It’s been a busy few days, as I was back at work writing an obituary for an old friend. Richard Flegel died Friday at the clinic from an aneurysm. He was 75 and had been struggling ever since heart surgery a few years back. The news still made me gasp. I am grateful that his wife Carol asked me to do it– and Kyle at the paper said okay. I don’t really write obituaries anymore. Maybe I should. It feels good to be helpful. (The full obituary will be published today in the Chilkat Valley News. This is more personal for the Resurrection Mass leaflet.)
Dick or Rich (he went by both) was “A Banker with a poet’s heart” one friend said. Clients at the bank he directed for 35 years said: “He was a good man” “We have our home because he believed in us” “He made sure I had good credit.” “He was kind” – these are people doing business in a bank. Think about that.
There’s more: A tour company grew on a handshake, a 700 dollar loan for a used car to get work in on a “ look me in the eye and promise to pay it back.” A fisherman given 10K in May if he vowed to pay it back before he went to Hawaii for the winter- and did. The big Haines bank with a time and temperature sign was built on his watch. (The Bookstore is in the old one.) He organized races in Tlingit Park on the 4th of July. Delighted in the money toss (with clean bright pennies), and handed out full-size candy bars wrapped in dollar bills on Halloween. It’s safe to say the Flegel’s house was the most popular stop in town.
He also grew flowers, tomatoes, carrots, and once a pineapple in his office at the bank. That same office overlooking the harbor was filled with cool gadgets, bubble tubes and a Zen sand garden. Walk in for a loan and you’d leave wondering about life after death. (A childhood near-death experience led to a lifelong interest in noetic science.)
He loved his family. His wife Carol was his best friend for 54 years. They were always a “we.” They sipped their morning coffee in a hot tub. They hosted dinner parties (he liked to try new recipes) and church picnics. He sang with his daughter Kathleen and taught son Michael woodworking and of course so much more. He adored them, and his grandson Ryan. Stoney Hotch was his Tlingit brother.
His home, the bank, his truck, were kept tidy and clean. He could fix dryers and drains. He made a guitar with mother-of-pearl frets.He was curious, funny, faithful, helpful — he had that twinkle in his eye— for years he drove a fire truck for the HVFD. He was on the public library board and in a Haines Assisted Living board meeting the night before he passed.
Animals liked him, from the Welsh terrier riding shotgun to the ravens that followed his truck down the road.
He was a pillar of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. For decades he did all the music, singing and playing guitar. He helped build the chapel and the altar. He was a devout convert to Catholicism, joining his wife and children in the faith when the kids were in grade school. He became the kind of Christian who others see and think– maybe I’ll try that. I’ll have what he’s having.
Rich’s family drove to Alaska in 1951 from Illinois when he was 4 years old. His father was looking for work. His mother parted ways with his father shortly after that, and she started a second-hand and pet store to support Rich and his little sister. He learned to refinish furniture, repair toasters, care for animals– and that life isn’t always fair but people are good. He met Carol at Arizona State. They married there and came back to Anchorage after graduation and he landed a job at the FNBA. They sent him to the struggling Haines branch shortly afterwards, promising he only had to stay two years. “Rich had grown up in Alaska and he had never heard of Haines. We had to look on a map,” Carol said. He stayed for the rest of his life, and he helped a lot of us make our homes here. As a former chamber of commerce president said: “Haines is what it is because Richard Flegel took the time to take the measure of many men and women and extend to them the chance for a life in Haines.”
