X

Richard X Garcia passed away last night after a very brief battle with cancer. He was a great man and a fabulous coworker. We were all lucky to have known him and are better people because of him. We will all strive to live our lives as happy and exuberantly as he did.


Today we got together for an impromptu memorial with all three of the federal agencies here. We all knew Richard, but we didn't all know each other. It was a nice gathering because Richard brought us all together and we all shared stories with each other of our favorite memories or moments with X. It was funny because a lot of the memories were very similar, with Richard walking into a room yelling either some one's name (Its' JACK-IE WAGG-O-NER!!)or yelling about it being another day in paradise.

I would like to share some of my favorite X moments with you guys:

We have a fabulous visitor's center (multi agency center). Everyone ALWAYS asks us how long the building has been there and when we say 10 years they freak out because it looks brand new. One of Richard's responses went like this: Well, things in the Southwest age a lot slower than the rest of the country. (The gullible people would usually respond, Oh really?) And then he would say, Yeah I am actually 120 years old! :) The first time he said that I about died laughing.

A couple weeks ago they were having a manager's meeting at the visitors center. He rushed out and got a bunch of forest service water bottles and propaganda to hand out to all the managers. Afterwards I told him he had something brown on his nose. Well, he didn't get it at first and was rubbing his nose like crazy trying to get the brown stuff off... Lol. Then he finally realized that I was just giving him hell for being a brown noser. But don't worry he got me back good, later that day he sent me into a room where a heated conversation was going on. I got trapped inside and couldn't escape and he was looking in the doorway cracking up laughin.... Karma.


Everyone will definitely miss his rambunctious attitude, his spunk and the light heartedness that he brought into any room. We know his spirit will still be in our building and the good times he gave us will help lift our moods.

RIP Richard, our office will never be the same without you.