November 5, 1997

Email from Ron, for Cheyenne, after reading some of our correspondence:

From: "Ron
To: adl@xensei.com
Subject: Cheyenne
Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 04:23:26 PST

Hi Richard,

Any chance you can send me those Rambo files in a condition fit for
DOS?

Here's that bio I promised for Cheyenne,

Did you know that Richard named you?  He is from Wyoming after all.
Yes, he did carry you around with him constantly your first year of
life.  He also adopted an alternative job, selling Amway, so that he
could be with you constantly.  His earliest theory about why your mom
denied him you was that she was jealous that he loved you more than
her, he had more time for you than for her.

I've known Richard longer than you've been alive .. since 1968 or 69.
He was a computer programmer at project MAC when I worked there.  That
was the "cutting edge" of the most advanced computer work of the
decade.  So Richard was among the very best in the world.

He is one of the strangest - that is different from most - people that
I know.  My friends are pretty uniformly exceptionally intelligent and
unorthodox.  Richard is both.  I tell one story about Richard that is
perhaps most definitive.

"In the late 1960's the Vietnam War and the military draft were of
hugh concern to everyone of my age group.  At that time Richard was
spending time artistically & socially with modeling clay and kids from
the poor neighborhood where he lived.  The kids were welcome into his
home to play with computers or modeling clay or whatever.  "One day
when I stopped by to visit him he was mulling over a problem.  The
Federal marshall from Wyoming had come to Boston and arrested Richard,
taken him back to Wyoming to stand trial for draft evasion.  Richard
was out on bail awaiting sentencing.  It seems that he had simply
thrown everything from his draft board into the trash since it had no
relevance to his life.  Richard was a "peacenik", very peaceful guy
who would not "bear arms" similar to the Quakers.  Wyoming is a
Western state, redneck territory.  "This was not the problem of
concern to Richard.  He couldn't decide whether to buy 60 pounds of
modeling clay for the kids and himself.  After all, in all likelihood,
he would soon be imprisoned for several years.  Eventually he decided
to follow one of his guiding principles in life, "I don't let reality
interfere with my daily life."  So he bought the clay.

The end of the story is that Richard was put on probation and required
to do community service in lieu of military service.  I.e. required to
spend time with the neighborhood kids.  He had merely ignored the
draft.  He hadn't tried to evade it.  In fact, the military would not
have accepted him because he had a bad back from a motorcycle accident
and several other conditions for which they routinely rejected other
young men.  Richard had not informed his draft board of these reasons.
I and several others of his friends wrote to his draft board to tell
them of Richard's peculiarities and ideology that had gotten him into
this situation.

I believe I'm correct in remembering that Richard was a virgin when he
met your mother.  She was his first love.  I don't have any
substantial memories of her, other than that she was thin, athletic
and attractive.

At that time Richard was also very trim and physically fit.  He was a
distance runner and has run the Boston marathon several times.
Unfortunately, that same bad back eventually limited his physical
exertions.  Now he is limited to walking several blocks at a time and
he has an allergy to sunshine. (He tolerates small doses.  Good thing
that he lives in Boston.)

Has he told you that he attended MIT, but didn't graduate?  That he
rode his motorcycle to Boston from Wyoming after his senior year of
high school?  Has he told you about Friedrichshof or his "private
writing in public places?"  He is probably telling you things about
the present, where he lives.  His past is interesting too.

Richard is a strange and wonderful person.  I always enjoy seeing him
whenever I get back to the big cities in the East.

Ron ------, a peritectic traveller


November 11, 1997

Mr. Richard L. Gardner, Sr.
-
-

Dear Mr. Gardner,

Your son had recently informed me that you and he have renewed contact
with each other after many years. He also suggested that I write a
letter and send you some information that would give you an idea of
the kind of work Richard is doing for our company.

I consider this task an opportunity to sing RichardUs praises and it
is with great pleasure that I attempt to give you some idea how
important his contributions are to our companies success.

First, I have known Richard since 1983 and we have been collaborators
and partners in many an exciting venture. I credit him personally for
adding layers and fields of experience to my life that have made me a
far better and more interesting person to know than I would have been
had we never met. His honesty and loyalty have been the building
blocks of our relationship and he brings these qualities to bear in
his dealings with everyone. Without his assistance I would not be
holding the enviable position of Executive Director of Documentary
Educational Resources today.
 
The company has a long history and had earned a reputation for
producing and distributing some of the finest ethnographic film ever
produced. However, in 1993, after several years of lackluster
management, it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and the Board
of Directors were searching for a miracle worker to turn the company
around. Richard thought that I could be that person and at the very
least it would be an exciting challenge. With his encouragement, I
took the risk and have never regretted the choice I made. It has been
the perfect job for me and there were many areas where RichardUs
skills were also put to good use. We are again working partners.

As this is a content based media company it was essential that we
move into the digital age. We needed someone who was not only savvy
about digital media and computers, but someone who had the skills to
train others in all the tasks necessary for marketing our companies
products and services on the Internet. In 1994 Richard was responsible
for first setting up and maintaining our web site which made us a
trailblazer in this area for a company of our size. This ongoing use
of the Internet has been the single most important factor in our
continued survival.

Attracting and keeping talented young people working at DER has been
one of my priorities. Richard has been instrumental in maintaining our
popular internship program. He is a patient, respected and well liked
teacher. He is extremely self assured in his own knowledge of things
in the world but modest about himself in relationship to others. I
think this is an unbeatable combination of qualities for an educator
and his success in this role at DER speaks for itself.

One of the most important things in the success of any business is the
influx of new ideas. Richard has more new ideas, good ideas, in a
single day than we have the time or resources to implement. We try to
grab on to those ideas which are most reasonably attainable and
Richard is always willing to help us reach our goals.

I believe I am regarded as a successful manager by our Board of
Directors. I know I owe much of this success to my working
relationship with Richard L. Gardner Jr. I also believe that with his
help we will continue to improve the way we do business and that we
both will eventually reap the rewards of our labors.

We invite you to come visit us, either at DER or where we live in
Somerville, Massachusetts. In the meantime, you might visit us on the
World Wide Web at:

http://der.org/docued

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Close
Executive Director