Richard will be sorely missed among the older exJW community. He was an exJW activist extraordinare right up to the very end. He was amazing considering his health for the past 10-15 years.
I remember the first time I met Richard as an exJW in the mid 1980s. It was my first BRCI conference, held in Ontario, California. That's where I met other notables of the time like Jim Penton, Ron Frye, Tom Cabeen and many others. In those days before the Internet, BRCI was THE exJW support group and was often attended by the Franzes, people from all across the country and even some foreign countries. It was the first day of the conference and they were doing the audience introductions. I lived in Spokane at the time, which is not far from Moses Lake, so my ears perked up when I heard Richard introduce himself as from Moses Lake. Likewise, when it was my turn to introduce myself, I said Spokane, and Richard turned almost startled to see who was from his neck of the woods.
Richard and I had been JWs in the same circuit, so we had quite a bit in common. Like some here, I attended some of Richard's Northwest Conferences, met his wife Frances, and got to know Richard very well. Their story is on my xjw.com Web site, which I appreciate has been referenced here.
Richard’s Northwest Conferences were also a meeting place for some others who made a name for their selves in the exJW community in the 1990s, such as AlanF, Barbara Anderson, Bill Bowen, Chris Christianson, etc.
We shared some interesting exJW experiences through the years, one being that an off-Broadway exJW producer flew out to Washington to meet some of us at one of Richard's conferences. He produced a play based on Richard's story on xjw.com, which is where he found the story he based the play on that that later played in an off-Broadway theater. He gave me a video of the play.
Richard often told me, even recently, that he continued to get correspondence as a result of the article on xjw.com.
He will be sorely missed. RIP dear friend. God bless.
Blessings,
Ros
