George J. Richard

Waltham – George Richard was born in New York City just when the Depression was really starting to do its damage on the jobs front. President Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps was still a couple of years away and many families like George's had a decision to make.

When he was an infant the clan moved home to Sackville, New Brunswick, a little town near the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia border at the top of the Bay of Fundy. It was a great place to grow up. George had the advantage of a large extended family that loved one another and looked after one another. He worked hard in school and at various jobs and when he was a teenager felt the call to return to the land of his birth.

George joined the United States Navy shortly after the start of the Korean War and served for four years before being discharged as an aviation machinist's mate. Later in life he used the knowledge he gained in the service with a natural affinity to be able to create things out of nothing and established his own successful machine shop in the former Waltham Watch Factory building that he called Rol-Lab Research and Development.

Blessed with an engineer's mind and skilled hands he created machined parts and products for local companies as well as for NASA and for deep sea exploration. In short he was the sort of a guy who not only had the tools but the mind and the ability to use them.

George was a self-made man, not afraid of hard work and long hours, humble, kind and generous. George J. Richard was born on October 2, 1931, one of eight children born to the late Alyre and Marie (Aucoin) Richard. He was 84 when he died Tuesday, March 22, 2016 at his Waltham home.

He would tell you though that the best thing that ever happened to him was marrying the love of his life in 1956, Cape Breton native Margaret J. LeBlanc, in Saint Joseph's Church in Waltham. Margaret and George made Waltham their lifelong home where they raised their family of six children.

George and Margaret were long active with the French-American Victory Club where he was a life member and a past president. They danced the night away on many occasions there and at the Canadian-American Club in Watertown. When they weren't dancing to the fiddle, waltzing was George's specialty.

He also belonged to the Joseph F. Hill American Legion Post No. 156 in Waltham. When he wasn't working, and especially after retirement, George loved to play golf, go fishing and play hockey, a sport he played well into his sixties. He was also a pretty good bowler and enjoyed playing darts, cribbage and cards. His favorite card game was 200 or "Deux Cents", a game he brought with him from New Brunswick.

In addition to his wife Margaret, he leaves his children, Anne Marie Ingersoll and her husband, Peter, of Hudson, James P. Richard and his wife, Deborah, of Arlington, Gerald J. Richard, Stephen T. Richard and his wife, Jean, David R. Richard and his wife, Ann, and Michael G. Richard and his wife, Kara, all of Waltham; his grandchildren, David and James Ingersoll, Jenna Johnson, Henry, Jason, Nicholas, Thomas, Matthew, Meghan and Morgan Richard; his great-grandchildren, Adam, Austin and Zachary Ingersoll and Elijah Johnson; his sisters and brothers, James Richard of Bedford, New Hampshire, Jane Richard of Enfield, Connecticut, Doris Legere of Ontario, John Richard of Amherst, Nova Scotia, Helen Tracy of Stow, Gerald Richard of Virginia and Frances Bokoske of Southwick and many nieces and nephews.

Family and friends will honor and remember George's life by gathering for calling hours in The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Monday, March 28th from 4 to 8 p.m. and again at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning before leaving in procession to Sacred Heart Church, 311 River Street, Waltham where his Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Mount Feake Cemetery, Waltham.