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A former colleague of Rick's provided the following information from an obituary:
Rick passed away Oct. 20, 2020, in Blythewood, S.C., of heart failure. He was born March 17, 1947, in Chicago, and attended Evanston (Ill.) High School, where he co-edited the newspaper and was active in track, cross country, and Boys Club. At Princeton, Rick majored in politics and his activities included playing pool and poker, zoos, Trenton Tutorial, and American Society of International Law. He ate at Dial Lodge. After Princeton Rick graduated from the University of Florida Law School in 1972. He was chief of the homicide division of the state attorney’s office in Fort Lauderdale for 10 years before going into private practice. Rick was an avid dog lover and had several canine companions throughout his life, including one he took with him to class at law school. His last dog, Lucky, a rescued Maltipoo, was with him at the time of his death. Rick had intended to attend the 50th reunion, but a stroke that affected his eyesight prevented him from attending. Rick is survived by his wife, Trudy.
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Sherwin "Jay" Siegall
RIP Rick. Only casually knew you at ETHS but you are gone much too soon. No obituary I could find but search shows you lived in Pompano Beach FL. Hope you had many good years in Florida. So sad another 64 Wildkit gone much too soon!!And I see we shared a St Patrick's Day birthday. Son sorry we didn't know that in HS. Could have shared some great celebrations. RIPš„².
Jack Hayes
I had a few classes with Rick. He always seemed like an earnest and sincere guy in contrast to the rest of us smart-alecs.
Kristine Masko (Fuller)
Again another classmate gone too soon. I recognize the face but admit I did not know Richard in high school. It just seems sad that he passed so young ( at least young in my book ). We need to keep our memories of our high school friends close as it seems that our class is on the endangered species list (just kidding). My sympathies to his family and friends.
Jack Rakove
Back in the day, when I was at Haverford, I'd sometimes stop at Princeton when I wanted to spend some time in the Big Apple, and I'd see our classmates there: Karl M., Hoot, Bob Ward, Mike Melton, and Rick, before going on to NYC. This comment reminds me of a trip I made there once with Rick. He had ordered or was ordering a pool cue from some shop downtown, I think in the Bowery right next to Chinatown (this was in the pre-dim sum era, so we did not stop for dumplings, though hopefully we got corned beef somewhere else instead, baruch ha'shem). So we went to the shop, Rick tried the cue out, somehow, and we had a great day of it.
Rosanne Bass (Keynan)
Re: Gone too soon--In reading Lisa See's "On Gold Mountain," (the 100-year history of her Chinese American family) I learned that, in 1920, the average lifespan in the U.S. was 55!
Susan Spiegel (Pastin)
Lifespans have increased dramatically even since 1989, when my father died at age 73 after what he considered a long and happy life. My mother made it to 98 and died at the end of Christmas Day 2016.
My husband was 86 when he died in 2019.
Jeffrey M Liebman
To whoever posted it, thanks for this information. I was very sorry to learn of Rick's death, and was only able to gather fragmentary information from repeated Google searches. Rick was a good friend and we took time out from oour busy academic schedules for a round of golf, and for pool at a parlor on seedy Howard avenue. He was a demon behind the wheel, but that's another story.
Karl Morthole
Draft 07/14/2022
Memorial by Karl Morthole
↑Picture↑ Rick died on October 20, 2020, in Blythewood, SC, from where he lived with his wife, Trudy, having moved there from ETHS Fort Lauderdale, Florida, some years before. website
It was a real shock in fall 2020 to learn of Rick’s passing from Trudy, his wife of 30+ years. Rick and I were close friends for many years in high school, college and after. At Evanston Township High School (ETHS), Rick was in many honors, high honors and college-level advanced placement classes in mathematics, sciences, and other subjects. He participated all four years on the ETHS cross country and track teams and for the hhomeroom in intramural running sports.
Rick entered Princeton in the fall of 1964, and he was assigned freshman year to live in Brown Hall with Dave Lawyer, a high school all-American basketball player from California, Les Schlesinger and Marc Yardney. Sophomore year he moved to the top two floors in the 9th entry of Holder Hall, immediately next to the Commons (freshman/sophomore dining halls), rooming in two suites with Karl Morthole, Jim Guetzkow, Cliff Karchmer, Ralph Hovnanian, Will Fugate, Steve Scher and Jim Walton.
Sadly, before the start of second semester of sophomore year, on his way from home back to Princeton, he was struck with a terrible tragedy. On his way to catch the O’Hare airport bus at the Orrington Hotel in downtown Evanston, he was in a terrible car accident on an icy Church Street. He was seriously injured and his younger sister, Paula, was killed instantly, a shocking, tragic occurrence. Needless to say, Rick did not get back to Princeton until much later in the spring term, carrying a heavy load of personal loss.
He bravely completed his sophomore year at Princeton, joining the Dial Lodge eating club, buying and riding a a Triumph 650cc motorcycle (against Princeton rules at the time, broken by many), parking and keeping it hidden behind the club, and playing way too much pool and high-stakes poker on weekends and other times during the week.
Junior and senior years passed fairly quickly for Rick. He completed his major studies, continued playing way too much pool and poker, rode his bike, and ate and partied at Dial with his friends and clubmates, including classmates, roommates and good friends Brent Cacallori of New Jersey and John Fiorella of New York.
He graduated on time in June of 1968, founding and proudly proclaiming himself “President” of the university “700’s Club,” denoting those with class ranks somewhere in the 700’s, with about 800 graduating in the senior class that year. Princeton’s Class of ’68 was the last all-male class for all four years admitted as freshmen at Princeton (except for a dozen or so women admitted for their junior and senior years in the “Critical Languages Program”). Just about all ‘68 grads, including Rick, agreed that admission of women full-time to Princeton, at last, was about the best thing ever to happen at “Old Nassau” (Princeton’s alma mater [school song] and self- styled nickname, after the 18th century Nassau Hall building).
After Princeton graduation, Rick was admitted to the University of Florida law school, from which he graduated and joined the Florida bar in 1972. He was a lawyer in the criminal bar, first as a young homicide prosecutor and later turning to private practice as a criminal defense attorney. Rick became well-known for creative criminal defense. He is believed to be the first attorney in Florida to mount a successful “abused wife” defense to a murder charge in a killing by a woman of her abusive spouse. He was a fine lawyer and a really smart, good guy.
Rick was a good friend for most of my life, and I really miss him.
Susan Spiegel (Pastin)
That's impressive that Rick Garfield pioneered the abused wife defense as a Florida lawyer!
Lincoln Krochmal
Although I did not know them directly, I knew of them and recognize their pictures
Losing Chip Blair, Richard Garfield and Tom Kelsy is really sad news for our class. These classmates distinguished themselves while alive and my prayers and thoughts go out to their families. I wish I had known all of them better and am thankful for the notes written by those who did. I had been to that pool hall on Howard street where Richard played and it could have been a scene from "Th Hustler" movie as it was a classic, dingy pool hall with great atmosphere. I thought high schoolers were clearly out of their league in that place!
To all our remaining classmates, be well and be safe and cherish each new day as a gift cuz it is!