of the city. They began a life there in the midst of a vibrant scene of jazz venues and a rich literary coterie. They attended performances and Charles played his horn, connecting with the west coast players, e.g. Lu Waters, Turk Murphy, Bob Helm and Wally Rose. Also with other jazz fans, the gallery owner Charles Campbell, the painters R.E. Johnson, Weldon Kees, Nathan Oliviera and the literary elder statesman Kenneth Rexroth. Janet Richards in her memoir, COMMON SOLDIERS (1979) wrote a compelling account of these years and of New York City in the forties during her time there as a painter with her former husband Manny Farber. Shig Murao, one-time manager of City Lights bookstore became a close friend, as did the writer Vincent McHugh. After the deaths of their respective spouses, Charles and Patricia McHugh began their long-time loving companionship.

After Charles' war-time employment in aircraft design, he diverged to architectural engineering and industrial design with Skidmore, Owings and Merrell, and with Arthur B. Smith & Co. for school design at the Redevelopment Agency. He did structural engineering for off-shore drilling rigs for Earl and Wright in his last decade of work and prepared instructional manuals for same.

In the fifties, Charles along with the poet and painter Weldon Kees and Mike Grieg was involved in the two Poet's Follies where Laurence Ferlinghetti read Prevert, Vincent McHugh read from his Greek-style play and Weldon's trio played.

In retirement, Charles undertook a monumental task of writing trombone arrangements for more than 400 of America's popular songs from 1900 to 1950. His transcriptions came from listening to tapes of the best performances he could find. He and Kent Guthrie played from and perfected these scores over many years.

Charles unique and winning personality will be sorely missed by all who knew him. Interment was at Cypress Lawn in Colma on April 22, 2014, beside Janet in her family plot. A Memorial event is planned for August 24, 2014, at his home. Remembrances in his name may be sent to the City Lights Foundation.