LETTERS: THE PASSING OF A GIANT: RAY RICHEY

To the editor:

Recently, a giant left us, and no one noticed.

Raymond Richey was a rehabilitation therapist. He saved us. Richey devoted his life to fighting a horror called polio.

He ran a boot camp in St. Francis Medical Center. We recruits weren't laughing. When he retired, I told an interviewer: "He was a card." I should have said he was a cross between a Marine drill instructor and Mother Teresa. You got away with nothing, but he truly cared. His camp prepared me for life, from how to sit up to how to fall down. A day doesn't pass that I don't use what he taught to survive and to lead a normal life. He gave me that.

A pioneer in rehabilitation, he could have worked anywhere. We would've heard about the Richey Wing, the Richey Award or the Richey Scholarship. Instead, he came to a small hospital full of people who needed him. He stood alone an unafraid against a flood.

Richey was a short man but never a small man. He lacked that ability. We who went through his boot camp stand (or sit) on the shoulders of a giant. To us, he will always be Mr. Richey. His stature in our eyes demanded it. His legacy is a legion of people who got to be middle-aged because he was a giant. We are the Raymond Richey Wing, Award and Scholarship. We remember.

DAVE FARIS

Jackson, Mo.