REMEMBERING RICHARD GREENBERG

Norma Jenckes

June 17, 2018

NOW ALL WE CAN SEE  IS HIS BEAUTY

Saddened to hear of the death of an old friend. I met Richard in Urbana in 1967 when we were both attending the University of Illinois as graduate students. Although in different departments, we were introduced by a mutual friend and instantly clicked. Richard had a great sense of humor and also he was quite philosophical in an almost mystical way.

 Our time together at Illinois was only a few years, but through the good offices of that same mutual friend, we continued to keep abreast of the developments in each other's lives. I offer my condolence to Richard's children and their mother. Richard was extremely supportive of my son Joe whom he encouraged and helped after his graduation and move to NYC.

 In those years in the 80's I sometimes would also run into Richard and was always warmly welcomed to the Greenberg Associates offices in the city.  Richard with his brother Robert had started a  design firm RGREENBERG ASSOCIATES that soon became world famous for their extraordinary  design of film titles.

I do recall several lunches in Los Angeles in the 90's when I was visiting family. Richard's creativity was enormous and wide and he had taken his talents to LA. Once over a late lunch in a place in Venice Beach we both noticed the mist beginning to envelop the scene. And I recall Richard in his poetic way saying,

 "At times like this in the misty afternoon fog the dirtiness and sadness of LA seem to disappear and in the fog one can't see much but what we do see is finally beautiful,"

 I have not met Richard for several years, but I am certain that as the late mists came into his life as they do to us all, anyone who looked could see his beautiful soul shining.

I N LOOKING FOR  ONLINE OBITS, I CAME ACROSS THIS  HONEST AND AMAZING  ESSAY BY HIS  SISTER

http://www.chicagomag.com/arts-culture/June-2018/On-the-Life-and-Death-of-My-Brother-Dickie/

SAVOR The VICTORY

  Today is a happy day for me.  I can rest on the laurels of Al Horford and  LeBron James for a full day.  Tonight it all begins again as the Celtics go into the first game of their  battle against the 76ers.  So in that brief interim of victory for both my teams I am  also free of pain--rare--and the day is sunny.
Yash and I  decide to put together a little gift package  for our one and only grand daughter Rowan.
I have stayed away from talking about her because I did not want to  see my prose dissolve into saccharine  praise.  But she is my delight.
My mother Margaret  and my mother-in law Hilda both adored  my son Joey.  At the time I did not understand the intensity of that devotion.  Now in retrospect I understand and feel how much it must have hurt them when  Joey's father and I departed  Pawtucket to venture  out to Illinois for graduate school. Joey was only  two and a half and neither of us had  ever  even visited Urbana, Illinois.
Now I see how the Holy Spirit must have guided us -- so ignorant and provincial as we were.
The University of Illinois is a TEMPLE OF EDUCATION and  I felt it the moment  I stepped on campus and saw the glorious quad.
The amazing library holds millions of volumes and changed the whole  experience of writing a research paper.
I made a great choice without  knowing it, and it was a lucky place to be.  I have been grateful  for the last  50 years and I had my first and best  experience of what a University could be when  I went there in 1966.  I had finally found my people .

So we drove to the post office near Saint  Teresa's  Church and Yash went in to mail the package.  After we left we stopped at BK on Newport to get what Yash calls the 3 dollar lunch--their 2 Whoppers for 6 dollars.  Then into Slater Park where we  ate the  burgers and watched the geese while listening to Leonard Cohen --one of my favorites.  I decided to take a leisurely tour home so I drove back via Columbus Avenue and  down Pond Street.
 When I passed the old Memorial Hospital, I  stopped the car to look at the  building that once housed the  Nurses Residence. It is a lovely late Victorian style, gracious and a little ornate. I remember as a child watching the student nurses coming in and out in their capes and lovely caps. Whenever I watch CALL THE MIDWIVES I think of those crisp and lively young women.  I do hope that  they preserve that  building.

 Once I am in that nostalgic mood, I  want to go downtown. In my mind I am walking it.  There once was a drugstore at the corner of Prospect and Pond Street and it was a perfect stop on the way  to shopping on Main Street. Now there is just a vacant lot. 
 Continuing down  Prospect Street just before the intersection  with Division Street,  I would come to a  small grocery store.  If you know what to look, for you can still see on your right the entrance  and  window of the store--the first  floor of a three-decker. They had a well stocked candy counter, and the  girl who was the  child of the owners often  waited on me behind that counter.  How I envied her that job!
 I gave her a  nickel and pointed to the  varieties of  penny candy that I  wanted,  and she  gave me a nice selection in a  small bag.  That would keep me happy for the rest of the walk to the  downtown.  Once I got to the Main Street  Bridge I would stand there and watch the waters foam beneath until I had finished the candy,  I was exactly where I wanted to be. I still feel that flush of pleasure when I cross the Bridge and look over to the Slater Mill perched on the Falls.  
I am in a Pawtucket state of mind.